Struggling Bruins visit Hurricanes

Hockey Betting Lines

03/16/2010 - (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Boston Bruins will fight to hold onto their playoff spot when they visit the Carolina Hurricanes tonight at RBC Center.

The Bruins are currently eighth in the East with 72 points and are just one point ahead of the New York Rangers for the conference's final postseason berth. The Rangers are also in action tonight, hosting the Montreal Canadiens at Madison Square Garden.

Boston was dealt its fourth loss in five games Monday night and failed to pick up a point in its loss at New Jersey. Zach Parise scored the eventual game- winner late in the first period, as the Devils scored three times in the first and then held on to beat the Bruins, 3-2, at Prudential Center.

Blake Wheeler finished with a goal and an assist for the Bruins, who fell to 2-3-1 on a seven-game road trip that ends tonight. Patrice Bergeron also scored for Boston.

Tim Thomas allowed three goals on 12 shots in the first period before being pulled for Tuukka Rask, who turned aside all 16 shots he faced.

"We dug ourselves a hole in the first period," Bruins coach Claude Julien said. "I thought we played better from the second period on."

The Bruins are 16-13-6 as the visiting team this season. Boston will play its next two games on home ice, including an important matchup against the Rangers on Sunday.

Meanwhile, the Hurricanes come into tonight with their playoff hopes fading. Carolina, which made it to the conference finals last spring, is currently 14th in the East and eight points behind Boston.

The Hurricanes have dropped two of their last three games and are coming off Saturday's shutout loss to visiting Phoenix. Ilya Bryzgalov made 29 saves to record his NHL-leading eighth shutout, and the Coyotes routed Carolina, 4-0, at RBC Center.

Justin Peters allowed all four goals on only 20 shots in the defeat -- just the third setback in the last 12 games for Carolina.

Carolina, which will complete a four-game homestand Thursday against Washington, is 18-13-3 as the host this year.

Boston and the 'Canes have split a pair of meetings so far this year with each club winning on home ice. Carolina's 5-1 victory over the Bruins on Jan. 24 ended a six-game slide against Boston in the regular season for the Hurricanes. Boston had also won three straight in Raleigh prior to that setback.

Carolina beat the Bruins in seven games during last year's conference semifinals.

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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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