Avs hope to continue dominance of Blues

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03/16/2010 - (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Strong play on the road this season has kept the St. Louis Blues in contention for a postseason berth. The club hasn't been able to achieve the same success at home, however, and it's had all kinds of trouble when facing the Colorado Avalanche during this 2009-10 campaign.

Colorado will try for a season sweep of the Blues when the Northeast Division contenders head to the Scottrade Center this evening for a key Western Conference clash.

St. Louis returns home after performing well on an important six-game road trip to start out the team's post-Olympic break schedule. The Blues finished 4-2-0 on the swing, although they came up short against Minnesota in Sunday's finale.

The Wild scored three unanswered goals in the first period en route to a 4-2 triumph, which left St. Louis at a still-impressive 20-11-4 as the visitor this season.

The Blues are just 12-16-5 as the home team, however, but did win its last three tests at the Scottrade Center prior to the league's hiatus for the Olympics.

St. Louis, which plays eight of its final 14 regular-season games on home ice, will need to improve upon that lackluster record in order to achieve a second straight playoff appearance. The Blues enter tonight's tilt in 10th place in the West and seven points behind rival Detroit for the conference's eighth and final postseason slot.

"We're not gaining ground, everyone around us is winning," said Blues forward Keith Tkachuk after Sunday's loss. "This really hurts, no question about it. Some of the teams won [Sunday] too, so it's frustrating. We have to go on a serious run to get into the playoffs."

St. Louis could also use a better performance out of No. 1 goaltender Chris Mason than he gave against the Wild. The usually-steady backstop was yanked after allowing three goals on only seven shots in the opening period.

Mason has also struggled mightily when facing the Avalanche this season, with the veteran netminder having given up a whopping 13 goals (a 7.23 GAA) in the Blues' three defeats to Colorado in 2009-10. In the most recent meeting between the teams, Mason stopped just 11-of-15 chances before exiting early in the second period of a 7-3 loss in Denver on March 6.

Chris Stewart netted his first career hat trick and added an assist in that contest, and the Avs forward came up with the go-ahead goal late in the second period of his team's 5-3 triumph at Dallas on Sunday. The win was the second in a row for Colorado, which currently occupies the No. 6 spot in the West and trails first-place Vancouver by five points in the Northwest Division race.

Paul Stastny scored a pair of goals in Sunday's victory and has amassed 12 points (4 goals, 8 assists) over a seven-game point streak. Teammate Peter Mueller, acquired in a trade-deadline deal with Phoenix on March 3, has also notched a point in seven straight outings and has racked up two goals and six assists over his first six games with the Avalanche.

Goaltender Craig Anderson made a big contribution as well to Sunday's win, matching a career-high with 48 saves on the afternoon. The offseason pickup is 2-0-0 with a 2.50 goals against average in two starts versus St. Louis earlier this season, but wasn't between the pipes for Colorado's 4-0 blanking of the Blues at the Scottrade Center on December 7. Backup Peter Budaj got the call in that one and turned aside all 35 shots he faced.

In injury news for the Avalanche, forwards Cody McLeod and Stephane Yelle each exited Sunday's win in the first period after sustaining leg injuries and are questionable to play tonight.

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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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