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11/03/2009 - (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Toronto Maple Leafs will see their biggest offseason addition on the ice for the first time this season tonight when they welcome the Tampa Bay Lightning for a battle at Air Canada Centre.
The Maple Leafs pulled off a trade with Boston for Phil Kessel in mid- September and knew he was expected to miss at least the first month of the season after undergoing shoulder surgery in May. The young forward was cleared to play earlier today and participated in the morning skate for Toronto. It will be Kessel's first game action since the Bruins were knocked out by Carolina in Game 7 of the Eastern Conference semifinals.
Kessel, who is just 22 years old, set career highs in goals (36) and points (60) for the Bruins last year. Toronto gave up a first-round pick in both 2010 and 2011 in addition to its second-round pick in 2010 to land Kessel's services.
Kessel's debut comes at a good time for the Leafs, who have been playing better lately despite the fact they still have just one win on the season. The Maple Leafs earned their first win of the year last Monday by downing Anaheim, 6-3, and then suffered three straight OT losses, concluding with Saturday's shootout setback in Montreal.
Mike Cammalleri notched the winning score in the shootout as Montreal blew a two-goal third-period lead but rebounded to top Toronto, 5-4, at Bell Centre. The loss to the Canadiens ended a five-game road trip for the Leafs, who went 1-1-3 on the trek.
Alexei Ponikarovsky tallied twice for the Maple Leafs. Tomas Kaberle recorded a goal and three assists while Lee Stempniak also scored in regulation. Vesa Toskala stopped 35 shots in the loss for Toronto, which suffered through its first one-win October since 1985.
Kaberle has notched a point in five straight games and has two goals and 11 assists during that tear. He leads all NHL defenseman this season with 17 points (2 goals, 15 assists).
The Leafs have a winless 0-4-1 record at home this year and last won at the ACC when they beat Ottawa to close out the 2008-09 regular season.
The Lightning, meanwhile, have dropped two straight, three of four and five of their last seven. They are still second in the Southeast Division, but are eight points behind first-place Washington.
Tampa was handed a blowout loss Monday evening in Philadelphia as Jeff Carter and Mike Richards both finished with two goals and an assist to lift the Flyers to a 6-2 win at the Wachovia Center.
Mike Smith got the start in net for the Lightning and allowed five goals on 18 shots through nearly 27 minutes of play. Former Flyer Antero Niittymaki made 12 saves the rest of the way.
Jeff Halpern and Steven Stamkos had the goals for Tampa Bay. Stamkos has scored a goal in six straight games for the Lightning and has eight tallies and three assists during an eight-game point streak. The No. 1 overall pick in the 2008 draft has 11 goals in 12 games this year after notching just two markers through his first 12 contests during his rookie campaign in 2008-09.
Tonight's test marks the second stop on a four-game road trip for the Bolts, who are winless away from Tampa this year, posting an 0-4-1 mark as the guest.
Tampa Bay took three of four from the Maple Leafs last season and has taken five of seven overall in the series. The Lightning have won their last two games in Toronto, but has still dropped 11 out of 14 on the road against the Leafs.
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My fellow Americans, as tempting as it may be to don the coat and HD-ready tie in order to deliver this State of the Game address before the cameras, I know better. As Brad Paisley sings on his latest album, "I'm so much cooler online."
The ideas for this annual essay to kick off the MySportsbook.com college football betting preview flowed like frat-house beer, which is to say they were cheap and spilled all over the floor. The 2007 season will be better than 2007, if only because there will be more of it. A year ago, the NCAA Football Rules Committee made two rule changes in the interest of speeding up the game. These changes went over like Kobe burgers at a vegan banquet.
To its credit, the rules committee rectified its mistakes. This season the clock once again will start when a kickoff is received, rather than when it is kicked, and the clock will not start so quickly on a change of possession.
However, kickoffs have been moved back five yards, to the 30, which will force more returns. (Thus forcing the clock to run. Clever, huh?) Special teams might decide a lot of games, because coaching strategy will come straight out of another new Paisley lyric (almost), I'd like to check you for kicks.
Paisley sings with a twang, which is why he's appropriate for this college football season. The sun coming up over the 2007 college football betting lines season rises from the south. It's a Southern football world. As the Southeastern Conference begins its 75th year, the power shift is noticeable.
Eight-figure budgets, glamorous settings -- and that's just for the head coaches. The SEC has four coaches who have won national championships -- the greatest aggregation of coaching know-how since Eddie Robinson dined alone.
Steve Spurrier, Phil Fulmer, Nick Saban and Urban Meyer have given lie to the idea that a conference championship game is too daunting a hurdle on the road to No. 1. In six of the past 10 seasons, the national champions played and won a conference championship game -- three of the six (Tennessee, 1998; LSU, 2003; Florida, 2007) from the SEC.
There will be more of the same this season, if the preseason prognostications are correct. Six SEC teams are in the preseason coaches' poll, more than from any other conference. Only one conference has talent so deep that a team with 15 returning starters, including the best quarterback in the league, from an eight-win season is considered an afterthought. That may speak more to Kentucky's losing legacy than to the wisdom of the predictions, but there you have it. And seriously, keep an eye on Wildcats QB Andre' Woodson.
The reach of the South extends all the way to No. 1. Take a look at the team that is a consensus pick to win the national championship. The quarterback is from Shreveport. The best wide receiver is from Nashville. The top recruit is from New Orleans.
So what's the campus doing in Los Angeles? Hey, it is the University of Southern California.
USC lost two Pacific-10 Conference games a year ago, the first time that had happened in five seasons, and university officials withstood the urge to form blue-ribbon panels to unearth the cause of such a disaster. Instead, the Trojans gathered themselves and routed Michigan, 32-18, in the Rose Bowl.
USC's losses at Oregon State and at UCLA last year should have given pause to those who question the Pac-10's football prowess (such as, without naming names, L.M. from Baton Rouge). The league only got deeper this season; Dennis Erickson is taking over an Arizona State team that never quite got out of its own way under his predecessor, Dirk Koetter.
Erickson will resume his quest to become the first coach to win a national championship at two schools. Both he and Spurrier, now in his third season at South Carolina, returned to college football at schools with lower profiles than where they won their titles.
That isn't the case for the third coach looking for the national championship double. You may have missed this, but NASA reported the astronauts on the space shuttle last spring made contact with what can only be described as beings from another galaxy.
The leader of the aliens said, "We come in peace," followed by, "So how do you think Nick Saban will do at Alabama?"
The public is reacting to the new Crimson Tide coach as if he is the Barry Bonds of college football -- beloved at home for what his fans believe he is going to do, hated on the road for his intimidating attitude and for what his detractors believe he did (bend NCAA recruiting rules). I made this comparison from the dais at a charity dinner in Mobile, Ala., last month, and the chill that washed over me didn't come from the air conditioning.
Saban will attempt to prove that he can remake in Tuscaloosa what he built in Baton Rouge, much like another member of the national championship fraternity. Bobby Bowden is attempting to remake at Florida State what he built at, um, Florida State. Bowden rebuilt his offensive staff, bringing in four new coaches led by Saban's former offensive coordinator, Jimbo Fisher, to jump-start an offense that has been dead for a couple of years.
The Atlantic Coast Conference is expected to show new signs of life, too. That is said with no disrespect toward last season's champion, Wake Forest, which provided one of the best story lines of 2007. The Demon Deacons begin this season in their customary position, overshadowed by the Virginia Techs, Miamis and Florida States.
It's not that Wake will find it difficult to duplicate its success in 2007 as much as the feeling that success engendered. Surprising success is the narcotic of sport. It never feels quite so euphoric the next time. Big East commissioner Mike Tranghese has figured this out. He refers to 2007, when a league looked down upon by fans and foes alike took three undefeated teams into November, as "Cinderella."
The fairy tale may be over, but the Big East has four genuine Heisman Trophy candidates in Louisville quarterback Brian Brohm, West Virginia tailback Steve Slaton and quarterback Pat White, and Rutgers tailback Ray Rice. Rutgers, as did Wake Forest and, of course, Boise State, proved last season that the have-nots in college football occasionally have quite a lot.
The Broncos' rousing 43-42 overtime victory over Oklahoma in the Fiesta Bowl has raised the profile of all schools in conferences that don't get automatic BCS bids. This season, TCU and Hawaii are the preseason favorites to burst through the BCS doors and earn an at-large bid. The Warriors return 14 starters from an 11-3 team, including quarterback Colt Brennan.
Brennan not only broke the single-season record with 58 touchdown passes in 2007, but he also led Division I-A in passing efficiency (186.0). The senior is expected to contend for the Heisman Trophy, and neither his success nor the rise of his team should come as any surprise in the 2007 season.
After all, Hawaii is the southernmost team in the country.
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