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09/18/2007 - Vancouver, BC (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Vancouver Canucks defenseman Sami Salo is sidelined indefinitely with a wrist injury.
Salo suffered the setback after retrieving a loose puck in the corner and getting checked in an intra-squad game over the weekend as Vancouver opened training camp.
"Sami has a hairline fracture on his wrist, so he's week to week," said head coach Alain Vigneault. "It's not a big fracture, so we could have him back by [the regular season], you just never know how these things go."
Salo, a native of Turku, Finland, played in 67 games with the Canucks last season and registered 14 goals and 23 assists.
<< No. 12 South Carolina, No. 15 Clemson making fans happy
COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) -Nothing makes Clemson and South Carolina supporters happier than winning. Right now, there are lots of happy football fans in the Palmetto State.South Carolina's two major programs share 3-0 records and spots among the country's
<< Off to surprising 2-0 start, Packers prepare for San Diego
GREEN BAY, Wis. (AP) -On the master list of things the Green Bay Packers have had to worry about over the past few years, letting success go to their heads probably ranked somewhere in between not selling enough No. 4 jerseys and running out of ched
<< Figgins, Angels beat Rays to shrink magic number
Anaheim, CA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Chone Figgins hit the go-ahead RBI triple in
the fifth inning and had three of Los Angeles' 18 hits, as the Angels inched
closer to the AL West title with a 10-7 win over the Tampa Bay Devil Rays.
Figgins
<< SEC fines Kentucky for violation of sportsmanship policy
Birmingham, AL (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Southeastern Conference announced Monday
that the University of Kentucky will be fined $25,000 for a second violation
of the league's access to competition area policy.
The fine stems from Kentucky's
Report: Cowboys to bring in Tank Johnson for physical >>
Irving, TX (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Dallas Cowboys will reportedly bring in
suspended defensive tackle Tank Johnson for a physical on Tuesday.
According to the Dallas Morning News, citing multiple sources, the Cowboys
would like to s
Lotta goals not enough for Sweden to advance >>
Tianjin, China (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Sweden came up short in its bid for a fifth
consecutive appearance in the quarterfinals of the Women's World Cup, beating
North Korea 2-1 on Tuesday, but failing to achieve the three-goal win that was
necessa
Hingis, Szavay reached second round in China >>
Beijing, China (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Former world No. 1 Martina Hingis and
rising Hungarian Agnes Szavay were among Tuesday's first-round winners at the
$600,000 China Open.
The fifth-seeded Swiss Hingis, who was rained out here on Mo
Hingis, Szavay reach second round in China >>
Beijing, China (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Former world No. 1 Martina Hingis and
rising Hungarian Agnes Szavay were among Tuesday's first-round winners at the
$600,000 China Open.
The fifth-seeded Swiss Hingis, who was rained out here on Mo
Trash talk has a place in every competitive endeavor (except baseball; those stirrup-wearers are too busy chewing on their sunflower seeds and their supplements to worry about what their opponents are doing).
Fantasy sports is no exception. Any intelligent discussion of the subject would probably start with a thesis statement or a definition of terms. Thankfully, this wont be an intelligent discussion.
Let me just say that I am happy to take a place in this space alongside my talented colleagues, even our commissioner. (You should see how she bleats like a demented paper boy about league fees on our fantasy site).
Trash talking, I would argue, is primarily about amusing your friends, their sheeplike demeanors and sloping foreheads notwithstanding. The best place I have found for football trash talking is at www.SportsAlarm.com.
Beyond the entertainment factor, though, I would recognize that the sophomoric ritual has one advantage, when properly applied. It magnifies your fantasy triumphs and mitigates your fantasy failures by transforming the eventual point total into an afterthought. Winning makes it seem like your opponent really is a truss-owning, lapel-pin-wearing nitwit. And in defeat, trash talk can be the air bag to break the fall from your hyperbolic heights. The plug-necked yahoos on your team, you can say, will be sacking groceries by the end of the season.
The best trash talk, in my view, is layered and nuanced. And it doesnt focus only on your opponents team. It picks apart your opponent. The idea is to create a shock-and-awe-scale blizzard of nonsense, and the goal is to make your opponent drop his hands from his keyboard in exasperation.
What team does your opponent root for? Accuse a Giants fan of having a Joe Namath pillowcase. Wheres your opponent from? Give a look of concern no matter his reply, then say, I'll try to type slower for you next time. Is your opponent into politics? Label everyone a tax-and-spend corporate shill.
Cap all that with a liberal application of irrelevance. For instance, dont just conclude by saying your opponent is a twerp who drafts like my grandmother. Say that your opponent is a sweater-wearing, eyebrow-plucking twerp who drafts his team about as well as Zsa Zsa Gabor gave acceptance speeches at the Oscars. By the time your foe makes sense of that, his starting running back will have had puppies.
But what about you? Hmm? Recall a memorable slam? Have a tried-and-true technique? Know someone who seems impervious to insult? Take a moment and tells us about it. Put together some (fit-for-publication) thoughts. You wont be too busy returning phone messages from your friends, Im sure, to reply.
In addition to the trash talking, the Sports Alarm has a huge gallery of high resolution pictures of beautiful women and models in bikinis. The most popular models are: Lindsay Lohan, Carrie Underwood, Alessandra Ambrosio, and Paris Hilton.
Is there such a thing as a trap game in the NFL?
I once asked that question to Pete Korner, who at the time was office manager and a senior linesmaker for Las Vegas Sports Consultants.
Korner almost ripped my head off. There is no such thing as a trap game, he loudly berated me. It’s a myth. The numbers are made using power ratings, he said.
There are trap games, though. They just might not be what you think. The perception is of a good team, say Philadelphia, laying a small number against New Orleans.
Using the highly-respected power ranking from The Gold Sheet, you’d find the Eagles with a power rating of 4 and the Saints at 8. When you factor the game being played in New Orleans, you could see why the line opened so short at less than a field goal.
For some, this makes it enticing to take the Eagles. That’s not a real trap game, though.
A real trap game, says professional gambler Dave Malinsky, is thinking you’re getting value betting a bad team, which brings us to the Oakland Raiders-Denver Broncos matchup.
The Raiders are +15 in this long-standing division rivalry. Denver is on a short week having dispatched Baltimore Monday. However, the Raiders haven’t covered the spread their last 10 games.
Many bettors don’t trust the Raiders to give a full effort. Few think much of Art Shell and his Oakland’s coaching staff.
So oddsmakers have to do something to make Oakland attractive if they hope to get equal action.
Now Malinsky is a value shopper. But he won’t touch the Raiders even getting more than two touchdowns.
“I try to eliminate the undisciplined, unfocused teams because they’re the ones most likely to suffer the bad beats,” he said.
Near the top of Malinsky’s list of stay-away teams is the Miami Dolphins, who have yet to cover a spread this season.
“Whatever you think of Nick Saban, you have to look at the penalties and turnovers,” Malinsky said.
It’s easy to point out the Dolphins failed to get the money this past week against New England because Olindo Mare missed a field goal and had another field goal blocked. But even though the Dolphins outgained the Patriots, 283-213, they committed eight penalties.
Bad teams not only cost themselves victories, but pointspread covers as well. The Arizona Cardinals and Green Bay Packers are two more examples.
The Cardinals couldn’t have been in a better position this past Sunday, up 14-0 at home against a mediocre Kansas City Chiefs squad. But they couldn’t hold it. The Packers got a push against St. Louis, but also could have won losing by three when Brett Favre fumbled at the St. Louis 11-yard line with 44 seconds left.
“The Packers were in a position to beat Philadelphia, too,” Malinsky said. “But they couldn’t even cover double digits.
“These teams just make mistakes and it costs you … they always will look good from a value standpoint. They really will. But that’s the trap.”
Houston and Tennessee rank among the six-worst teams. Malinsky wouldn’t be afraid to take either of these teams, however, if the price were high enough.
The Texans are bad, Malinsky said, but they have some discipline. The Titans showed they could not only come up with an outstanding game plan, but execute it as well, losing by one to the Colts on the road as an 18 ?-point underdog this past Sunday.
“Jeff Fisher is a worker,” Malinsky said of the Titans coach. “I’m not sure how hard Art Shell wants to work when he gets out of bed.”
Fisher, though, could be out as Tennessee coach after this season. Is he still worth backing in the right spot, with the right price, as a lame duck coach?
“It’s in his nature to keep working hard and not worry about any possible lame duck status,” Malinsky said. “He’s coaching for his resume.”
Note: Monday night game will be picked Monday. Lines used are from football betting lines.
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