Pens close out road trip with test against Habs

Hockey Betting Lines

02/07/2012 - (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Pittsburgh Penguins have gone through a rough patch to begin February, but they'll try to get back on track tonight when they visit the Montreal Canadiens at the Bell Centre.

The Penguins ended January on an eight-game winning streak, but have lost two of three games to begin the new month as well as a four-game road trip that is set to end tonight.

Pittsburgh began its swing last Wednesday with a 1-0 loss in Toronto before posting Saturday's 2-1 victory against the Boston Bruins. The Pens did not fare well on Sunday, however, as they dropped a 5-2 decision against the New Jersey Devils.

Ilya Kovalchuk had a goal and two assists on Sunday for the Devils, who scored the game's first three goals. The shorthanded Penguins, playing once again without centers Sidney Crosby and Jordan Staal, got a goal apiece from Evgeni Malkin and Matt Niskanen.

Meanwhile, Marc-Andre Fleury, who was coming off a 28-save performance against the Bruins, was pulled in the second period on Sunday after allowing three goals on 12 shots. Brent Johnson made 11 saves in relief.

"They came out ready," said Penguins forward Pascal Dupuis. "We obviously got caught puck watching and didn't have the start we wanted."

The setback dropped Pittsburgh to 15-12-2 on the road this season and also allowed New Jersey to pull within one point of the Pens for the fifth seed in the East. Pittsburgh is just two points behind Philadelphia for the conference's fourth spot.

Crosby (concussion/neck), Staal (knee) and Arron Asham (concussion) are all out indefinitely for the Pens and fellow forward Tyler Kennedy left Sunday's game with a lower-body injury. Kennedy, who has 22 points in 42 games this year, is questionable for tonight.

Pittsburgh will try to sweep the season series against the Canadiens tonight. The Pens are 3-0 versus Montreal, but the last two games have gone past regulation. Pittsburgh's most recent win over Montreal came when it rallied from a pair of two-goal deficits to notch a 5-4 shootout win over the visiting Habs on Jan. 20.

The Canadiens had lost three straight -- all in regulation -- before notching a 3-0 win Sunday against visiting Winnipeg. Carey Price stopped 23 shots for his third shutout of the season and Tomas Plekanec had a goal and an assist in the triumph.

"I thought our guys played with a lot of hunger and a lot of grit tonight," said Price. "We had a good forecheck and did a great job of pounding their defensemen. That's why we kept the momentum throughout most of the game."

Max Pacioretty and Alexei Emelin both scored for the Canadiens, who are 12 points out of a playoff spot in the East.

The Habs are just 10-11-7 as the host this year and are completing a three- game homestand tonight.

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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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