Oilers become Red Wings' latest victim at Joe Louis Arena

Hockey Betting Lines

02/08/2012 - Detroit, MI (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Detroit just cannot be beaten at home this season.

Goals in the third period by Drew Miller and Henrik Zetterberg helped the Red Wings extend their home winning streak to 18 games in a 4-2 win over the Edmonton Oilers on Wednesday.

It's been over three months since Detroit last dropped a home contest -- a loss to Calgary on November 3 -- as the team has the longest home winning streak since the 1975-76 Philadelphia Flyers notched a league-tying 20 straight wins at The Spectrum.

Detroit is now 21-2-1 at Joe Louis Arena this season.

Cory Emmerton and Johan Franzen also scored while Joey MacDonald posted 15 saves for the Red Wings, who had gone 2-2-1 on a five-game road trip.

Edmonton center Sam Gagner continued his recent tear with two goals in the loss and now has eight in his past four games. Including an eight-point effort against Chicago last Thursday, he now has eight goals and seven assists during a five-game point streak.

Nikolai Khabibulin allowed all four goals on 30 shots for the Oilers, who have lost their past two games.

Gagner had tied the game earlier in the third, but the Red Wings went on top with 9:14 to play as a wrist shot from Justin Abdelkader in the slot was stopped by Khabibulin, but it sat behind him and he couldn't find it before Miller jammed it in.

Zetterberg gave the Red Wings some insurance when he pounced on a rebound in the slot and slid to the left before putting a wrister into the net with 5:16 left.

Detroit scored on the power play at the 13:18 mark of the first when Ian White used a slap-pass from the high slot to get the puck down low to Franzen, who redirected it into the net for his 21st of the year.

It was a 2-0 game 2:45 into the second when Abdelkader brought the puck out from the deep boards and got a shot on net that was stopped, but Emmerton was in front to clean up the rebound.

The hottest man in hockey, though, made it a one-goal game with 8:52 to play in the second as Gagner got the puck near the Detroit blue line and nearly lost control of it, but avoided the poke-check attempt from MacDonald and lifted a backhand into the net.

Gagner struck again at the 8:23 mark of the third while Edmonton was on the power play. Magnus Paajarvi grabbed a bad Detroit pass inside the right circle and made a power move to the front. MacDonald stopped Paajarvi's shot, but Gagner swooped in to backhand home the rebound to tie the game.

Game Notes

Detroit hosts Anaheim on Friday...The Oilers play in Ottawa on Saturday...Detroit took three of the four games against Edmonton this season...Detroit was 1-for-4 on the power play while Edmonton went 1-for-7.

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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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