NHL

Maybe the bad blood that developed near the end of Game 2 and returning to home ice tonight for Game 3 will get the Dallas Stars back in their Western Conference final against the Red Wings - Detroit is a -120 money line betting favorite (over/under: 5 goals) on WagerWeb.com for Game 3. In the closing seconds of Game 2, Wings goalie Chris Osgood used the handle of his stick to poke Dallas' Mike Ribeiro, who responded from behind the net with a two-handed stick slash across the goalie's chest. Ribeiro, Osgood and Stars forward Steve Ott were fined by the league for their actions, but all three players will be on the ice Monday night. ...

Detroit forward Johan Franzen, who leads the NHL with 12 playoff goals, missed Saturday’s game against Dallas and also will miss Monday’s Game 3. Franzen is experiencing concussion-like symptoms and has had headaches about two weeks. "He is going to see a specialist on Monday," general manager Ken Holland said. "We believe he got hit in the Colorado series. Since the Colorado series, he's been having headaches.” “We’re not going to replace Franzen, that’s for sure,” said Dan Cleary, who took Franzen’s spot on a line with Valtteri Filppula and Mikael Samuelsson. “We just have to do the same things he does, and that’s get in the front and be strong on the puck. He’s such an ...

A rested, top-seeded Detroit Red Wings team opens the Western Conference finals on Thursday night with seemingly everything on its side against the sixth-seeded Dallas Stars; thus, Detroit is a -235 series money line betting favorite on WagerWeb.com. First off, Wings goalie Chris Osgood has won all six games he has started since Dominik Hasek got the hook in the first round. Osgood has a 1.52 goals-against average and a .937 save percentage in his six straight wins, and he has had a week off to rest. "The time off was good for our team," says Osgood of the week off since clinching against Colorado. "We feel refreshed. We're raring to go." Second, Wings coach ...

The last time a team rallied from a 3-0 series deficit in the Stanley Cup playoffs was 1975. That’s the challenge facing the New York Rangers heading into Thursday night’s Game 4 against the Penguins, with the Blueshirts -105 on the money line (over/under: 5.5) on WagerWeb.com. However, New York will be without one of its best players and certainly the biggest pest in the NHL in Sean Avery. He will spend the next few days in the hospital after lacerating his spleen during Tuesday night's loss to the Pens and is done for the season. Avery was injured during Tuesday night's 5-3 loss from a hit, possibly in the first period, but played throughout the game ...

Look no further than lack of power-play success as to why the New York Rangers head back to the Big Apple for tonight’s Game 3 against the Penguins down 2-0 in the Eastern Conference semifinal; New York is a -150 money line betting favorite (over/under: 5) on WagerWeb.com for Tuesday’s game. The Penguins have allowed only two power-play goals in 22 opportunities in six playoff games, all of them victories. The Rangers were 4-for-17 on the power play in the five-game series against the Devils but are only 1-for-9 - Martin Straka's opening goal of this series Friday - in the first two games against Pittsburgh. Not only did the Rangers slide back into their perimeter-passing game, ...

With some late game skirmishes in Game 2 and a war or words brewing between Montreal and Philadelphia, Monday night’s Game 3 should be nothing if not interesting as the series shifts to Philly - with the Flyers -130 money line betting favorites (over/under: 5.5) on WagerWeb.com. The bad blood that started brewing in Game 2 came to a head when the Canadiens’ Tom Kostopoulos took a swing at Kimmo Timonen after the Flyers defenseman allegedly taunted him with a smile after R.J. Umberger's goal with 2:21 to play in Saturday night's contest. After the game, Flyers coach John Stevens said Kostopoulos' actions were cowardly. On Sunday, Canadiens coach Guy Carbonneau responded. "After the goal, they ...

One of the NHL’s fantasy playoff matchups, Sidney Crosby and the Penguins against the big-market Rangers, drops the puck for Game 1 on Friday night in Pittsburgh, with the Pens -145 money line betting favorites (over/under: 5) on WagerWeb.com in the opener.  Believe it or not, the last time these two teams met in the playoffs was in 1996, when Pittsburgh’s Mario Lemieux and Jaromir Jagr were two of the best in the NHL.   Well, Crosby has taken Lemieux’s spot as the league’s glamour player – and Jagr is a Ranger.  The Penguins are coming off a first-round sweep of Ottawa and, with the 20-year-old Crosby and the 21-year-old Evgeni Malkin, might own the best center combination on a ...

One of the most heated rivalries in sports, much less the NHL, resumes on Thursday night in the Motor City when the Colorado Avalanche visit the Red Wings - with Detroit a -190 money line betting favorite (over/under: 5) on WagerWeb.com. Detroit and Colorado met in five fight-filled postseasons between 1996-2002 -- with the Avs advancing three times -- and the franchises combined to win five Stanley Cups during that seven-year stretch. "There is something special there, for sure," Detroit’s Kris Draper said. "Going into the rink and playing those guys, you just didn't know what was going to happen." Draper and Darren McCarty are two of the eight players who helped the Red Wings beat Colorado ...

The NHL is gracing us with two Game 7s on Tuesday night. The first one is Flyers at Capitals, which will be the second time the teams will have played in 24 hours; Washington is a -155 money line betting favorite (over/under: 5.5) on WagerWeb.com. Washington defeated Philadelphia 4-2 on Monday night to force the Game 7. It was the second time in the series the Capitals rallied from a two-goal deficit and won on an Alex Ovechkin goal. Ovechkin had owned the Flyers in the regular season, with 12 goals in 12 career regular-season games. But after scoring the winner in the first playoff game this season, Ovechkin had had 24 straight shots and no goals ...

A very even, entertaining Western Conference quarterfinal unfortunately has to end on Tuesday night when the Flames visit San Jose for Game 7, with the Sharks -190 money line betting favorites (over/under: 5) on WagerWeb.com. The good news for San Jose is it has won two homes games already this series. The bad news is the Sharks will be facing a suddenly hot goalie: Calgary’s Miikka Kiprusoff blanked San Jose in Sunday’s 2-0 victory, his first playoff shutout since the 2004 Stanley Cup final series with the Tampa Bay Lightning. Kiprusoff was uneven heading into Game 6: He won Game 1 in the Shark Tank, stopping 37 of 39 shots. He was yanked in Game 3 in ...