Canucks rally in third to beat Preds

Hockey Betting Lines

03/07/2010 - Nashville, TN (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Jannik Hansen scored the game-winner in the third, as the Vancouver Canucks rallied for a 4-2 win over the Nashville Predators.

Henrik Sedin had a goal and an assist, while Alexander Edler and Mikael Samuelsson each lit the lamp for the Canucks, who have won three of their last four.

Roberto Luongo made 33 stops for Vancouver, which notched its 40th win on the season in its 65th game. It's the fastest that Vancouver has gotten to 40 wins in franchise history.

Vancouver, which is 7-5-0 in its NHL-record 14-game road trip, plays in Colorado on Tuesday.

Jason Arnott and Jordin Tootoo each had a goal for the Predators, who have dropped their last two games. Pekka Rinne gave up three goals on 27 shots.

Trailing by a goal in the third, Vancouver tied the game at 2-all halfway through the frame. Samuelsson was able to catch up to a rolling puck at the outside right circle, and he blasted it into the top of the net.

A bit over four minutes later, the Canucks took a 3-2 advantage, as Hansen was sprung on the breakaway and saw his wrister stopped but followed up and slammed home the rebound.

Nashville got Rinne out of the net for the extra attacker, but Sedin sealed the win with the empty-netter.

At the 11:10 mark of the first period, the Canucks took the lead. Pavol Demitra, who was without his stick, kicked the puck along the boards from the left point, and it went down to the deep right side. Ryan Kesler gathered the disc and sent a pass out front for Edler, who sent a low wrist shot just inside the left post.

Nashville, though, got the goal back with 6:16 to play in the first, as Arnott's slap shot from the right circle went off the knob of Luongo's stick and into the net for a power-play goal.

The Predators took the lead 7:25 into the second period. A turnover from Demitra in the attacking end saw Nashville take the puck down the ice. From the left circle, Tootoo blasted a shot on net that Luongo stopped, but Tootoo followed up his shot and chipped the rebound over the goaltender for a 2-1 advantage.

Game Notes

Nashville hits the road for four games starting in Atlanta on Tuesday...Samuelsson's goal was his 24th of the season, a new career- high...Each team won twice in the season series...Nashville went 1-for-2 on the power play, while Vancouver failed on one chance with the extra attacker.

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FOOTBALL BETTING : Crabtree's base deal: six years, $32 million

Football Betting

In the wake of the news that the 49ers have signed receiver Michael Crabtree after an extended holdout, there has been not a hint of the dollars to be paid to Crabtree.

And since this means that his agent hasn't leaked the numbers, it means that his agent feels no specific motivation to do so.

Possibly because his agent isn't all that thrilled to have his name on the deal.

So the numbers will come from sources other than Crabtree's agent. And we've gotten our mitts into them.

Per a league source, Crabtree has signed a six-year, $32 million contract. (The total includes guaranteed money, base salaries, and the one-time incentive based on achieving minimum playing time.)

The deal also includes $17 million in guaranteed money.

As reported elsewhere, the deal can void to five years based on performance triggers, wiping out a final year base salary of $4 million. But they won't be easily reached.

The source tells us that, in his first four seasons (including 2009), Crabtree must either qualify for two Pro Bowls, or he must qualify for one Pro Bowl in one year and he must participate in 80 percent of the offensive snaps in a separate year in which the team makes the playoffs.

In other words, if in 2010 he qualifies for the Pro Bowl and the team makes the playoffs and he participates in 80 percent of the snaps, he'll still need to make it to the Pro Bowl or achieve the 80-percent/playoffs in another season.

Since the chances of Crabtree making the Pro Bowl or participating in 80 percent of the offensive snaps this year is roughly zero percent, he'll have three years to get it done.

And it won't be easy. Frankly, he'll be hard pressed to make it to one Pro Bowl in three years with the likes of Larry Fitzgerald, Calvin Johnson, Anquan Boldin, Steve Smith, the other Steve Smith, Hakeem Nicks, DeSean Jackson, Johnny Knox, Percy Harvin, Greg Jennings, Roddy White, T.J. Houshmandzadeh in the same conference for sportsbook betting.

So, by all appearances, it's a six-year deal. And at $17 million in guaranteed money, the per-year guarantee is a tepid $2.83 million per year.

There's another problem with the deal -- it has no mid-tier incentive package. Instead, the additional $8 million that Crabtree can earn (pushing the max value to six years, $40 million) requires the kind of unrealistic, mega-star performances that no rookie is likely to ever achieve.

So while the contract paid to Packers defensive tackle B.J. Raji covers five years and pays $22.5 million, he has the ability (if he's a solid player) to make up the difference between his base deal and Crabtree's five-year, $28 million haul via the mid-tier incentive package in Raji's deal.

And unless Crabtree meets the performance thresholds necessary to void the sixth year, he'll be stuck under contract for another year at a base salary of only $4 million.

There's one other area of concern with the deal. Crabtree, per the source, received no option bonus. Instead, he has significant money tied to a fairly new device known as a "discretionary salary advance," which unlike an opition bonus is subject to forfeiture if Crabtree decides in a year or two that he wants to hold out for a better deal. (We're also told that the 49ers have included language that would make certain escalators subject to forfeiture, too.)

Meanwhile, the deal falls well short of the mark for which Crabtree and agent Eugene Parker were aiming -- the five-year, $38.25 million contract paid by the Raiders to receiver Darrius Heyward-Bey, the seventh overall pick in the draft.

Even if Crabtree successfully voids the final year, he'll make more than $2 million per year less on average than Heyward-Bey.

Thus, as we explained earlier in the day, this is a deal that Crabtree could have done in July, which would have given him a much better chance of making a contribution to the 49ers during his rookie year.

So while the final outcome can be described as win-win, the broader view suggests that it's really a lose-lose situation.

NFL Betting Lines

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