Ducks visit Vancouver without Selanne

Hockey Betting Lines

12/22/2008 - (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Anaheim Ducks will continue a five-game road trip tonight without Teemu Selanne, as they travel to Vancouver to battle the Canucks at GM Place.

The Duck began their swing in Edmonton on Friday and posted a 3-2 shootout win. Jonas Hiller tied a club record with 51 saves and then stopped all three Oiler skaters in the shootout. Hiller tied the club mark first set by Mikhail Shtalenkov on March 22, 1998 and later matched by Jean-Sebastien Giguere on March 21, 2004.

Hiller was starting in place of Giguere, who returned to Montreal following the death of his father. He is expected to be with the team tonight.

Corey Perry scored in regulation and was the only successful skater in the shootout, as the Ducks won for the second time in three games while also halting a three-game road losing streak. Rob Niedermayer also recorded a goal in a victory that improved Anaheim to 8-5-1 as the road team this year.

However, Selanne is expected to miss the next four-to-six weeks after suffering a laceration to his left quadriceps muscle in a collision along the boards with Oilers defenseman Denis Grebeshkov. The 38-year-old forward went down and blood was seen on the ice as he was trying to make his way to the bench before being helped off the ice.

Selanne's absence could affect the Ducks' power-play unit, as all but one of his 14 goals this year have come on the man advantage. His NHL-leading 13 power-play goals account for more than half of the Ducks' power-play markers this year, with the club notching 24 on the season.

Two of those power-play goals by Selanne came in a 7-6 shootout loss to Vancouver on Halloween night. Selanne added two assists in that game for a four-point night, while Perry had five points on a goal and four assists. Giguere started the game but allowed four goals on 13 shots before being lifted for Hiller, who made 14 saves but was beat by Mattias Ohlund in the 13th round of the shootout.

Kevin Bieksa had a goal and two assists in that win, while Steve Bernier scored twice. Roberto Luongo got the win despite allowing six goals, but won't be in net for this game as he continues to be sidelined due to a strained left groin.

The win was Vancouver's fourth in its last five games versus the Ducks.

The Canucks wrap a four-game homestand tonight and lost for the first time on the trek on Saturday. After netting a total of nine goals in wins over Florida and Edmonton to start the residency, Vancouver's offense was shut down in a 3-1 loss to Chicago.

Daniel Sedin had the lone goal for Vancouver and Curtis Sanford made 30 saves. Sedin has three goals and two assists over his last three games.

Vancouver, which trails Calgary by one point for first place in the Northwest Division, is 9-4-1 at home this year.

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SPORTS BETTING: NFL Football Sportsbook Betting

NFL owners, already life's biggest winners, want to try their luck with the lottery.


That was the news out of their meetings last week, where team bosses voted unanimously to allow stamping state and local lottery tickets with franchise logos, if, ahem, any governments wanted to do a deal.

A shocker: Within days the Pats announced they'd be sponsoring the Massachusetts state lottery, the Skins said they'd slap their sticker on Virginia scratch-offs and the Ravens admitted they were talking to Maryland lottery bosses. In all likelihood, it won't be long before every team is a presenting sponsor of scratch-offs or just plain old pick fives. "The change in policy was approved 32-0," said NFL spokesman Greg Aiello. "So you can expect to see more deals soon."

It's a branding opportunity too big for the owners to ignore, and one a couple of dozen baseball franchises have enjoyed for years. The fact the NFL has been slower to act than those slack-brained Seligites is indicative of its complicated relationship with all forms of gambling. Consider this: Last Thursday, as the Pats and the Redskins finalized their new lottery deals, a lawyer representing the NFL argued before Delaware's Supreme Court that the state's newly signed sports betting law should be repealed.

The NFL betting is the face of opposition to sports gambling . And as much as it would like to share that responsibility with other leagues, that's not going to happen as long as more than 40% of all money legally wagered on games is bet on football. That's why the Brewers can do a multi-million dollar deal with a local casino, or the Celtics can make their own pact with the Mass lottery, and the response is, "Sweet, let's play." But when the NFL does it the stakes are higher, and everyone from NPR's Frank Deford to the Associated Press to the guys blogging at Deadspin will line up to play gotcha.

So I asked Aiello, who surely knew there'd be piling on, how the league can rail against being bait for sports bettors, then allow its franchises to be just that for lotteries, the most insidious and addictive form of gambling around. He emailed me this response: "We are not moral crusaders. NFL personnel are permitted to engage in legal forms of gambling, except for betting on NFL games. We are making a distinction here between the spread of gambling on the outcome of our games and supporting state lottery scratch-off games, that have nothing to do with the outcome of our games."

Here's where I should rip him. But, the thing is, he's right. Not to get Obama on you, but this is a complicated, nuanced issue. As much as lotteries are considered a tax on the poor, the NFL isn't a socially obligated government program -- it's just a business. Scratch-off's help the bottom line, sports betting doesn't. Now, it's okay to call the league hypocritical when it releases injury reports, which players have told me only helps bettors … But when it supports other forms of gaming? Big Deal.

Now, it's okay to call the league hypocritical when it releases injury reports, which players have told me only helps bettors. And it's okay to mutter something obscene when the league pretends gambling doesn't help drive TV ratings and fan interest and put money in owners' pockets. But when it supports other forms of gaming? Big Deal. The Bears should put an orange "C" on every deck of cards dealt at Harrah's in Joliet; the Eagles should slap their logo on roulette wheels at the Borgata in Atlantic City; the Dolphins should hold training camp at the El San Juan in Puerto Rico.

Seriously.

The NFL's problem, when it comes to the gambling world, isn't hypocrisy, it's worse: The bosses lack vision. That's why the league is picking unwinnable fights in Delaware and taking pot shots from critics after making smart sponsorship deals. Roger Goodell and his gang are acting and thinking locally rather than globally, which is rare for them, especially compared to their professional (and amateur) counterparts.

The NBA held its All Star game in Las Vegas and David Stern's kingdom didn't crumble (although the town did bring plenty of players to their knees.) I'd say it's 6 to 5 and pick 'em that Lebron will make a road swing through Sin City before his career is over.

Even the NCAA College Football Betting is more progressive on this issue than the NFL. Several years ago Rachel Newman Baker, college sports' gambling czar, opened a dialogue with Vegas bookmakers to learn about how they do business. She's visited Nevada sports books, studied their operations and listened to how they regulate action. Now she knows she can expect a call from bookmakers, who lose money when sports are fixed, if they think something sketchy is going on in NCAA games. She's not in favor of sports betting, but, as she once told me, "I know it's not going away, either."

The NFL can't seem to accept that. And until it can find peace with the idea, it'll get flack, even when it's right.

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