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03/06/2010 - (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The San Jose Sharks have gotten off to a bit of a slow start since the Olympic break. A visit from the Columbus Blue Jackets could provide the spark they need.
San Jose continues a five-game residency tonight seeking an 11th straight victory at home over Columbus.
The Sharks began their post-Olympic schedule -- and current homestand at HP Pavilion -- on Tuesday versus the New Jersey Devils, who scored the game's first four goals. San Jose responded with a trio of third-period markers but couldn't complete the comeback in a 4-3 setback.
San Jose then hosted Montreal on Thursday and trailed by one goal entering the third period before Dany Heatley and Manny Malhotra scored in a 2:33 span to lift the Sharks to a 3-2 victory.
Patrick Marleau scored earlier for San Jose while short-handed to break a six- game goal drought, his career-high 39th tally of the season to surpass the 38 he netted in 2008-09. Evgeni Nabokov totaled 28 saves and stopped all 11 he saw in the final period as the Sharks snapped a brief two-game slide and won for the sixth time in their last nine home games.
The contest with the Canadiens was a chippy one and it took a scary turn in the third, when San Jose's Scott Nichol was drilled into the boards from behind after hitting the post on a breakaway attempt.
"It was a really dirty hit," San Jose's Dan Boyle said of the incident. "You can paralyze a guy like that. There's no place for that in hockey."
San Jose remains tied with Chicago for the most points in the Western Conference and are also three back of Washington for tops in the NHL.
Tonight the Sharks will try to avoid dropping their first home game to the Blue Jackets since January 8, 2004, as Columbus is 0-9-1 in 10 trips to San Jose since.
The Sharks have won seven of their last nine overall versus the Blue Jackets, but did drop a 3-0 decision in Columbus when the clubs last met on February 10.
Steve Mason made 40 saves and Rick Nash, Jakub Voracek and Antoine Vermette all scored in that win, which was Columbus' third straight under Claude Noel since he replaced former head coach Ken Hitchcock on February 3 on an interim basis.
Columbus is 0-1-2 since and dropped its first game after the Olympics on Tuesday versus Vancouver, a 4-3 setback in overtime despite goals from Vermette, Derek Dorsett and Andrew Murray, who broke a 41-game goal drought. Mason made 27 saves in defeat.
"The game was what I thought it would be," Noel said. "You're playing a good team. When you look at the game, our power play wasn't very good."
Columbus, which plays its next three games on the road and is 11 points back of a playoff spot, will have a different look tonight following Wednesday's trade deadline. The Blue Jackets made a host of trades, shipping out forwards Fredrik Modin (Los Angeles), Raffi Torres (Buffalo) and Alexandre Picard (Carolina) as well as defenseman Milan Jurcina (Washington) and Mathieu Roy (Florida).
The Blue Jackets totaled three draft picks in return as well as forwards Matt Rust (Florida) and Chad Kolarik (Phoenix) and defenseman Nathan Paetsch (Buffalo). Paetsch may play tonight for Columbus, while blueliner Mike Commodore should return from a lower-body injury that had sidelined him since January 30.
Center Derick Brassard, though, will miss his second game in a row thanks to a hand ailment.
<< Blues hope to keep flying high in trip to Colorado
(Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The St. Louis Blues are in position to record their longest
winning streak in over six years, but to reach that mark they'll have to find
a way to halt their struggles versus the Colorado Avalanche this season.
St. Louis g
<< Revamped Coyotes host Ducks in Pacific clash
(Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Phoenix Coyotes will try to record consecutive wins
when they welcome the Anaheim Ducks for tonight's Pacific Division battle at
Jobing.com Arena.
The Coyotes were dealt their third straight loss when they emerged from
<< Thrashers' playoff push resumes in Tampa
(Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Atlanta Thrashers will shoot for a third straight
victory when they visit the struggling Tampa Bay Lightning tonight at St. Pete
Times Forum.
The Thrashers have won two straight since the NHL came back from the Olympic
<< Rangers brace for test from high-powered Caps
(Sportsbook Betting Lines) - After struggling to keep the opposition off the scoreboard
their most recent time out, the New York Rangers now have to face the NHL's
most potent offense in tonight's showdown with the powerful Washington
Capitals from the V
Hornaday Jr. claims Atlanta pole >>
Hampton, GA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Ron Hornaday Jr. will start on the pole for
Saturday's E-Z GO 200 Camping World Truck Series race after topping the
qualifying charts at Atlanta Motor Speedway.
Hornaday, the defending series champion, secured
Bob Bryan, Isner get U.S. on the board against host Serbs >>
Belgrade, Serbia (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - A doubles team of Bob Bryan and John Isner
got the United States a much-needed point on Saturday, as the last-minute
pairing bested a Serbian duo of Janko Tipsarevic and Nenad Zimonjic in their
best-of
Croatia moves into Davis Cup quarters >>
Varazdin, Croatia (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Croatia holds an insurmountable 3-0 lead
over visiting Ecuador in their best-of-five first-round Davis Cup matchup and
has advanced to the quarterfinals in July.
The Croats officially eliminated Ecuador
France handles Germany to reach Davis Cup quarters >>
Toulon, France (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - France posted a doubles victory on
Saturday to best Germany and reach July's Davis Cup quarterfinals.
The French have an unassailable 3-0 lead in the best-of-five first-round
matchup after
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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Terrell Owens will address the media at a 3:15 p.m. ET news conference outside the Cowboys' practice facility after an internal police report indicated he tried to kill himself by overdosing on prescription pain medication, even putting two more pills into his mouth after a friend intervened.
The Dallas police report said Owens was asked by rescue workers "if he was attempting to harm himself, at which time [he] stated, 'Yes.'"
Owens left the hospital late Wednesday morning, giving reporters a "thumbs up" but making no comment as he was driven away in an SUV.
Michael Irvin said that Owens denied he attempted suicide and said he was rushed to the hospital as a result of an adverse reaction to medication. And a source close to Owens told Michael A. Smith that Owens wasn't attempting suicide.
NFL Network analyst Deion Sanders said he spoke with Owens shortly before his release from the hospital and that Owens was in good spirits.
"The fact that it has been reported a suicide attempt, he's laughed at that notion. It was a case that medication that was taken wasn't accepted well in his system with the other vitamins he's on," Sanders said.
The series of events began a little before 8 p.m. Tuesday.
Owens' publicist, Kim Etheredge, said she was at Owens' home when he took pain medicine for his broken right hand. Concerned by how he began acting, Etheredge said in various interviews Wednesday with Dallas-area media that she called 911. Owens was taken to a hospital, with Etheredge saying it was an allergic reaction to the medicine.
But early Wednesday, several media outlets received a police report -- that had yet to be released by the authorities -- saying Owens had attempted suicide by overdosing on the painkillers, even putting two more pills into his mouth after an unidentified friend intervened.
The police document, first reported by WFAA-TV, said Owens was asked by rescue workers "if he was attempting to harm himself, at which time [he] stated, 'Yes.'"
When officially released by police, about half the document was blacked out, including the phrases "attempting suicide by prescription pain medication" and "a drug overdose," as well as the details of Owens having two pills pried from his mouth and Owens saying "Yes" when asked if he intended to harm himself.
Etheredge, who said she was the friend cited in the police document, told Dallas-area media Wednesday that the police got the story wrong.
The tape of the 911 call could help clear things up. The Associated Press filed a request under the Freedom of Information Act to get its contents, but fire department officials said it would not be available before late Wednesday.
The police report said the 32-year-old Owens told his friend "that he was depressed." Details of the police report were first reported by WFAA-TV.
The friend, who is not identified in the report, "noticed that [his] prescription pain medication was empty and observed [Owens] putting two pills in his mouth," the police report said.
Using her fingers, the friend attempted to pry them out of Owens' mouth. Owens told police he had taken only five of the 40 pain pills in the bottle he'd emptied before the incident.
Etheredge told the Star-Telegram that Owens was "fine."
Etheredge said she called 911 because Owens was groggy and lethargic. After taking some supplements "it kicked in a reaction" with the painkillers, she told the Star-Telegram.
"Here's a person whose body is so clean, it really had a negative reaction to the medication and supplements he was taking," Etheridge told The Morning News. "Thank goodness someone was there to call an ambulance."
Police Lt. Rick Watson said he could only confirm that paramedics called police to say they were taking Owens to the hospital. He said no more details would come from the police because no laws were broken.
It is not a crime in Texas for a person to attempt suicide.
"This is a high-profile person. We looked into it and we determined it is not a criminal offense," Watson said. "This a medical type of situation that occurred."
Watson and fire department spokesman Joel Lavender cited privacy laws for the lack of information they could provide. Lavender said more details could come from the 911 call. The Associated Press filed a request under the Freedom of Information Act to get the contents of the call.
"Let's just look at the tape, review the tape," Lavender said. "I'll give you an honest answer once I know something."
At the police news conference, Watson released a version of the police narrative with certain sections blacked out. The full report was obtained by several news outlets and reported first by WFAA. The AP received the full version from WFAA.
According to the police report, Dallas Fire and Rescue was called regarding someone "attempting suicide by prescription pain medication." Officers arrived to find Owens being stabilized by ambulance workers, who then took him to Baylor University Medical Center.
Owens was hospitalized late Tuesday because of what his publicist said was an allergic reaction to pain medicine he was taking for a broken hand. Doctors reportedly tried to induce vomiting.
Owens, one of the league's top receivers during his 11-year NFL career, is best known for wild stunts on the field and other publicity-seeking antics off it.
When the Cowboys signed him to a $25 million, three-year deal in March, they said their background checks indicated no red flags. In fact, team consultant Calvin Hill -- who mostly deals with troubled players -- said during training camp that his department was not involved with Owens because he didn't have a history of those kinds of problems.
He missed most of training camp, and three of four preseason games, because of a hamstring injury. He was late for work during his recovery and was fined for it, but Owens laughed it off, saying he overslept. He said it had happened before, though not with Dallas, and would probably happen again.
Owens broke the bone leading to his right ring finger during a game a week ago Sunday. The next day, doctors screwed in a plate so the bone could heal without fear of further damage. Cowboys coach Bill Parcells said last week that the pain medicine made Owens ill.
Owens had not practiced since the injury, but because Dallas had a bye this past weekend he did not miss a game. He was expected to practice Wednesday, and Parcells had said there was a chance Owens could play Sunday against Tennessee.
Owens had been especially looking forward to the Cowboys' game after that -- Oct. 8, in Philadelphia, against the team that dumped him midway through last season only months after he helped them nearly win the Super Bowl.
Owens was seen laughing and joking on the practice field Tuesday morning. He chatted briefly with reporters in the locker room in the afternoon and seemed fine. A 2-inch scar on the top of his hand was puffy but not wrapped, and he said the swelling was doing down.
While in the locker room, he took a pill from a white paper bag and looked at another medicine bottle that was in the bag. He also called a business partner about a towel-wrap venture they're starting and joked to TV cameras that he wasn't talking until Wednesday and it was only Tuesday.
"My little boy knows better than that," he said, laughing, as he plopped onto a sofa in the middle of the locker room.
Also Tuesday, Owens was involved in launching a national campaign for the National Alliance to End Abuse, an organization aimed at helping at-risk youngsters. He appeared at a high school Tuesday morning and was scheduled to visit others but had to cancel because of changes in the team's practice schedule.
Owens has played two games for the Cowboys, catching nine passes for 99 yards and a touchdown. For updated football betting lines and Dallas Cowboy Superbowl odds visit online sportsbook MySportsbook.com
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