Bruins snap 10-game skid, blank Canadiens
Hockey Betting Lines
02/07/2010 - Montreal, QC (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Tuukka Rask posted 36 saves for his third shutout of the season and Boston broke a 10-game losing streak, one game short of the franchise record, with a 3-0 win over Montreal at the Bell Centre.
Boston, which hadn't won a game since a 2-1 shootout decision in San Jose on January 14, was 0-6-4 in its previous 10 games and was just one more loss away from breaking a franchise record that was set from December 3, 1924 - January 5, 1925.
"I thought we played some good hockey today," said Rask. "You try to be there and frustrate the other team. I especially try to not let any weak shots in. They had some good chances in the second, but we defended well and I was able to make some saves."
Marco Sturm scored twice while Adam McQuaid also notched a goal for the Bruins, who got a pair of assists from Patrice Bergeron.
Jaroslav Halak stopped 24 shots for the Canadiens, who had won their previous three games.
"We had a slow start in the first period and they came up strong," said Halak. "They were skating much better than us to get the lead which changed the game. We were better in the second but we couldn't solve their goalie."
Boston took a 1-0 lead with 2:28 to play in the first as McQuaid's slap shot from the high slot hit off the stick of Ryan White down low and got past Halak.
In the closing moments of the first period, the Bruins made it a 2-0 game as Sturm pounced on a loose puck in the slot and wristed it home for his 17th goal of the season with just 3.2 ticks left on the clock.
Rask, who stopped 10 shots in the first period, was sharp in the second as he turned aside 15 shots in the frame to keep the Habs off the board.
Boston gave itself an extra goal halfway through the third as Sturm's simple wrister from the slot hit off the stick of Josh Gorges and went into the net.
Game Notes
Montreal hosts Washington on Wednesday...Boston plays at Buffalo on Tuesday...Montreal had won all three games against Boston this season...Rask has four shutouts in his career.
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SPORTS BETTING - Tennis is an underrated and under-utilized bettors' sport.
Ten years ago, at just about this time, I called Alan Boston in Vegas and left him a voicemail that went something like this (abridged version): "Hey Alan, Chad Millman from ESPN The Magazine calling. I want to do a book about wise guys, you in?"
A couple weeks later I got a message back (abridged version): "I don't know, maybe," Boston said. "Call me and we'll talk about it. But not later today. I got $1,000 on Andre Agassi to win the French Open at 40-1, and he's in the finals."
Here's what happened next (abridged version): Agassi won his tourney. Boston won his $40,000. I wrote sportsbook.
In the ten years since, how much has been wagered on the big-time tennis events? Put it this way: The Nevada Gaming Commission doesn't even track the number year by year because it's so small.
"Tennis makes up about one-tenth of one percent of our take," says Lucky's bookmaking boss Jimmy Vaccaro. "The last big golf major we probably had $100,000 worth of bets. In tennis, we might have written two big tickets."
Tennis' lack of popularity amongst the American bettoratti is no surprise, really. For starters, the biggest sports betting holidays -- the Super Bowl, the NCAA tourney -- are must see TV. People, at least the degenerates I know, plan vacations around watching those events in Vegas sports books.
But Wimbledon? Doesn't exactly reel in the whales. "Seriously, it's the nuts as an event," says Boston. "But who even knows when it's on?"
Here's another reason that helps explain why golf gets traction, something I call "The Bubbe Theory." My Bubbe is pushing 95 and has cataracts so bad that, to her, even the most crystalline Chicago day is mostly cloudy. But she still listens to the Cubs games, and she still calls me in a fit if she disagrees with something Rick Telander writes in the Chicago Sun Times. She's a sports fan. If she doesn't know you, you're just filling a niche. And niche players, even historically good ones like Roger and Raf, don't drive betting volume. Only the highest profile names attract square money, which inflates wagering totals like a shot of saline to the lips. Bubbe, and the public, loved Agassi, tennis' last cross-the-rubicon, mainstream draw. She also has a crush on Tiger. She's given me standing orders to put a sawbuck on the big cat whenever I walk through a sports book (or mistakenly tap into one via my Internet machine.) That explains why the Masters is getting $100K in action at some books while the four tennis majors might not get that combined this year.
This isn't a case of tennis being a difficult sport to bet. In fact, in Europe, it's probably the second most popular sport for gambling after soccer. Granted, as the WSJ football betting last week and The Mag's Shaun Assael examined in even greater depth last year, that might be because gamblers across the pond see it as an easy game to fix. But it could also be because, over there it holds the kind of sway the big two do over here.
Street corners in Spain are peppered with public courts and kids doing their best Raffy impressions. In some war torn parts of Eastern Europe poverty-stricken kids view tennis as an escape route, like football or basketball here. A couple years ago The Mag's Lindsay Berra wrote a great piece about Belgrade's Jelena Jankovic, Ana Ivanovic and Novak Djokovic. They learned the game as kids while bombs were raining down on their homeland. They practiced in drained swimming pools. Not exactly Nick Bolletierri conditions.
In the United States, casual fans think tennis is played four times a year. But on the tightly packed European continent, national interest in homegrown talent runs deep every weekend. Of the ATP's current top 20 players, only two, tennis betting and James Blake, are American. Fourteen are from Europe, representing six different countries.
No wonder fans from Lisbon to Bhudapest get jacked up for the net game, whether it's Wimbledon or a low-level tourney like the Estoril Open in Portugal (congrats to Spain's Albert Montanes for winning that one, btw). Chances are good that someone representing their flag will not only be playing, but have a shot at winning.
And that's all any bettor can ask for.
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