The online betting world is fixated on the Super Bowl and the race for the NHL playoffs. Now that the NHL All-Star break is over, many of the teams in the lower part of the NHL standings need to start making their playoff pushes or risk being left out of the post-season. There are a few teams that have been slumping as of late and put themselves in bad situations while other teams are surging but may not be able to get out of the hole they have dug themselves. Lets look at the teams in the NHL that are battling for a playoff spot and evaluate their chances.

Buffalo Sabres
The Sabres may have dug themselves a hole that they will not be able to climb out of. When the All-Star break ended, the Sabres were tied for last in the Eastern Conference and 10 points out of a playoff spot. In its last three games, the Sabres are 2-0-1 and that includes an exciting 1-0 loss to the Eastern Conference leading New York Rangers. The Sabres are going to need to string a lot of wins together to have any chance of making the playoffs, but it is off to a good start so far.

Washington Capitals
The price per head sports experts were not sure what to expect from the Washington Capitals this season. What has emerged is a listless team that has already gotten one coach fired and is working on getting a second coach relieved of his duties as well. The scoring punch the Caps used to have is gone and there is just no stability in the nets for Washington. If the Caps want to make the playoffs, it will have to wrestle the Southeast Division title from the Florida Panthers, and that will not be easy.

Tampa Bay Lightning
The Florida Panthers not only have to watch out for the Washington Capitals, but the Tampa Bay Lightning are making strides towards the division lead as well. The Lightning are currently riding a five-game winnings streak and have pulled itself to within nine points of the division lead after spending much of the season in the Southeast basement.

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Online Betting Overview
The Montreal Canadiens are having a very strange season. Earlier in the year, the Canadiens used one of its assistant coaches as a scapegoat and fired him during the morning skate. Then the Canadiens fired head coach Jacques Martin and replaced him with Randy Cunneyworth. The pay per head sportsbook experts in Montreal ignored the Canadiens’ desperate need for a better direction and focused solely on the fact that Cunneyworth could not speak French. That seemed like a big deal to the Montreal press. Then the Canadiens’ traded Mike Cammalleri in the second intermission of a game and pulled him from the locker room. Strange things are going on in Montreal.

The Capitals have not had an easier time this year. The Washington management tried to pin the team’s lack of success on head coach Bruce Boudreau and fired Boudreau earlier in the season. The problem is that rookie head coach Dale Hunter is not having any more success with the team than Boudreau did. But the sports bookie software is starting to notice a change in the Capitals that has not occurred with the Canadiens. Despite all of the personnel moves that Montreal has made, the Canadiens are still floundering in the basement of the Northeast Division. The Washington Capitals, on the other hand, is only one point out of first place in the Southeast Division.

Montreal Canadiens
The overriding problem in Montreal is not the coaching, even though the coaching staff has been taking the fall for the issues the team has been facing. A sportsbook.com review of the Canadiens’ roster shows small forwards and slow defensemen. Cammalleri was not traded because it made the team better, he was traded because he spoke out against the way the team was playing. Randy Cunneyworth is not going to have any success in Montreal so long as the Montreal front office remains more focused on the team’s image than the product on the ice. Goaltender Carey Price is struggling and the Canadiens cannot score goals. You need more than good coaching to solve those problems.

Washington Capitals
The Caps have suddenly come to life and seem to be responding to Dale Hunter’s system. In the last 10 games, Washington has gone 7-3-0 and that includes a three-game winning streak. But the Capitals are still being victimized by inconsistent goaltending. Tomas Vokoun was supposed to wrestle the starting job away from youngster Michal Neuvirth. Every time it seems like Vokoun has himself under control, he stumbles and Neuvirth needs to come in to save the day. That is something that the Capitals have seen before and it has hindered the team’s playoff success.

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Sports Betting Overview
Last season, the Florida Panthers and the Colorado Avalanche were not even factors in the playoff race. Both teams finished at or near the bottom of their divisions and missed the playoffs by several points. This year it is a much different story for both teams. The Florida Panthers still sit at the top of the Southeast Division while the Colorado Avalanche is only two points out of a playoff spot in the Western Conference. The frustrating thing for the Avalanche is that it is in the much tougher Western Conference, which means that the Panthers lead its division with 50 points while the Avalanche’s 48 points are only good enough for 10th place in the Western Conference.

Despite the improvements of both teams, the price per head sports experts still do not give either team much of a chance to win the Stanley Cup this season. The Avalanche is being given 65 to 1 odds on winning the Cup and the Panthers is said to have a 75 to 1 chance to win the hardware. So this game is hardly a battle of two NHL powerhouses. But the Panthers continue to establish its dominance in the Southeast Division, but hold on to the division lead by only four points. Every win is critical to the Florida Panthers.

Colorado Avalanche
The Avalanche is 6-3-1 in its last 10 games. Even though the Avalanche let goaltender Craig Anderson go and replaced him with Semyon Varlamov, the goals against situation is not getting any better in Colorado. According to the price per head bookie experts, Varlamov does have a 2.90 goals against average this season and he is 4-1-0 in his last five starts. But backup JS Giguere has been getting a lot of work lately, and his play has been suspect as of late. Even with his impressive 2.14 goals against average, Giguere is 2-2-1 in his last five starts and has consistently been allowing four goals a night as of late. The Avalanche needs its goaltending to pick up the pace if it wants to get back into the playoff race.

Florida Panthers
The Panthers are 4-4-2 in its last 10 games and have been able to maintain the division lead thanks to some timely goal scoring. But the Panthers are not a prominent scoring team and it does not necessarily play great defense. A sportsbook review of the Panthers’ season shows a team that just knows how to win games in tight situations. The Panthers will not outscore a team and it will also not win any intense goaltending battles. But Florida has been able to string together wins in bunches based solely on its ability to stay close in tight games. The problem for Florida is that it has a tendency to get blown out every once in a while and that usually happens on the road.

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It has to be one of the most ridiculous contradictions in sports betting, yet it happens every year when it comes to college basketbal. Perhaps it is the fact that in college football a team has to go undefeated or close to it just to have a chance at a national title, but it seems somewhat absurd that the same standard is applied to college basketball teams early on in the year. The No. 3 North Carolina Tar Heels are the perfect example of this college basketball betting contradiction, as the consensus preseason No. 1 has faded in the shadow of the undefeated and top-ranked Syracuse Orange. There is no denying that Syracuse has been the best team in the country early on and deserves the accolades that it receives, but to consider the Tar Heels to be an inferior team in terms of matching the two against one another based solely on their records seems to be a ridiculous proposition.

There is no denying that at the time the stumble was a notable one, as the Tar Heels dropped a decision at UNLV by 10 points, and then lost at then-No. 1 Kentucky two games later. But losing two of three early on is no reason to doubt the long-term capabilities of a team, especially considering that North Carolina nearly came out with a win on the road against a talented team in Kentucky. The Tar Heels have followed that loss up with nine straight wins to remain at No. 3, and with two wins to open up their ACC schedule it will still be a little while before they get the chance to entertain the No. 6 Duke Blue Devils in their first meeting of the season. The pay head odds say that the North Carolina and Duke are the top two teams in the conference, and with no other team ranked higher than 17 at this point, the Blue Devils could be the only obstacle in the way of Harrison Barnes and company on their way to an ACC Championship.

Barnes and the other veterans on the team are the biggest reason to believe in the Tar Heels, as the experience and talent they have is unrivalled heading in to this year not Justin the ACC, but in the entire country. The sophomore Barnes is joined by junior John Henson and senior Tyler Zeller as three scorers averaging double-digit point totals, and as the season continues the chemistry that they continue to build will become a crucial advantage they hold over opponents. North Carolina ranks first in scoring, first in rebounding, and third in assists per game in the entire country, and to be so strong in so many areas is testament to how talented they truly are. The Tar Heels don’t just want to bring home an ACC Championship, they want to bring home a national title, and there is no doubt that they have the weapons to reach their goals. The sportsbook review sites should have North Carolina as a team that can really make some noise this year, so pay attention to their nightly lines.

Sports Betting Overview
On the last day before the two-day Christmas break, hockey fans get a quick preview of the 2012 Winter Classic as the New York Rangers host the Philadelphia Flyers. It is still strange to think that the Rangers are playing in the Winter Classic and the game is not in the New Yankee Stadium. But this game will be held at Madison Square Garden, and it is a game that both teams need. The Rangers trail the Flyers by four points in the Atlantic Division standings. It is a situation the Rangers have not been in for some time as the team is battling for the division lead heading into the new year. The addition of players such as Brad Richards have significantly helped the Rangers’ cause. This could be a very good year to be a Rangers’ fan.

The Philadelphia Flyers got their leading scorer Claude Giroux back from a concussion and Giroux got right back to lighting up the lamp with a four-point performance against the Dallas Stars. According to the price per head bookie experts, Giroux is definitely an early MVP candidate and a potential Rocket Richard award winner for top scorer in the league as well. The Flyers is still rotating goaltenders Sergei Bobrovsky and Ilya Bryzgalov without one goalie really showing that he wants to take the top spot. The price per head bookmaking experts point to Bryzgalov as the number one goalie due to the volume of work he has done so far this season. But the Flyers are not afraid to put in Bobrovsky when Bryzgalov is having a bad night.

New York Rangers
The one thing that has been in consistent in New York, and does not get enough credit for his work, is goaltender Henrik Lundqvist. With the acquisition of Richards in the offseason, the Rangers’ offense was given a tremendous boost. But New York has never worried about its defense because Lundqvist has been back there. A sportsbook.com review of Lunqvist’s stats this season show him at the top of the league in save percentage and goals against average again. The difference is that his efforts are helping to push the Rangers to the top of the Eastern Conference this season. The Rangers are scoring goals and playing good defense on their way to the Winter Classic.

Philadelphia Flyers
The Flyers are a very fragile hockey team. Philadelphia has already lost defenseman Chris Pronger for an extended period of time this season due to injury. Pronger is the team’s captain and he is gone for the season. When the Flyers lost Claude Giroux to a concussion for a couple of weeks, the team kind of buckled a little bit. The NHL fans in Philadelphia are always wondering if their team has what it takes to win the Stanley Cup. For the last few years, the Flyers have been the victim of inconsistent goaltending. It is tough to get a read on where the Philadelphia goaltending situation is headed this season, but it does look a lot more stable than it has in previous years. The Flyers finally have a real starting goaltender in Ilyz Bryzgalov and a quality backup in Sergei Bobrovsky. With the Philadelphia offense back intact, that goaltending could be backstopping one of the best offenses in the league.

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Sports Betting Overview
Anyone who would have made the prediction that the Chicago Blackhawks and Minnesota Wild would be battling it out to see who is the best team in the league on into the middle of December would have been laughed at by the price per head bookie crowd. There was absolutely nothing going on with either team that would have indicated that such a drastic turnaround was possible. The Wild missed the playoffs by a wide margin last season and the Blackhawks barely made it into the post season. There weren’t any major roster changes to either team that indicated potential success and the coaches are the same as well.

One of the things that happened to the Minnesota Wild is the emergence of goaltender Niklas Backstrom. According to the price per head services statistics, Backstrom has a record of 11-5-2 this season. He has a 2.08 goals against average, a .932 save percentage and has recorded two shutouts. The Blackhawks discovered that Corey Crawford can be their starting goaltender, but Chicago also picked up veteran goalie Ray Emery for insurance. Emery is 6-1-2 in his starts this year and had been the defensive boost that the Blackhawks needed. Now both the Chicago Blackhawks and Minnesota Wild are the top two teams in the NHL. When these two teams get together, you can imagine that goals will be at a premium.

Chicago Blackhawks
There are two significant differences between the Chicago Blackhawks and the Minnesota Wild. The first difference is that the Blackhawks can score goals while the Wild rely more on defense to win games. Chicago is the second-highest scoring team in the league with 99 goals. That is only two goals behind the Philadelphia Flyers. A 5 dimes review of the Blackhawks’ roster shows that the scoring is pretty balanced between the forwards and the defensemen. Chicago is not afraid to bring its defensemen into the offensive play.

The other significant difference between the Blackhawks and the Wild is that the Wild does not allow nearly as many goals per game as the Blackhawks. The Blackhawks have given up 92 goals this season while the Wild have only given up 64 goals. That is a significant difference in philosophy.

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Online Wagering Overview
It has been a rough week for the Northeast Division. This was the first time in a long time that every team in a division had lost its most recent game in the same week. All of the Northeast teams are coming off loses this week, including the Toronto Maple Leafs. But the Leafs are still plugging away at the Northeast Division standings and trying to keep pace with the division-leading Boston Bruins. The Bruins are not making it easy when it goes 8-1-1 in the last 10 games. Toronto has posted a 5-4-1 record in its last five games, but there are no glaring weaknesses on the Leafs’ roster. Top goalie James Reimer is back from injury and trying to work the kinks out of his game. In the meantime, the Leafs are playing some hard-nosed hockey.

The price per head bookmaking sports crowd has noticed that the Washington Capitals are not playing any better under new head coach Dale Hunter than they did for Bruce Boudreau. The performance of the Anaheim Ducks since Boudreau arrived there after getting fired from Washington would suggest that Boudreau was not the problem in Washington. Alexander Ovechkin sprung to life in the Caps’ most recent game against Ottawa to propel the team to a 5-3 win over the Ottawa Senators. But the Caps are still not playing with any heart, and that needs to change if the team is going to start picking up some much-needed wins.

Toronto Maple Leafs
There is not denying the fact that, even with a healthy Reimer in goal, the Leafs tend to give up a lot of goals. In 28 games played this season, the Leafs have given up 90 goals. That is better than three per game, and that can be a problem if your team is not scoring goals. In that same period, the Leafs have scored 89 goals. According to the price per head services experts, that means that the Leafs tend to get blown out of games every once in a while. With the Capitals starting to score goals in bunches, that could be bad news for the Toronto Maple Leafs.

Washington Capitals
Dale Hunter was an aggressive player in his playing days and he is proving to be an aggressive coach. An aggressive coach that expects a lot from his players is exactly what the Washington Capitals need. This is the same team that benched star player Alexander Semin early in the season for a lack of effort. Hunter is trying to put a better work ethic and a meaner attitude into his team. He has the players to make that kind of an approach happen. It is just a matter of whether or not the players are interested in buying in to that kind of an approach.

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Online Betting Sites Overview

Whatever theTorontoorganization is feeding this current Maple Leafs team, it needs to get more of it. The problem inTorontofor years was goaltender. James Reimer comes along last season and seems to solve that problem. But injuries and inconsistency have created goaltending issues inTorontoonce again. But it looks like the rest of the Leafs have decided to simply bypass the goaltending issue by filling the net with pucks. In a complete shock, the Toronto Maple Leafs went out and bowled over Eastern Conference powerhouse Tampa Bay Lightning 7-1. Sure the Leafs only gave up one goal, but that was primarily becauseTorontospent most of the game in theTampaend scoring goals.

The price per head sports fans in Dallas are pretty happy with the team this season. The goaltending from Kari Lehtonen has become much more reliable this season and the team is scoring goals as well. Dallas is 5-5-0 in the last 10 games and while that is not Earth-shattering, it beats Dallas being 2-8-0 or some other horrible number similar to what the team was posting last year. The whole team seems to be playing better and Dallas is only one point out of first place in the Pacific Division. If Dallas wants to stay on the bookie software radar as a contender this year, then it will need to keep winning to maintain pace with the Los Angeles Kings and San Jose Sharks.

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