Surging 'Canes aim to stay hot in battle with lowly Leafs

Hockey Betting Lines

03/02/2010 - (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The NHL's stoppage for the Winter Olympics may not have been great timing for the Carolina Hurricanes, but the Toronto Maple Leafs were likely welcoming the extended hiatus.

Carolina will attempt to re-find its sizzling pre-break form when it skates into the Air Canada Centre tonight for a matchup with the cellar-dwelling Maple Leafs.

The Hurricanes have struggled mightily for most of this 2009-10 season, but the team caught fire during an 11-game stretch from January 24 until the league halted play for the Olympics in mid-February. Carolina went 9-2-0 over that time period and has won its last five contests, the most recent an impressive 5-2 home verdict over Atlantic Division leader New Jersey on February 13.

Jussi Jokinen and Ray Whitney each had two goals and an assist in the victory, and both players have played a large role in the Hurricanes' surge. Jokinen has racked up eight goals and four assists during a nine-game point streak, while Whitney has notched a point in five straight outings and has three goals and four helpers over that span.

"That line has been so good for us, five-on-five and five-on-four," said Carolina head coach Paul Maurice of the Whitney-Jokinen-Eric Staal grouping. "[Whitney] is a very competitive player and a very, very smart player. He's in the top three or four guys and the Ron Francis' of the world that see the game from the bench as well as the coach does. He's a very special player."

Staal finished with a pair of assists in the win and has generated 20 points (10 goals, 10 assists) over the Hurricanes' last 15 games. The Carolina captain also captured a gold medal in the Vancouver Olympics as part of Team Canada, which defeated the United States in overtime on Sunday in the championship. Defenseman Tim Gleason earned a silver medal as a member of the U.S. squad.

Two other Hurricanes, forward Tuomo Ruutu and defenseman Joni Pitkanen, took home bronze medals playing for their native Finland.

Carolina, which still stands 14th out of 15 Eastern Conference clubs with 55 points, will be trying to win six in a row for the first time since a nine- game tear from March 18-April 7 of last season. The team will have to do so without regular goaltender Cam Ward, however, as he remains sidelined with a back injury that has kept him out since February 3.

Toronto is currently at the bottom of the East standings with a mere 49 points and lost nine of its final 11 games (2-7-2) before the break. In their most recent time out, the Maple Leafs were shut out in St. Louis by a 4-0 count on February 12.

The Olympics produced far better results for a few members of the Toronto organization. Head coach Ron Wilson guided the United States to a surprising second-place finish as well as a 5-3 triumph over the favored Canadiens in the preliminary round, and the roster was assembled by team general manager Brian Burke and included forward Phil Kessel, the Leafs' leader with 21 goals this season.

Toronto will be aiming to halt a two-game losing streak in this series, which includes a 4-2 setback at the Air Canada Centre on January 12. The Maple Leafs did post a 3-2 decision over the Hurricanes in Raleigh back on November 6 behind 34 saves from Jonas Gustavsson, a backup goaltender for the Swedish Olympic Team.

Carolina has won six of the last eight overall meetings between the teams and has prevailed in each of its last three trips to Toronto.

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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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