Rangers welcome Caps for matinee at MSG

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02/12/2012 - (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Fresh off another dominating performance against their nearest division rivals, the first-place New York Rangers will welcome the Washington Capitals for today's battle at Madison Square Garden.

The Rangers visited Philadelphia on Saturday and slammed the Flyers, 5-2, to extend their lead atop the Atlantic Division to six points. With 75 points, New York is also five points in front of Boston for the top seed in the East and one behind Detroit for the best record in the NHL.

The Blueshirts have simply dominated the second-place Flyers, winning all five encounters this season and seven straight meetings overall. The Rangers have outscored the Flyers 29-10 over the past seven matchups, shutting them out twice over that span. Saturday's lopsided win was keyed by Ryan Callahan's second career hat trick and a 3-for-7 performance on the power play.

"It's good. Anytime you get three goals obviously you are excited. Callahan said. "It's a big game, especially with a team that's so close to you in the standings. I had some pretty easy, tap in goals there. So it wasn't all me tonight."

Marian Gaborik added a goal and three assists for the Rangers, who have won four of five and six of their last eight contests. Artem Anisimov also lit the lamp for New York, while Henrik Lundqvist made 31 saves in the victory.

The Rangers beat Philadelphia without forward Ruslan Fedotenko, who did not travel with the team on Saturday after he took a shoulder to the head from Tampa Bay's Dominic Moore on Thursday. Fedotenko, who has seven goals and seven assists in 51 games this season, is not expected to play today either.

New York has a 17-6-2 record as the host this year and has won three of its last four at MSG.

The Capitals will try to bounce back from Thursday's home loss to Winnipeg, as the Jets scored twice in the final 2:15 of regulation to send the game to overtime and then earned the 3-2 win in the shootout. Trailing 2-0 with less than three minutes to play, Winnipeg got goals from Evander Kane and Dustin Byfuglien in a span of 12 seconds to force OT.

Alex Ovechkin and Alexander Semin notched regulation goals for Washington, while Tomas Vokoun had 25 saves in the loss. The tying goal came when Byfuglien beat Vokoun from center-ice after the puck deflected off a Washington defenseman.

"You get beat by a long shot, it's one of those plays that happens in hockey," Capitals coach Dale Hunter said of Byfuglien's goal. "It goes for you sometimes and it goes against you."

The Capitals enter today two points behind Florida for first place in the Southeast Division and the Panthers are also in action this afternoon. Washington is also one point behind Toronto for the eighth and final postseason berth in the East.

Washington has struggled all year on the road and is just 9-14-3 as the guest this year compared to a 19-7-2 mark in D.C.

The Rangers and Caps split a pair of games in D.C. earlier this season and the final two encounters will take place in NYC. Washington halted a four-game skid in this series with a 4-1 win over the Rangers on Dec. 28. New York routed the Caps, 7-0, when the teams last met at the Garden on Dec. 12, 2010, but Washington had won the three previous matchups in the Big Apple.

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MySportsbook.com: New College Football Clock Rules Examined

Coaches and bettors alike are desperate to make sense of the new time-keeping rules on the NCAA gridiron. One of the big stories to come out of the Ohio State-Texas clash last weekend was Texas coach Mack Brown's criticism of the NCAA's new clock rules that are intended to shorten the duration of college football games, therefore affecting college football betting.

"They scored with six minutes left and the game was over before we had a chance to do anything," Brown told ESPN.com. "I really hope whoever made these changes will go back and look them over."

Sure, it might be sour grapes; the Buckeyes thoroughly trounced the defending national champion Longhorns 24-7. However, Brown isn't alone in giving the changes their due thought. Bettors are also wondering about them, albeit for a completely different reason. Most experts agree that the changes will result in games being shortened by anywhere from 10 to 20 plays. The obvious consequence is lower scores, with more time rolling off the clock during changes of possession. (The Ohio State-Texas game flew well under the total of 52.)

According to research at the online sportsbook MySportsbook.com, more than 18 plays a game disappeared last weekend into thin air. That's a 10-percent reduction. In 2005, a typical game had 168.58 plays. For 2007 already, it's down to 150.26.

As a result, teams combined to gain an average of about 100 fewer yards a game last weekend versus the 2005 openers. Scoring was also down by about 4.5 points (attention Las Vegas sports lines).

Of course, oddsmakers were able to adjust to the changes before the season started. Proof of that came as the over went a balanced 8-9 at My Sportsbook on Saturday.

Other angles to consider:A shorter game should theoretically result in shorter lines. Whereas Team A might have been a 14-point favorite in a 168-play game (last year), if there are 10 percent less snaps in 2007, the line should also be reduced by 10 percent (to 13 or 12.5). Of course, this is an over-simplification of the matter, but something to keep in mind.
Less possessions means a better chance the game will be decided by three or seven points. For example, what might have been a 20-10 final score in 2005 may end at

17-10 in 2007. Granted, a 24-17 game last year might end at 21-17 these days, but the former - a three- or seven-point advantage being preserved as opposed to created - is the most likely scenario.

*UPDATE* - Sept. 25, 2007

New Clock Rules Boon for online bookmakers

By adjusting the time-keeping rules to shorten the duration of college football games, the NCAA hoped to make its product more enjoyable for the fans. While the NCAA's success in this regard is still up for debate, bookmakers couldn't be happier with the results.

"We are seeing a massive jump in college football betting," noted the MySportsbook.com management team. "With all the early Saturday games (12 a.m. ET) ending before the second wave begins (3:30 p.m. ET) - something that didn't always happen before the changes - bettors are now able to re-invest their winnings from the morning session in the afternoon games."

While not all bettors will choose to roll over their winnings, it doesn't take much for an impact to be seen on the bottom line. "Not all of the millions of dollars in morning payouts get re-bet. In fact, it's probably only 10 to 20 percent," noted the sportsbook management team. "Still, the increased football betting lines window will create a ton of growth for us over the course of the season."

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Huskers' Lucky hospitalized for undisclosed reason

LINCOLN, Neb. -- Nebraska running back Marlon Lucky was hospitalized Monday for undisclosed reasons after Lincoln police responded to a call at his residence.

The Nebraska athletic department said in a release Monday that Lucky was admitted Sunday night.

MySportsbook.com has the Cornhuskers listed at +2500 to win the BCS National Championship odds.

A nursing supervisor at the hospital said all questions about Lucky were being referred to the athletic department. The athletic department said there would be no further comment from the department or Lucky's family.

A Lincoln Police spokesman said officers responded to a call at Lucky's residence 11:30 p.m. Sunday. The spokesman said he didn't know Lucky's condition at the time he was taken to the hospital.

Lucky, from North Hollywood, Calif., started six games last season as a sophomore and was the team's second-leading rusher, with 728 yards and six touchdowns. He also caught 32 passes for 383 yards. He averaged 19.1 yards on eight kickoff returns.

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