Ducks battle Avs in Anaheim

Hockey Betting Lines

03/21/2010 - (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Anaheim Ducks will try to continue heading in the right direction when they host the Colorado Avalanche tonight at Honda Center.

The Ducks have won three straight, giving the club its longest winning streak since a season-best five-game stretch from Jan. 5-13.

Even with another victory today, Anaheim has an uphill battle to make the playoffs as it trails Detroit by nine points for the eighth and final postseason berth in the Western Conference.

Meanwhile, Colorado enters Sunday in seventh place in the West -- three points ahead of Detroit. The Avalanche also trail Vancouver by six points for first place in the Northwest Division.

The Ducks and Avs have split a pair of meetings this year, but Anaheim has dominated the recent series, winning nine of the last 11 matchups. Colorado has also been defeated in six of eight and eight of its last 11 trips to Orange County.

Tonight also marks the finale of Anaheim's seven-game homestand. The Ducks are 3-2-1 on the residency and have a 22-11-3 home record this season. The club will begin a three-game road trip Tuesday in Calgary.

Anaheim earned its most recent victory in dramatic fashion on Friday, picking up the 5-4 overtime win on Saku Koivu's goal 14 seconds into the extra session at Honda Center.

In OT, Bruno Gervais tried to force a pass that Koivu picked off. The Finnish veteran then skated into the New York zone and snapped a wrister into the left corner of the net.

Lubomir Visnovsky scored twice, including the tying goal with 32 seconds left in regulation, while Jason Blake and Matt Beleskey each lit the lamp for the Ducks.

"We need every point," said Visnovsky. "The last three games we've won have been great for the team. We have confidence. Tonight was a crazy game. For me, every puck was bouncing off my stick and I was not very comfortable with the puck. But it doesn't matter because the team wins and everything is OK."

Jonas Hiller gave up three goals on 17 shots and was pulled halfway through the second period. Curtis McElhinney finished the game in net and stopped 13 shots to get the win.

Anaheim winger Teemu Selanne remains at 599 career goals. Should he get to 600, he will be the 18th player in NHL history to reach that mark and if he gets to 601, he will tie Jari Kurri for most goals ever by a Finland native. He finished Friday's game with two assists.

The Avalanche had a three-game winning streak halted its last time out, losing to visiting Calgary in regulation. Rene Bourque tallied twice and Vesa Toskala made 32 saves to lead the Flames to Wednesday's 3-2 victory.

Chris Durno and Milan Hejduk scored for the Avalanche and Craig Anderson took the loss despite 31 stops.

"We can't afford to get comfortable out there, no matter what the reason is," Avs center Paul Stastny said.

Stastny added an assist in Wednesday's loss to push his point streak to nine games. He has five goals and 11 helpers during the run.

Colorado is playing the first of two straight on the road tonight and will visit Los Angeles on Monday. The Avs are 18-13-4 as the guest this season.

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FOOTBALL TRASH TALK

NFL Football Trash Talk

Trash talk has a place in every competitive endeavor (except baseball; those stirrup-wearers are too busy chewing on their sunflower seeds and their supplements to worry about what their opponents are doing).

Fantasy sports is no exception. Any intelligent discussion of the subject would probably start with a thesis statement or a definition of terms. Thankfully, this wont be an intelligent discussion.

Let me just say that I am happy to take a place in this space alongside my talented colleagues, even our commissioner. (You should see how she bleats like a demented paper boy about league fees on our fantasy site).

Trash talking, I would argue, is primarily about amusing your friends, their sheeplike demeanors and sloping foreheads notwithstanding. The best place I have found for football trash talking is at www.SportsAlarm.com.

Beyond the entertainment factor, though, I would recognize that the sophomoric ritual has one advantage, when properly applied. It magnifies your fantasy triumphs and mitigates your fantasy failures by transforming the eventual point total into an afterthought. Winning makes it seem like your opponent really is a truss-owning, lapel-pin-wearing nitwit. And in defeat, trash talk can be the air bag to break the fall from your hyperbolic heights. The plug-necked yahoos on your team, you can say, will be sacking groceries by the end of the season.

The best trash talk, in my view, is layered and nuanced. And it doesnt focus only on your opponents team. It picks apart your opponent. The idea is to create a shock-and-awe-scale blizzard of nonsense, and the goal is to make your opponent drop his hands from his keyboard in exasperation.

What team does your opponent root for? Accuse a Giants fan of having a Joe Namath pillowcase. Wheres your opponent from? Give a look of concern no matter his reply, then say, I'll try to type slower for you next time. Is your opponent into politics? Label everyone a tax-and-spend corporate shill.

Cap all that with a liberal application of irrelevance. For instance, dont just conclude by saying your opponent is a twerp who drafts like my grandmother. Say that your opponent is a sweater-wearing, eyebrow-plucking twerp who drafts his team about as well as Zsa Zsa Gabor gave acceptance speeches at the Oscars. By the time your foe makes sense of that, his starting running back will have had puppies.

But what about you? Hmm? Recall a memorable slam? Have a tried-and-true technique? Know someone who seems impervious to insult? Take a moment and tells us about it. Put together some (fit-for-publication) thoughts. You wont be too busy returning phone messages from your friends, Im sure, to reply.

In addition to the trash talking, the Sports Alarm has a huge gallery of high resolution pictures of beautiful women and models in bikinis. The most popular models are: Lindsay Lohan, Carrie Underwood, Alessandra Ambrosio, and Paris Hilton.