Lundqvist and Blueshirts blank Habs

Hockey Betting Lines

02/28/2007 - New York, NY (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Henrik Lundqvist stopped 19 shots to post his third shutout of the season, as the New York Rangers blanked the Montreal Canadiens, 4-0, at Madison Square Garden.

Marcel Hossa scored twice and added an assist and Jaromir Jagr and Matt Cullen each added a goal and an assist for the Rangers, who snapped a three-game losing skid and won for just the second time in six games.

Jaroslav Halak made 23 saves in the loss for the Canadiens, who lost for the second time in three games.

New York took a 1-0 lead at 6:51 on a power-play goal from Jagr, who spun at the top of the right circle and let a shot go while facing the boards, which hit the knob of Halak's stick and deflected into the net.

It was 2-0 for the Blueshirts on another power play at 9:32 of the second, when Hossa tapped home a loose puck that squirted through Halak thanks to Jarkko Immonen's repeated hacks at the right side of the crease.

Hossa struck again for a 3-0 Rangers advantage with 4:16 to play in the second period, when he took a puck that deflected off Marek Malik's skate in the right circle, pulled the young Canadiens goaltender across the crease, and flipped the puck inside the far post.

Montreal failed to mount an offensive charge in the third period, firing off just three shots. Then, with a six-on-four advantage with under two minutes left in regulation with Jagr in the penalty box and Halak off for an extra attacker, Cullen added insult to injury by scoring into the empty net with under a minute to go.

Game Notes

Each team has split the last six meetings, but the Rangers won both games this season...Defenseman Paul Mara did not play for New York following his acquisition on Tuesday from Boston...Martin Straka also did not dress for the Rangers as he is day-to-day with a shoulder injury...It was the Rangers' first home shutout against the Canadiens since October 12, 1990, when John Vanbiesbrouck blanked the Habs...New York hosts Pittsburgh on Thursday, while Montreal heads to Buffalo on Friday.

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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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