Blue Jackets hope for another dominating effort vs. Red Wings

Hockey Betting Lines

03/15/2009 - (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Blue Jackets' current winning streak began with a big victory over Detroit a week ago. Playoff-hopeful Columbus will try to extend that run to five games with another win over the Red Wings this evening at Nationwide Arena.

Columbus has matched its longest winning streak of the season and its current string of four straight wins began with an 8-2 victory over Detroit on February 7. The Blue Jackets set franchise records for most goals and margin of victory in that contest.

They haven't slowed down since, as Friday's 5-3 triumph in Chicago was the Blue Jackets' 36th of the year, a single-season franchise record. Antoine Vermette scored twice to give him three goals and three assists in four games since coming over from Ottawa in a trade.

Raffi Torres, Kristian Huselius and Rick Nash each lit the lamp for the Blue Jackets, who haven't won five in a row since December 2-12, 2006. Wade Dubielewicz made 27 saves in the win, his first with Columbus.

Nash has been key as Columbus tries to make the postseason for the first time in club history. He has six goals in his last five games, including a hat trick versus Detroit last weekend. Both of Nash's three-goal games this year have come versus Detroit and his most recent was the first unassisted hat trick since Montreal's Maurice "Rocket" Richard turned the trick on March 16, 1948.

Nash also has 18 points over his last 14 games for the Blue Jackets, who are sixth overall in the Western Conference, one point behind Vancouver.

Columbus plays the first of back-to-back home games tonight and has won three straight and seven of its last nine at Nationwide Arena. The club is 22-10-2 as the host this year.

The Blue Jackets' success versus the Red Wings this year has helped its playoff chances. Columbus has won three straight over Detroit since losing five in a row to the club and has also defeated the Red Wings in four of the last five played in Ohio.

Columbus will likely have to face Marian Hossa today, as he returned to Detroit's lineup on Saturday in the club's 5-2 win over St. Louis. It was his first action since leaving a contest on March 3 on a stretcher after crashing head-first into the boards.

Hossa, who leads the Red Wings with 36 goals and has scored 10 times in 10 meetings with Columbus, had missed the last four games due to a stiff neck/back and bruised knee, but was able to skate in just over 15 minutes of action.

Pavel Datsyuk scored twice and he combined with scorers Tomas Kopecky and Brett Lebda to net three Red Wings' goals in the span of 46 seconds in the second period. Henrik Zetterberg also scored and Chris Osgood made 30 saves for his 300th win with Detroit, which has won four of its last six and leads the Western Conference with 99 points.

That is one up on San Jose and is also even with Boston in the race for the Presidents' Trophy. All three teams are in action today.

Detroit has won three straight on the road and is 20-10-5 as the guest this year.

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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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