Jets wrap road trip against Canadiens

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02/05/2012 - (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Luckily for the Winnipeg Jets, they got a day of rest before wrapping their six-game road trip.

The Jets hope to break even on the swing this afternoon in a meeting with the Montreal Canadiens, who are still searching for their first victory since the All-Star break.

Winnipeg is 2-3 on its second-longest road trip of the season -- it had a seven-game swing from Oct. 27-Nov. 8 -- and picked up a big win over Tampa Bay on Thursday. However, the Jets were in action again the following night and dropped a 2-1 test to the Panthers, falling to 0-9-0 in the second half of games on consecutive nights.

Chris Mason made 28 saves and Bryan Little had the goal for the Jets, who were looking to win three straight on the road for the first time since Dec. 4-13, 2010. Instead, the 10th-place club in the East fell five points behind Florida for first place in the Southeast Division.'

"Our team can't give up 20 minutes of free play and expect to win the game," Jets head coach Claude Noel said. "If we would have played the first 20 minutes, there's the one goal they got, you still have a chance to win the game."

The Canadiens have yet to do any winning since the All-Star break. They looked to have picked up some much-needed momentum with a big 7-2 win over the Red Wings before the hiatus, but have been outscored 11-4 in three games since. That includes yesterday's 3-0 loss to the visiting Capitals.

Former Montreal goaltender Tomas Vokoun made 30 saves for Washington, while Habs backup Peter Budaj made 20 saves. He also faced a pair of penalty shots in the game, stopping one of them.

"The intensity was in the right place," said Montreal coach Randy Cunneyworth. "We were doing the right things, but unfortunately it resulted in our third loss this week."

Montreal's Scott Gomez remains without a goal through his first 22 games of this season and he hasn't scored in a year, since Feb. 5 of last season.

The Canadiens lost the opener of a three-game homestand and have dropped five of their last seven as the host.

The Habs have won four of their last five versus the Jets franchise and responded from a 4-0 shutout loss in Winnipeg in late December with a 7-3 home win on Jan. 4. Lars Eller posted his first career four-goal game in the Montreal win.

The Jets have lost two straight and six of their last eight in Montreal.

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SPORTS BETTING: NFL Football Sportsbook Betting

NFL owners, already life's biggest winners, want to try their luck with the lottery.


That was the news out of their meetings last week, where team bosses voted unanimously to allow stamping state and local lottery tickets with franchise logos, if, ahem, any governments wanted to do a deal.

A shocker: Within days the Pats announced they'd be sponsoring the Massachusetts state lottery, the Skins said they'd slap their sticker on Virginia scratch-offs and the Ravens admitted they were talking to Maryland lottery bosses. In all likelihood, it won't be long before every team is a presenting sponsor of scratch-offs or just plain old pick fives. "The change in policy was approved 32-0," said NFL spokesman Greg Aiello. "So you can expect to see more deals soon."

It's a branding opportunity too big for the owners to ignore, and one a couple of dozen baseball franchises have enjoyed for years. The fact the NFL has been slower to act than those slack-brained Seligites is indicative of its complicated relationship with all forms of gambling. Consider this: Last Thursday, as the Pats and the Redskins finalized their new lottery deals, a lawyer representing the NFL argued before Delaware's Supreme Court that the state's newly signed sports betting law should be repealed.

The NFL betting is the face of opposition to sports gambling . And as much as it would like to share that responsibility with other leagues, that's not going to happen as long as more than 40% of all money legally wagered on games is bet on football. That's why the Brewers can do a multi-million dollar deal with a local casino, or the Celtics can make their own pact with the Mass lottery, and the response is, "Sweet, let's play." But when the NFL does it the stakes are higher, and everyone from NPR's Frank Deford to the Associated Press to the guys blogging at Deadspin will line up to play gotcha.

So I asked Aiello, who surely knew there'd be piling on, how the league can rail against being bait for sports bettors, then allow its franchises to be just that for lotteries, the most insidious and addictive form of gambling around. He emailed me this response: "We are not moral crusaders. NFL personnel are permitted to engage in legal forms of gambling, except for betting on NFL games. We are making a distinction here between the spread of gambling on the outcome of our games and supporting state lottery scratch-off games, that have nothing to do with the outcome of our games."

Here's where I should rip him. But, the thing is, he's right. Not to get Obama on you, but this is a complicated, nuanced issue. As much as lotteries are considered a tax on the poor, the NFL isn't a socially obligated government program -- it's just a business. Scratch-off's help the bottom line, sports betting doesn't. Now, it's okay to call the league hypocritical when it releases injury reports, which players have told me only helps bettors … But when it supports other forms of gaming? Big Deal.

Now, it's okay to call the league hypocritical when it releases injury reports, which players have told me only helps bettors. And it's okay to mutter something obscene when the league pretends gambling doesn't help drive TV ratings and fan interest and put money in owners' pockets. But when it supports other forms of gaming? Big Deal. The Bears should put an orange "C" on every deck of cards dealt at Harrah's in Joliet; the Eagles should slap their logo on roulette wheels at the Borgata in Atlantic City; the Dolphins should hold training camp at the El San Juan in Puerto Rico.

Seriously.

The NFL's problem, when it comes to the gambling world, isn't hypocrisy, it's worse: The bosses lack vision. That's why the league is picking unwinnable fights in Delaware and taking pot shots from critics after making smart sponsorship deals. Roger Goodell and his gang are acting and thinking locally rather than globally, which is rare for them, especially compared to their professional (and amateur) counterparts.

The NBA held its All Star game in Las Vegas and David Stern's kingdom didn't crumble (although the town did bring plenty of players to their knees.) I'd say it's 6 to 5 and pick 'em that Lebron will make a road swing through Sin City before his career is over.

Even the NCAA College Football Betting is more progressive on this issue than the NFL. Several years ago Rachel Newman Baker, college sports' gambling czar, opened a dialogue with Vegas bookmakers to learn about how they do business. She's visited Nevada sports books, studied their operations and listened to how they regulate action. Now she knows she can expect a call from bookmakers, who lose money when sports are fixed, if they think something sketchy is going on in NCAA games. She's not in favor of sports betting, but, as she once told me, "I know it's not going away, either."

The NFL can't seem to accept that. And until it can find peace with the idea, it'll get flack, even when it's right.

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