Flyers go for sweep of home-and-home set with Rangers

Hockey Betting Lines

03/15/2009 - (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - There isn't a large amount of separation in the Eastern Conference playoff picture, but the Flyers would love to improve their standing with another win over the rival Rangers.

Philadelphia will try to post a sweep of its home-and-home series with New York this afternoon at Madison Square Garden.

The Flyers are fourth in the East with 84 points, four up on fifth-seeded Montreal. However, playoff spots are still up for grabs as Buffalo, currently 10th in the standings, is only eight points back of the Flyers, showing how tight things are in the conference.

Philadelphia picked up two big points on Saturday by defeating the Rangers, 4-2, at home and the loss dropped New York into a tie with Florida for the final playoff spot in the East. Both the Rangers and Panthers have 78 points on the season, two more than the Sabres.

Martin Biron was impressive for a fifth straight outing, stopping 39-of-41 shots faced in yesterday's win. Biron has a 1.72 goals against average in his last five appearances -- including four straight starts -- and improved to 11-6-3 with two ties and a 2.47 GAA versus the Rangers.

Aaron Asham had two goals while Scott Hartnell and Mike Richards each lit the lamp for the Flyers, who have won three of their last four games and wrapped up a five-game homestand with a mark of 3-2-0. Hartnell's goal was his 25th of the season, tying his career high set in 2005-06 with Nashville.

Richards, meanwhile, extended his points streak to six games (3 goals, 5 assists), while Simon Gagne tallied an assist in a sixth straight contest.

The Flyers begin a four-game road trip tonight and are 16-10-6 as the guest this year. They have won five of their last six on the road.

Philadelphia has now won four of its last five versus the Rangers, though Saturday's win was just its second in the last 10 played in Philly. The Flyers have won two straight and three of their last four trips to MSG.

Henrik Lundqvist was charged with four goals on 25 shots in the loss for the Rangers and fell to 8-5-2 in his career versus the Flyers with a 3.27 GAA. That includes a pair of losses against them this year in which he has allowed a total of eight goals.

Sean Avery scored in his second straight game and Nik Antropov also had a goal for the Rangers, who had won four of five coming into the game.

The Rangers will play four of their next five at home, where they are 20-10-4 this season. New York will play in Montreal on Tuesday before returning home to host Buffalo next Saturday.

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Numerous College Basketball teams take final big step to March Madness betting

So, what turned on the lock spigot? Well, after what felt like weeks of teams treading water and slipping back into the bubble muck, a bunch of them finally decided to say "to heck with parity" and won games that should put them into the Big Dance.

Disagree with some of these? Then here's the challenge. Take all of the "should be ins" and make a legit case that each should be ahead of the team that's a lock. Then find 10 more teams that also should be placed in the bracket ahead of that lock team. Not so easy, is it?

If you want more evidence that these locks should be good to go, check out what our research department dug up. Since the NCAA Tournament went to 64 teams in 1985, only six teams from a "big six" conference have had a record of 10-6 or better in conference play and not been selected: Colorado (2004) and Nebraska (1999) from the Big 12, Boston College and Seton Hall (both 2003) from the Big East, Indiana (2005) from the Big Ten and UCLA, which somehow went 12-6 in the Pac-10 in 1988 and still missed out. (Note: Five teams went 11-7 and didn't get in, the latest being last season's Stanford team, which had a brutal nonconference run.)

Yes, 10 conference wins doesn't always mean what it used to because of unbalanced schedules, but this season, it should be plenty good in all but the extreme cases (see: Iowa).

In a way, this is a welcome development, because this is a bubble watch, not a lock watch. We can finally be done with teams like Maryland and Virginia Tech and start really bearing down on at-large battles such as Syracuse-West Virginia and Appalachian State-Georgia Tech.

Interestingly, all the shifting of teams into lock status appears to be more administrative than impactful. The number of remaining available at-larges didn't change one iota. The only difference is that teams on the bubble now have a clearer idea of which team(s) they are competing with for those precious bids.

The Bubble Breakdown
CONFERENCE LOCKS SHOULD BE INS AT-LARGES TAKEN
(assuming no auto bid outlier)
ACC Betting Odds 6 0 5
Big East Betting Odds 5 0 4
Big Ten Betting Odds 2 2 3
Big 12 Betting Odds 3 0 2
Pac-10 Betting Odds 5 1 5
SEC Betting Odds 4 0 3
MVC Betting Odds 1 1 1
MWC Betting Odds 2 1 2
TOTAL 28 5 25

As always, I've tried to be as inclusive as possible while only including teams that would have a reasonable chance of at least being discussed if this were Selection Sunday. If your team's not on here, there's probably a good reason (or three) -- start with the RPI and SOS numbers and work your way down.

(Please remember, per selection committee criteria, that records displayed are Division I only. Next update: Feb. 28)

If you have a legitimate grievance, or just like talking bubble, send an e-mail. Polite ones with fact-based arguments have a much better chance of receiving a response. I apologize in advance if I can't get back to all of you.

Atlantic Coast Conference

Work left to do: Clemson, Florida State, Georgia Tech

The ACC moves to six locks as BC, Va Tech and Virginia all got their 10th ACC wins, which should be more than enough this season, and Maryland rallied past North Carolina to get the final piece the Terps needed. After that? It could end there unless FSU, Ga Tech or Clemson picks things up in a hurry.

 

Work left to do:

Clemson [19-9 (5-9), RPI: 41, SOS: 42] The Tigers are closer to locking up the collapse of the year award (in a good battle with OK State) than they are to grabbing an at-large. Clemson's been very competitive, but there's no really positive way you can spin nine losses in 11 games. They now cannot get to .500 in ACC play and still must head to Virginia Tech in the season finale (after hosting Miami). Unless the Tigers win both and/or do some serious work in the ACC tourney, they very well could be left out. There are no great nonconference wins, but ODU, App State, Miss. State, South Carolina and Georgia are all respectable W's.

Florida State [18-11 (6-9), RPI: 48, SOS: 14] The Noles got thrashed at Maryland to run their losing streak to five, but then pounded NC State at home to set the table for what likely is an elimination game at Miami. You can at least make a case for the Seminoles at 7-9 in ACC play (and some work in the ACC tourney), but 6-10 is not going to cut it. Wins at Duke and over Florida will resonate, but the computer numbers remain questionable. Beyond Florida, FSU thrashed bubble buddy Providence, but there's not a ton beyond those two games that will help. They didn't show well in big-time opportunities against Pitt and Wisconsin (before the Florida win).

Georgia Tech [18-10 (6-8), RPI: 51, SOS: 46] The Jackets beat Wake on Wednesday but couldn't get it done at UVa on Saturday, which could be a crucial loss with UNC and BC (both at home) remaining and 8-8 almost a certain need for at-large consideration. A nonconference win over Memphis helps, but the RPI and SOS are not at-large quality right now; if you combine those with a sub-.500 ACC mark, that could spell NIT for GT.

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