Brassard's OT winner lifts Columbus over Anaheim

Hockey Betting Lines

02/04/2012 - Anaheim, CA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Derick Brassard scored two goals, including the game-winner at 3:55 of the overtime period, leading the Columbus Blue Jackets to a 3-2 victory over the Anaheim Ducks at Honda Center.

Brassard poked the puck out to the neutral zone and raced up the left wing on a 2-on-1 with Rick Nash. Brassard looked off the defenders and wired a slap shot past Jonas Hiller from just inside the left circle to wrap up the victory for the Blue Jackets, who snapped a six-game losing streak.

"We found a way, I'm pretty excited right now," Brassard said. "In practice I try to go short side. I trusted my shot it, went high on the glove side and it worked."

Jeff Carter also scored for Columbus, which got 33 saves from Curtis Sanford in the victory.

Teemu Selanne scored both goals and Jonas Hiller stopped 18-of-21 shots in defeat for the Ducks, who have lost three of their last four games.

The Ducks opened the scoring just 1:46 into the game. Ducks defenseman Lubomir Visnovsky ripped a slap shot from the right point that Sanford knocked down with his blocker, but the rebound came right to Selanne, who put it home.

Columbus drew even at 14:47 of the second period when John Moore ripped a shot from the point that was stopped by Hiller, but he left a huge rebound and Brassard slammed it home.

Anaheim came right back to take the lead with a power-play tally at 16:52 of the second stanza when Corey Perry outworked his checker in the right corner, spun and found Selanne, who one-timed the puck past the stick side of Sanford for his second goal of the game.

But the Blue Jackets answered with a power-play goal of their own 2:05 into the third period when Vinny Prospal threw a shot on net from the left point that made its way to Antoine Vermette in front. Vermette shifted the puck to his backhand and slid it through the legs of Ducks' defenseman Francois Beauchemin to Carter, who chipped it into an open net to tie the game at two.

"We were ready but a couple of mistakes cost us," Ducks defenseman Cam Fowler said. "We didn't play to our capability tonight. A loss is a loss. We got one point but we needed two."

Game Notes

The Ducks are 2-9-2 against the Central Division this season, while the Blue Jackets are 5-8-0 against Pacific Division opposition...Blue Jackets defenseman Brett Lebda left the game in the first period with a hand injury...It was Brassard's first career multi-goal game...Selanne now has 655 career goals and is one behind Brendan Shanahan for 12th place on the NHL's all-time goals list...Columbus finished 1-for-4 with the power play, while Anaheim converted one of five power play chances.

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SPORTS BETTING - Tennis is an underrated and under-utilized bettors' sport.

Ten years ago, at just about this time, I called Alan Boston in Vegas and left him a voicemail that went something like this (abridged version): "Hey Alan, Chad Millman from ESPN The Magazine calling. I want to do a book about wise guys, you in?"

A couple weeks later I got a message back (abridged version): "I don't know, maybe," Boston said. "Call me and we'll talk about it. But not later today. I got $1,000 on Andre Agassi to win the French Open at 40-1, and he's in the finals."

Here's what happened next (abridged version): Agassi won his tourney. Boston won his $40,000. I wrote sportsbook.

In the ten years since, how much has been wagered on the big-time tennis events? Put it this way: The Nevada Gaming Commission doesn't even track the number year by year because it's so small.

"Tennis makes up about one-tenth of one percent of our take," says Lucky's bookmaking boss Jimmy Vaccaro. "The last big golf major we probably had $100,000 worth of bets. In tennis, we might have written two big tickets."

Tennis' lack of popularity amongst the American bettoratti is no surprise, really. For starters, the biggest sports betting holidays -- the Super Bowl, the NCAA tourney -- are must see TV. People, at least the degenerates I know, plan vacations around watching those events in Vegas sports books.

But Wimbledon? Doesn't exactly reel in the whales. "Seriously, it's the nuts as an event," says Boston. "But who even knows when it's on?"

Here's another reason that helps explain why golf gets traction, something I call "The Bubbe Theory." My Bubbe is pushing 95 and has cataracts so bad that, to her, even the most crystalline Chicago day is mostly cloudy. But she still listens to the Cubs games, and she still calls me in a fit if she disagrees with something Rick Telander writes in the Chicago Sun Times. She's a sports fan. If she doesn't know you, you're just filling a niche. And niche players, even historically good ones like Roger and Raf, don't drive betting volume. Only the highest profile names attract square money, which inflates wagering totals like a shot of saline to the lips. Bubbe, and the public, loved Agassi, tennis' last cross-the-rubicon, mainstream draw. She also has a crush on Tiger. She's given me standing orders to put a sawbuck on the big cat whenever I walk through a sports book (or mistakenly tap into one via my Internet machine.) That explains why the Masters is getting $100K in action at some books while the four tennis majors might not get that combined this year.

This isn't a case of tennis being a difficult sport to bet. In fact, in Europe, it's probably the second most popular sport for gambling after soccer. Granted, as the WSJ football betting last week and The Mag's Shaun Assael examined in even greater depth last year, that might be because gamblers across the pond see it as an easy game to fix. But it could also be because, over there it holds the kind of sway the big two do over here.

Street corners in Spain are peppered with public courts and kids doing their best Raffy impressions. In some war torn parts of Eastern Europe poverty-stricken kids view tennis as an escape route, like football or basketball here. A couple years ago The Mag's Lindsay Berra wrote a great piece about Belgrade's Jelena Jankovic, Ana Ivanovic and Novak Djokovic. They learned the game as kids while bombs were raining down on their homeland. They practiced in drained swimming pools. Not exactly Nick Bolletierri conditions.

In the United States, casual fans think tennis is played four times a year. But on the tightly packed European continent, national interest in homegrown talent runs deep every weekend. Of the ATP's current top 20 players, only two, tennis betting and James Blake, are American. Fourteen are from Europe, representing six different countries.

No wonder fans from Lisbon to Bhudapest get jacked up for the net game, whether it's Wimbledon or a low-level tourney like the Estoril Open in Portugal (congrats to Spain's Albert Montanes for winning that one, btw). Chances are good that someone representing their flag will not only be playing, but have a shot at winning.

And that's all any bettor can ask for.

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