Canucks Warns Carolina For Vancouver

Hockey Betting Lines

Tonight's tilt also marks the start of a four-game road trip for the Sharks, who are 9-4-2 as the guest this season.

 

The last time the Wild and Sharks met on Dec. 6, Minnesota was leading the NHL in points, but that has all changed over the last month. Minnesota has lost 11 of its last 12, posting a 1-8-3 record over that span and has nearly fallen out of the Western Conference playoff picture. The Wild enter tonight tied with Nashville for the final two playoff seeds in the West.

 

"A lot of times when you're struggling, you end up on your heels a lot and I find that that's the case for us a lot of the time, we're just not that aggressive," Wild coach Mike Yeo said. "I don't know if it's fear or a lack of confidence or whatever it is, but we don't attack the same way."

 

Minnesota is 11-6-3 as the host this year, but has dropped four of its last five in St. Paul. The Wild will go on a four-game road trip following tonight's tilt.

 

(Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Boston's Stanley Cup rematch with the Vancouver Canucks did not go as planned, but the mighty Bruins will try to rebound when they host the Winnipeg Jets tonight at TD Garden. Boston defeated the Canucks in seven games last spring to win the franchise's first Stanley Cup title since 1972. However, when the clubs met for the first time this season Saturday afternoon in Beantown, Vancouver posted a 4-3 regulation decision in a chippy contest at TD Garden.

 

Marchand was involved in a dangerous collision with Canucks defenseman Sami Salo on Saturday, as the Bruins forward went low on the Vancouver player and was hit with a five-minute major for clipping as well as a game misconduct. On Monday, the NHL suspended Marchand for five games.

 

Marchand is tied for the team lead with 16 goals this year and is third on Boston with 32 points.

 

The Bruins are playing the third test of a four-game homestand tonight and are 14-7-1 as the host this year. Boston will cap the residency Thursday against Montreal.

 

Johnny Oduya scored 57 seconds into extra session, leading the Jets to a 2-1 win at First Niagara Center. Blake Wheeler also had a goal for the Jets, while Ondrej Pavelec made 31 saves in the win.

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FOOTBALL BETTING : Crabtree's base deal: six years, $32 million

Football Betting

In the wake of the news that the 49ers have signed receiver Michael Crabtree after an extended holdout, there has been not a hint of the dollars to be paid to Crabtree.

And since this means that his agent hasn't leaked the numbers, it means that his agent feels no specific motivation to do so.

Possibly because his agent isn't all that thrilled to have his name on the deal.

So the numbers will come from sources other than Crabtree's agent. And we've gotten our mitts into them.

Per a league source, Crabtree has signed a six-year, $32 million contract. (The total includes guaranteed money, base salaries, and the one-time incentive based on achieving minimum playing time.)

The deal also includes $17 million in guaranteed money.

As reported elsewhere, the deal can void to five years based on performance triggers, wiping out a final year base salary of $4 million. But they won't be easily reached.

The source tells us that, in his first four seasons (including 2009), Crabtree must either qualify for two Pro Bowls, or he must qualify for one Pro Bowl in one year and he must participate in 80 percent of the offensive snaps in a separate year in which the team makes the playoffs.

In other words, if in 2010 he qualifies for the Pro Bowl and the team makes the playoffs and he participates in 80 percent of the snaps, he'll still need to make it to the Pro Bowl or achieve the 80-percent/playoffs in another season.

Since the chances of Crabtree making the Pro Bowl or participating in 80 percent of the offensive snaps this year is roughly zero percent, he'll have three years to get it done.

And it won't be easy. Frankly, he'll be hard pressed to make it to one Pro Bowl in three years with the likes of Larry Fitzgerald, Calvin Johnson, Anquan Boldin, Steve Smith, the other Steve Smith, Hakeem Nicks, DeSean Jackson, Johnny Knox, Percy Harvin, Greg Jennings, Roddy White, T.J. Houshmandzadeh in the same conference for sportsbook betting.

So, by all appearances, it's a six-year deal. And at $17 million in guaranteed money, the per-year guarantee is a tepid $2.83 million per year.

There's another problem with the deal -- it has no mid-tier incentive package. Instead, the additional $8 million that Crabtree can earn (pushing the max value to six years, $40 million) requires the kind of unrealistic, mega-star performances that no rookie is likely to ever achieve.

So while the contract paid to Packers defensive tackle B.J. Raji covers five years and pays $22.5 million, he has the ability (if he's a solid player) to make up the difference between his base deal and Crabtree's five-year, $28 million haul via the mid-tier incentive package in Raji's deal.

And unless Crabtree meets the performance thresholds necessary to void the sixth year, he'll be stuck under contract for another year at a base salary of only $4 million.

There's one other area of concern with the deal. Crabtree, per the source, received no option bonus. Instead, he has significant money tied to a fairly new device known as a "discretionary salary advance," which unlike an opition bonus is subject to forfeiture if Crabtree decides in a year or two that he wants to hold out for a better deal. (We're also told that the 49ers have included language that would make certain escalators subject to forfeiture, too.)

Meanwhile, the deal falls well short of the mark for which Crabtree and agent Eugene Parker were aiming -- the five-year, $38.25 million contract paid by the Raiders to receiver Darrius Heyward-Bey, the seventh overall pick in the draft.

Even if Crabtree successfully voids the final year, he'll make more than $2 million per year less on average than Heyward-Bey.

Thus, as we explained earlier in the day, this is a deal that Crabtree could have done in July, which would have given him a much better chance of making a contribution to the 49ers during his rookie year.

So while the final outcome can be described as win-win, the broader view suggests that it's really a lose-lose situation.

NFL Betting Lines

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