Streaking Canadiens begin road swing against Rangers

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02/27/2007 - (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Having re-discovered their winning ways, the Montreal Canadiens begin an important road trip tonight at Madison Square Garden against a New York Rangers team in desperate need of a victory.

The Canadiens have rebounded strongly from a six-game losing streak they endured earlier this month. Montreal has won four of five since that spell, including last night's 5-4 triumph over rival Toronto at the Bell Centre.

Saku Koivu and Michael Ryder each had a goal and an assist to lead the Habs, while Mike Johnson, Sheldon Souray and Tomas Plekanec also scored in the victory. David Aebischer made a strong contribution between the pipes, as the veteran stopped 32 shots for Montreal.

Monday's win moved the Canadiens past Carolina and into seventh place in the Eastern Conference standings. Montreal has 72 points on the season, one more than the defending Stanley Cup champion Hurricanes.

Souray has now notched a point in six consecutive games, having compiled three goals and three assists during that span.

Montreal, which owns a 14-14-3 record away from home, will start up a five- game road swing this evening.

The Rangers have been headed in the opposite direction as the Canadiens. New York has lost its last three contests and is tied for 11th place in the East, seven points in back of Carolina in the race for the conference's final playoff spot.

The last two defeats have come in front of the home fans, the most recent being a disappointing 3-2 setback to the lowly Columbus Blue Jackets on Saturday.

New York built an early 2-0 lead on goals by Blair Betts and Jaromir Jagr, but Columbus drew even with a pair of shorthanded tallies before Rick Nash netted the game-winner late in the second period.

Petr Prucha assisted on Jagr's score and now has three goals and a pair of helpers during a current five-game point streak.

Rangers forward Martin Straka was forced to leave Sunday's game with an upper body injury. The veteran Czech, who is tied for second on the team with 65 points, is questionable to return this evening.

The Rangers will be playing the third test of a season-high six-game homestand tonight. The club has struggled at the Garden throughout the year, however, bringing just a 12-14-4 home mark into tonight's tilt.

New York did win the only previous meeting between these teams in 2006-07, a 4-3 triumph at the Bell Centre on January 6. Montreal won three of its four matchups with the Rangers last season, including both encounters in Manhattan.

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Football Betting Sportsbook Accepts Credit Cards

Michael Vick is back, Brett Favre isn't and the NFC East remains the best division in the NFC, maybe in all of football.

As players start to gather for the start of another season, some things change and some stay the same in the world of the NFL.

Bet 2010 Super Bowl Odds

The NFC East has been the dominant division in the National Conference for a while, despite limited playoff success, save for the New York Giants surprise Super Bowl win two seasons ago.

Hell, there's a generation of kids in Texas who have never seen the Cowboys win a playoff game (last win was in 1996).

But collectively, the Giants, Eagles, Cowboys and Redskins (well, maybe not so much the Redskins) are as good as a division gets in an NFC conference that has struggled to stay competitive with the AFC side.

Sports bettors have both acknowledged the NFC East's dominance, as one glance at the NFL future odds menu will show.

Looking over the NFL betting odds at online sports book MySportsbook.com we see the top three teams listed to win the NFC Championship are all from the NFC East:

Dallas Cowboys - 7 - 1

Philadelphia Eagles - 13 - 2

New York Giants - 9 - 2

Slotting in behind these three are two teams from the NFC North: the Minnesota Vikings (15-2) and the Chicago Bears (10-1).

Again, despite the lack of recent playoff success, the Dallas Cowboys are popular with the sports betting community, as they hold 14% of all the money wagered on who will win the NFC Championship.

So far, the New York Giants are the bettors' favorite to represent their conference in the Super Bowl, as they have 24% of the overall NFC Championship betting volume.

And what about the Philadelphia Eagles? For the most part, the Eagles had a very productive offseason, the kind that could bring them back to the top.

They had a good draft adding the likes of WR Jeremy Maclin and RB LeSean McCoy.

Unfortunately, the team received a blow when long-time defensive coordinator Jim Johnson passed away on Tuesday.

But this team will make a real run at the division title this year. Going into the regular season, Philly is listed at +240 to win the division.

Last season the Eagles were 9-6-1 SU and 10-6 ATS.

Teams from the NFC East will play teams from the AFC West in the regular season and the Eagles haven't really been a good bet in the last 20 games against the likes of San Diego, Oakland, K.C. and Denver, only going 8-12 ATS.

Two seasons removed from that Super Bowl title, the New York Giants see themselves listed as the odds-on favorite in NFC East championship futures at +162.

Plaxico Burress is gone and with him all the bad publicity surrounding the gun in the sweatpants incident, but can they replace him in the offense?

Last season the Giants were a very reliable bet going 12-4 ATS.

In the Giants' last 20 games against fellow teams from the NFC East; they are 13-7 ATS.

Dallas is listed at +240 to win the division.

Dallas went 9-7 SU and 7-9 ATS last season and with the amount of talent the Cowboys have, a similar performance won't do.

The Cowboys have been atrocious against divisional rivals, going 6-14 ATS in their last 20.

The Washington Redskins are longshots to win the division at +550.

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