'Canes aim for season sweep of Lightning

Hockey Betting Lines

03/07/2009 - (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Carolina Hurricanes will shoot for a clean sweep of the season series against Tampa Bay when they visit the Lightning for tonight's Southeast Division battle at St. Pete Times Forum.

The Hurricanes are 5-0 against Tampa this season and have won six straight, eight of nine and nine of the last 11 meetings between the clubs. Carolina has also taken two in a row and three of four road tilts against the Lightning, but the Bolts have still won four of the last seven matchups on their home ice.

Carolina is battling for a playoff spot in the Eastern Conference and is currently just one point out of a postseason berth. With 73 points, the Hurricanes are even with Buffalo for the conference's ninth seed and are just one back of Florida, Pittsburgh and the New York Rangers, who are all tied for the final three postseason spots in the East.

The 'Canes enter tonight's test riding a two-game winning streak and are coming off Friday's lopsided win over visiting Calgary. Ray Whitney notched the third hat trick of his career as Carolina crushed the Flames, 6-1, at RBC Center.

Sergei Samsonov had a goal and an assist while Scott Walker and newly acquired Erik Cole each lit the lamp for the Hurricanes, who have won six of their last eight games. Cam Ward stopped 21 shots in the victory.

Cole returned to Carolina at Wednesday's trade deadline, coming over from Edmonton as part of a three-team deal that also involved Los Angeles. Cole is back with the club he spent the first six years of his NHL career with before he was dealt to the Oilers in the offseason in a deal which saw defenseman Joni Pitkanen come to the 'Canes.

Carolina has won five of its last seven road games and is 16-14-4 as the visiting club this season.

The Lightning, who are 19 points out of a playoff spot, have lost two straight, four of five and eight of their last 10 games.

Tampa was also in action on Friday and was dealt an overtime setback by visiting St. Louis. Brad Boyes scored just 27 seconds into OT and added two assists to lift the Blues to the 4-3 decision over the Lightning at St. Pete Times Forum.

Martin St. Louis and Steven Stamkos each had a goal and an assist for the Lightning. Karri Ramo was tagged for four goals on 36 shots.

Stamkos, the No. 1 overall pick in the 2008 draft, has four goals in his last five games and the 19-year-old has 31 points (14 goals, 17 assists) in 62 games during his rookie season.

Tampa is just 11-13-9 as the host this year and is capping a three-game homestand tonight. The Lightning have lost two straight and five of their last six home tests.

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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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