Oilers to honor Messier against Gretzky's Coyotes

Hockey Betting Lines

02/27/2007 - (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Edmonton Oilers will begin their four-game homestand in style tonight, when they honor Mark Messier before taking on the Phoenix Coyotes at Rexall Place.

The Oilers will retire Messier's No. 11 jersey in a pre-game ceremony this evening and fittingly, Coyotes head coach Wayne Gretzky will be there to witness the special night. Messier will join Gretzky as one of six Edmonton players (Al Hamilton, Jari Kurri, Grant Fuhr and Paul Coffey) to have their numbers retired.

Messier won six Stanley Cup championships in his career, five with Edmonton and one with the New York Rangers in 1994. The last title with the Oilers came in 1990, when Gretzky had already been traded to Los Angeles.

The St. Albert, Alberta native is the second all-time leading scorer in NHL history with 1,887 points (694 goals, 1,193 assists), trailing only Gretzky.

The Oilers are the second team to have retired Messier's number, after the Rangers raised his sweater to the rafters last year.

Edmonton hopes that Messier's big night will give the team a much-needed boost in the playoff race. The defending Western Conference champion Oilers currently have 66 points and trail Calgary and Minnesota by nine for the final postseason berths in the West.

Edmonton had won two straight before dropping a decision in Minnesota on Sunday. Pierre-Marc Bouchard had a goal and an assist as the Wild defeated the Oilers, 4-1, at Xcel Energy Center.

Fernando Pisani scored the lone goal for the Oilers, who finished their seven- game road trip with a 2-3-2 mark. Dwayne Roloson made 23 saves in defeat for Edmonton.

The Oilers are 18-11-2 as the home team this year and will also battle Minnesota, Calgary and Tampa Bay on this stand.

Meanwhile, the Coyotes have dropped seven of their last eight games and were handed a decisive loss Monday in Calgary. Wayne Primeau scored twice as the Flames downed Phoenix, 5-2, at the Saddledome.

Yanic Perreault and Steven Reinprecht each had a goal for the Coyotes, who are 20 points behind Minnesota and Calgary for the conference's last playoff spots.

Phoenix is playing the middle test of a three-game road trip tonight. The Coyotes have lost five straight as the visiting team and are 12-20-1 away from Arizona this year.

Edmonton is 2-1 against the Coyotes this season and has taken four of the last five overall meetings with Phoenix.

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College Football Betting Tips From a Pro

While the NFL is the sport wagered on the heaviest, college football betting lines has become more and more popular as people realize it’s a game that can be beat. The NCAA football season gets longer each year with the addition of numerous bowl games and with that comes more opportunities for more money in your pocket, if handled correctly.

Betting on college football is not the same as with the NFL, so make sure you separate the two. Because of the vast number of teams, the parity between college football programs is slight and thus, you are going to see some high numbers in the NCAA. Teams favored by more than 40 points are not uncommon especially early in the season when teams playing their non-conference schedules.

The best advice when trying to tackle these enormous spreads and is to just stay away. A team that is favored by 40 points is favored by that many for a reason while teams getting 40 points are bad enough that they shouldn’t be touched. Set yourself a spread limit. Getting rid of these games will cut down on the number of contests that you need to handicap while staying away from backdoor or front-door covers.

What is a backdoor and front-door cover you ask? A backdoor cover is a team that is getting beat by more than the spread, but scores late to get within that number thus covering the spread. A front-door cover is just the opposite where the favorite scores late and covers the number they are favored by.

These front-door and backdoor covers are common when second and third string players enter games in college football and it can be the worst nightmare for some bettors. These players can also be your best friend, but ask any bettor and he will give you more instances on losing in this situation than winning. It just seems to work out that way even though everything evens out in the end.

College football betting has some of the softest lines of any sport and it’s being able to find these lines that will make you a successful college football handicapper. The NFL and NBA have the tightest lines around and while those sports can be beat by looking at situations and systems, college football doesn’t quite work that way. It’s much more manual, but when done correctly, it’s much more gratifying as well.

Getting into the nuts and bolts of college football means looking at the many stats in order to beat the number. As opposed to pro football, college football is less dependent on situations and angles and more on certain statistics. Rushing offense and defense, pass efficiency offense and defense and turnover margins are huge. These are vital in the NFL, but even more so when it comes to college football.

Being able to run the ball in college football has always been a key factor in the overall success of a team. The same adage also goes for teams who have the ability to stop the run. Putting these two factors together can produce some positive results in a team’s record both straight up and against the spread. These numbers show huge differences in teams and the spread may not take those into effect, which is where the value comes into play.

Passing yardage numbers both for and against can be a misinterpreted statistic. However, pass efficiency has always been one of the best ways to look at a teams’ passing game ability both offensively and defensively. But is it really a true indication of how they perform? I wouldn’t say so since they are raw passing numbers with nothing else taken into consideration.

I use pass efficiency ratings when doing my handicapping but I adjust my numbers based on a number of factors including power ratings, strength of schedules, personnel and injuries. This gives a much better picture of a team’s ability to pass effectively and also being able to defend the pass. Tweaking pass efficiency stats instead of raw passing yards is the key.

Turnovers are the single most frustrating, and at times the most gratifying, aspect of a college football lines, mostly because they are so unpredictable. They are part of the game and most of the time nothing can be done to control them. However, turnovers are contagious and they can carry over from game to game and season to season.

It’s important to know how to forecast these unforeseen events and how to use them to your advantage. You can find ways to give yourself an edge by looking at past histories of teams and coaches and how they have fared in turnover wars in the past. Instead of turnovers hurting you at the wrong times, find ways to use them to your advantage.

As you can see, college football handicapping is very labor intensive and isn’t just based on where teams are ranked in the AP and coaches polls. Experience, coaching and match-ups are all important since unlike the NFL, college teams turn over much more often with new personnel at most positions every single year. Keeping current on this information is vital.

Betting NCAA football can be lucrative if done correctly, but more importantly, it’s just plain enjoyable because it can be beat. College football is one of the best sports to watch with some of the best rivalries taking place in all of sports. The only downfall is that a championship isn’t decided on the field but on a computer-based system that is the Bowl Championship Series. That will change someday and we will all be better off for it.

To visit this online sportsbook got to MySportsbook.com for all your NCAA college football betting needs. Mysportsbook.com online sportsbook accepts Visa and Mastercard credit cards.