Football Betting

Ovechkin's hat trick keys Caps' OT comeback over Pens

Hockey Betting Lines

02/07/2010 - Washington, DC (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Mike Knuble scored on the power-play with 2:11 remaining in overtime, and Alex Ovechkin recorded a hat trick, as the Washington Capitals fought back from a three-goal deficit to edge Pittsburgh, 5-4, and extend their franchise-record winning streak to 14 games.

Eric Fehr also tallied for the Capitals, while Washington goaltender Jose Theodore made 31 saves.

The last club to win 14 in a row were the Penguins when they set an NHL record with 17 consecutive victories from March 9-April 10, 1993.

Sidney Crosby and Jordan Staal each scored twice for Pittsburgh, which didn't arrive to the team hotel until 2:15 a.m. (et.) because of the blizzard that struck the Nation's Capital.

Marc-Andre Fleury allowed five goals on 34 shots to take the loss.

Staal scored two goals in an 84-second span in the second period to give Pittsburgh a 4-1 cushion. His second tally came off a nifty setup by Evgeni Malkin at 13:07.

Fehr put a backhander on net and buried his own rebound to make it a two-goal game with 2:48 remaining in the middle stanza.

The Penguins lost to the Canadiens on Saturday and were forced to take a flight from Montreal to Newark, New Jersey and then endure a five-hour bus ride to Washington because of the crippling storm.

The difficult circumstances might have caught up to the club as the Caps rallied in the third period.

Ovechkin swatted a rebound after deflecting a Tom Poti shot at 6:51 and completed the trifecta a little over four minutes later. Ovechkin, who now boasts a league-leading 42 goals, took a drop pass from Knuble after a Nicklas Backstrom faceoff win and snapped the puck behind a stunned Pittsburgh netminder.

Penguins defenseman Brooks Orpik caught Washington forward Alexander Semin with a high stick at 2:26 of the extra session and Ovechkin unloaded a shot from the left wing that hit the post before Knuble pushed in the rebound.

Crosby staked the visitors to a 2-0 lead before the game was 10 minutes old.

The Pittsburgh captain picked off Tyler Sloan, who went for the stretch pass from his own zone, and beat Theodore on the backhand at 6:59. Crosby converted a power play exactly three minutes later.

Ovechkin scored on a breakaway to put Washington on the board at the 9:01 mark of the second period.

Game Notes

Backstrom and Malkin both had two assists...The Caps haven't lost since a 7-4 setback at Tampa Bay on January 12...Theodore has won 10 consecutive starts...Left winger Chris Kunitz returned to the lineup for Pittsburgh. He missed 15 games after undergoing abdominal surgery.


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FOOTBALL BETTING : Crabtree's base deal: six years, $32 million

Football Betting

In the wake of the news that the 49ers have signed receiver Michael Crabtree after an extended holdout, there has been not a hint of the dollars to be paid to Crabtree.

And since this means that his agent hasn't leaked the numbers, it means that his agent feels no specific motivation to do so.

Possibly because his agent isn't all that thrilled to have his name on the deal.

So the numbers will come from sources other than Crabtree's agent. And we've gotten our mitts into them.

Per a league source, Crabtree has signed a six-year, $32 million contract. (The total includes guaranteed money, base salaries, and the one-time incentive based on achieving minimum playing time.)

The deal also includes $17 million in guaranteed money.

As reported elsewhere, the deal can void to five years based on performance triggers, wiping out a final year base salary of $4 million. But they won't be easily reached.

The source tells us that, in his first four seasons (including 2009), Crabtree must either qualify for two Pro Bowls, or he must qualify for one Pro Bowl in one year and he must participate in 80 percent of the offensive snaps in a separate year in which the team makes the playoffs.

In other words, if in 2010 he qualifies for the Pro Bowl and the team makes the playoffs and he participates in 80 percent of the snaps, he'll still need to make it to the Pro Bowl or achieve the 80-percent/playoffs in another season.

Since the chances of Crabtree making the Pro Bowl or participating in 80 percent of the offensive snaps this year is roughly zero percent, he'll have three years to get it done.

And it won't be easy. Frankly, he'll be hard pressed to make it to one Pro Bowl in three years with the likes of Larry Fitzgerald, Calvin Johnson, Anquan Boldin, Steve Smith, the other Steve Smith, Hakeem Nicks, DeSean Jackson, Johnny Knox, Percy Harvin, Greg Jennings, Roddy White, T.J. Houshmandzadeh in the same conference for sportsbook betting.

So, by all appearances, it's a six-year deal. And at $17 million in guaranteed money, the per-year guarantee is a tepid $2.83 million per year.

There's another problem with the deal -- it has no mid-tier incentive package. Instead, the additional $8 million that Crabtree can earn (pushing the max value to six years, $40 million) requires the kind of unrealistic, mega-star performances that no rookie is likely to ever achieve.

So while the contract paid to Packers defensive tackle B.J. Raji covers five years and pays $22.5 million, he has the ability (if he's a solid player) to make up the difference between his base deal and Crabtree's five-year, $28 million haul via the mid-tier incentive package in Raji's deal.

And unless Crabtree meets the performance thresholds necessary to void the sixth year, he'll be stuck under contract for another year at a base salary of only $4 million.

There's one other area of concern with the deal. Crabtree, per the source, received no option bonus. Instead, he has significant money tied to a fairly new device known as a "discretionary salary advance," which unlike an opition bonus is subject to forfeiture if Crabtree decides in a year or two that he wants to hold out for a better deal. (We're also told that the 49ers have included language that would make certain escalators subject to forfeiture, too.)

Meanwhile, the deal falls well short of the mark for which Crabtree and agent Eugene Parker were aiming -- the five-year, $38.25 million contract paid by the Raiders to receiver Darrius Heyward-Bey, the seventh overall pick in the draft.

Even if Crabtree successfully voids the final year, he'll make more than $2 million per year less on average than Heyward-Bey.

Thus, as we explained earlier in the day, this is a deal that Crabtree could have done in July, which would have given him a much better chance of making a contribution to the 49ers during his rookie year.

So while the final outcome can be described as win-win, the broader view suggests that it's really a lose-lose situation.

NFL Betting Lines

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Barry Bonds Watch: Giants Slugger Says He'll Be Back

With only 21 home runs standing between him and Hank Aaron, Barry Bonds is indeed planning on coming back for more in 2007. At least, that's what his agent told the Los Angeles Times.

"Barry's going to play in 2007," Jeff Borris of Beverly Hills Sports Council told the Times on Tuesday. "I've had many discussions with Barry and he's going to play. My intentions are to see to it he's in a big-league uniform next season. Those are my marching orders."

Contract negotiations could get started as early as next week. Let's see which team has the deeper pockets. Will MLB baseball betting lines despite allegations of steroid use? Bet On It at www.MySportsbook.com .

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