Canadiens try to get on a roll at home versus Sabres

Hockey Betting Lines

12/20/2008 - (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Canadiens always try to make the Bell Centre a tough place to play at for their opponents, but that hasn't been the case as of late. Montreal will try to build off its most recent home win when it hosts the Buffalo Sabres tonight.

Montreal is an excellent 10-4-3 as the host them this year, but endured a bit of a rough patch on a recent franchise-long homestand. The Canadiens won the first three games of that stand, but closed it by going 1-2-1 and netted just one goal a game in each of the three losses.

That slide carried over into a road game versus Carolina, a 3-2 setback, but Montreal returned to the Bell Centre on Monday to begin a three-game homestand and knocked off the Philadelphia Flyers, 5-2.

Sergei Kostitsyn, Steve Begin and Guillaume Latendresse each posted a goal and an assist, while Alex Kovalev's goal marked his 900th career point. Matt D'Agostini also scored and Robert Lang donated two assists.

Defenseman Mike Komisarek returned from a 16-game absence due to a shoulder injury and notched an assist to help the Habs halt their three-game losing streak.

Montreal hopes that Kovalev can build on his milestone, as he has just seven goals and 17 assists in 31 games this year after posting 35 goals and 49 assists in 82 games a season ago. He has 24 tallies and 24 helpers in 71 career games versus Buffalo.

Jaroslav Halak made 29 saves and had been in net for each game of the Canadiens' recent skid, as Carey Price remains sidelined due to a lower-body injury that followed a bout with the flu. Price is day-to-day.

Halak won his only other career start versus Buffalo, making 22 saves in the win.

The Sabres, who have won three straight on the road, blanked the Los Angeles Kings in Buffalo by a 5-0 count on Friday. Ryan Miller recorded his third shutout of the season and 10th of his career by making 40 saves.

Derek Roy had a goal and two assists to give him four goals and eight helpers on an eight-game point streak, while Drew Stafford notched a goal and an assist. Adam Mair, Clarke MacArthur and Matt Ellis added goals for Buffalo, which has won two of three and five of its last seven games.

The NHL's leading goal scorer with 24, Thomas Vanek was held without a goal for a second straight game, but did have an assist. He has three goals in two games versus Montreal this year and 10 in his 26 all-time games against the club.

Buffalo is 7-5-2 on the road this season.

The Sabres and Canadiens have split two games this year, with both teams winning once on home ice. Montreal has won four of the last five in the series in addition to two straight and six of the last seven as the host.

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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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