Bolts nip playoff-bound Sens in shootout

Hockey Betting Lines

04/08/2010 - Tampa, FL (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Teddy Purcell scored the lone goal in the shootout, lifting the Tampa Bay Lightning to a 4-3 win over the Ottawa Senators.

Purcell was Tampa Bay's third shooter and used a forehand-to-backhand move and lifted the puck over Ottawa goaltender Brian Elliott's left pad. The game ended after Mike Fisher's attempt at an equalizer was no good.

Steven Stamkos and Martin St. Louis tallied a goal and an assist for the Lightning, who had lost four of five. Mike Smith stopped 35 shots and then all three shootout chances to notch the victory.

Jason Spezza had a goal and an assist for the Senators, who are guaranteed the fifth seed in the East after Pittsburgh beat the Islanders on Thursday. Ottawa's opponent in the first round will be either New Jersey or Pittsburgh -- whichever team does not win the Atlantic Division.

Elliott made 26 saves in defeat.

Trailing by three midway through the game, the Senators rallied to tie the score.

Nick Foligno got Ottawa on the board with the first of the team's three power- play goals at 12:44, and Spezza brought the visitors within one while on the man advantage with his 23rd goal of the year at 18:42.

Fisher completed the comeback 4:16 into the third with another power-play score. Spezza held the disc at the center point and dished down low to Daniel Alfredsson, who passed across the ice for Fisher, who one-timed the puck into the net.

Ottawa had another power play moments later but couldn't convert, and neither team had any major chances in overtime.

St. Louis opened the scoring 8:01 into the game on a backhander from in close that beat Elliott on the short side, and Purcell's power-play marker with 28 seconds left in the opening period pushed Tampa Bay's lead to 2-0.

On another man advantage 3:33 into the second, Stamkos made it 3-0 with his 48th of the year. St. Louis faked a slapshot from the right circle and slid the puck to Stamkos on the left, and Stamkos fired the disc into a wide-open net.

Game Notes

Stamkos is tied with Washington's Alex Ovechkin for second place in goals scored...Ottawa finished its season 18-21-2 on the road and will conclude its regular season Saturday at home versus Buffalo...The teams split the four-game season series...The teams combined for 62 penalty minutes.

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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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