Stars aim for rare win in Buffalo

Hockey Betting Lines

02/10/2012 - (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Dallas Stars have yet to win the back end when playing games on consecutive nights. That won't make ending their lengthy losing streak in Buffalo any easier.

The Stars try to pick up their first road win against the Sabres in over 14 years, but in addition to having some tired legs they'll also likely be going up against the returning Thomas Vanek.

Dallas is coming off last night's 4-2 victory at Columbus in which the club used a fast start to roll to its fourth victory in six games. Jamie Benn scored just 1:35 into the game, Alex Goligoski lit the lamp less than three minutes later and Stephane Robidas scored early in the second.

Benn added his second goal of the night on an empty-net tally and Kari Lehtonen made 26 saves while allowing a pair of power-play goals for the Stars, who still sit two points back of a playoff spot despite the win. Dallas is tied with Minnesota and Calgary for the ninth spot in the Western Conference.

"It was a big start, getting those two goals was huge. Getting some momentum on the road for our team was big. You definitely want that in the first period," said Benn, who has four goals and two assists over his past five games.

It was a good sign for Dallas as it came two nights after a lackluster 4-1 setback to Phoenix.

"I think our work ethic was a lot better tonight," surmised Goligoski.

Dallas is playing on back-to-back nights for the 10th time this year and improved to 5-4-1 in the first half of those contests. However, the Stars are 0-8-1 in the second half of that scenario.

The Stars will look to break that trend tonight and earn their first regular- season victory in Buffalo since Oct. 7, 1997. They are 0-5 with a tie in six trips since, though they did snap a five-game series losing streak to the Sabres with last season's 4-0 home win.

The Sabres await the Stars coming off perhaps their best game of the season. Buffalo hosted the defending Stanley Cup champion Boston Bruins on Wednesday and sent the Northeast Division leaders out of town with a 6-0 loss. Ryan Miller made 36 saves to record his second shutout in three games, third of the season and 25th of his career.

Jason Pominville scored twice and Tyler Ennis had a goal and an assist in the win. Christian Ehrhoff, Patrick Kaleta and Drew Stafford all scored for the Sabres, who improved to 4-0-1 since losing eight of nine. Miller has a 0.95 goals-against average and .969 save percentage over that point streak, which is the longest for Buffalo since it ended last season on a 5-0-1 run.

"I thought our guys really raised their compete level the last four or five games," Sabres head coach Lindy Ruff said. "We've really played hard and had some things start to go well."

Ruff watched Wednesday's game from the press box after breaking three ribs in a collision with Jordan Leopold at practice on Monday.

Buffalo is hoping to win three in a row for the first time since a four-game burst from Nov. 4-11 and could have Vanek back after he sat out the past three games with an upper-body injury. He practiced with the team again on Thursday and said he hoped to return to action on Friday.

"We put him through a battery of extra tests there after practice. We'll see how he's feeling in the morning," said Ruff. "He's the only one who really knows whether he can go or not. If he said he's ready to go, and doesn't have any ill effects from what happened today, then he'll be back in."

Vanek is tied with Pominville for the team lead with 19 goals and is second in assists (22) and points (41).

The Sabres won the opener of a four-game homestand and are playing eight of their next nine as the host. They are 5-0-4 in their past nine at home.

Miller is 3-0-0 with a 2.59 GAA lifetime versus the Stars.

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FOOTBALL BETTING : Crabtree's base deal: six years, $32 million

Football Betting

In the wake of the news that the 49ers have signed receiver Michael Crabtree after an extended holdout, there has been not a hint of the dollars to be paid to Crabtree.

And since this means that his agent hasn't leaked the numbers, it means that his agent feels no specific motivation to do so.

Possibly because his agent isn't all that thrilled to have his name on the deal.

So the numbers will come from sources other than Crabtree's agent. And we've gotten our mitts into them.

Per a league source, Crabtree has signed a six-year, $32 million contract. (The total includes guaranteed money, base salaries, and the one-time incentive based on achieving minimum playing time.)

The deal also includes $17 million in guaranteed money.

As reported elsewhere, the deal can void to five years based on performance triggers, wiping out a final year base salary of $4 million. But they won't be easily reached.

The source tells us that, in his first four seasons (including 2009), Crabtree must either qualify for two Pro Bowls, or he must qualify for one Pro Bowl in one year and he must participate in 80 percent of the offensive snaps in a separate year in which the team makes the playoffs.

In other words, if in 2010 he qualifies for the Pro Bowl and the team makes the playoffs and he participates in 80 percent of the snaps, he'll still need to make it to the Pro Bowl or achieve the 80-percent/playoffs in another season.

Since the chances of Crabtree making the Pro Bowl or participating in 80 percent of the offensive snaps this year is roughly zero percent, he'll have three years to get it done.

And it won't be easy. Frankly, he'll be hard pressed to make it to one Pro Bowl in three years with the likes of Larry Fitzgerald, Calvin Johnson, Anquan Boldin, Steve Smith, the other Steve Smith, Hakeem Nicks, DeSean Jackson, Johnny Knox, Percy Harvin, Greg Jennings, Roddy White, T.J. Houshmandzadeh in the same conference for sportsbook betting.

So, by all appearances, it's a six-year deal. And at $17 million in guaranteed money, the per-year guarantee is a tepid $2.83 million per year.

There's another problem with the deal -- it has no mid-tier incentive package. Instead, the additional $8 million that Crabtree can earn (pushing the max value to six years, $40 million) requires the kind of unrealistic, mega-star performances that no rookie is likely to ever achieve.

So while the contract paid to Packers defensive tackle B.J. Raji covers five years and pays $22.5 million, he has the ability (if he's a solid player) to make up the difference between his base deal and Crabtree's five-year, $28 million haul via the mid-tier incentive package in Raji's deal.

And unless Crabtree meets the performance thresholds necessary to void the sixth year, he'll be stuck under contract for another year at a base salary of only $4 million.

There's one other area of concern with the deal. Crabtree, per the source, received no option bonus. Instead, he has significant money tied to a fairly new device known as a "discretionary salary advance," which unlike an opition bonus is subject to forfeiture if Crabtree decides in a year or two that he wants to hold out for a better deal. (We're also told that the 49ers have included language that would make certain escalators subject to forfeiture, too.)

Meanwhile, the deal falls well short of the mark for which Crabtree and agent Eugene Parker were aiming -- the five-year, $38.25 million contract paid by the Raiders to receiver Darrius Heyward-Bey, the seventh overall pick in the draft.

Even if Crabtree successfully voids the final year, he'll make more than $2 million per year less on average than Heyward-Bey.

Thus, as we explained earlier in the day, this is a deal that Crabtree could have done in July, which would have given him a much better chance of making a contribution to the 49ers during his rookie year.

So while the final outcome can be described as win-win, the broader view suggests that it's really a lose-lose situation.

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