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02/10/2012 - (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Colorado Avalanche recently put their longest skid of the season behind them and will try to close out a four-game homestand with another victory when they face the Carolina Hurricanes tonight at Pepsi Center.
The Avalanche had lost five straight (0-4-1) before busting out of the slump with Tuesday's 5-2 win over Chicago. Colorado needs all the wins it can get, as it enters tonight as the 12th seed in the Western Conference playoff race and just three points out of a postseason spot.
David Jones scored twice for Colorado as it took down the slumping Blackhawks on Tuesday. The victory pushed the Avalanche's record at home to 15-13-1, and after tonight's homestand finale, Colorado will play four straight and six of its next seven on the road.
Kyle Quincey, Peter Mueller and Gabriel Landeskog each added a goal for the Avs on Tuesday, while Jean-Sebastien Giguere gave up just two goals on 31 shots. The score was tied at 2-2 after 40 minutes, but Landeskog's tally put the Avalanche up for good just 38 seconds into the third period.
"Honestly, when we play teams like Chicago and Vancouver, we seem to respect them more," said Colorado center Paul Stastny, who had two assists in the game. "We move the puck quicker, we may give up a few more transitions, but we also get more chances. And when Giguere plays like he did tonight, we are fine."
Injured Avs forward Matt Duchene has been working on skating drills in recent days, but it's still unclear when the 21-year-old will be able to return to action. Duchene, who has 12 goals and 12 assists in 39 games this year, hasn't played since suffering a knee injury against Phoenix on Dec. 29.
While Colorado is knocking on the door in the Western Conference playoff race, the Hurricanes are last in the East and 10 points out of a postseason berth. Carolina has recorded a point in three straight games (2-0-1), but it's coming off Wednesday's overtime loss in Anaheim.
Corey Perry scored the game-winning goal at 2:14 of the overtime period to lift the Ducks to a 3-2 home win. Carolina held leads of 1-0 and 2-1, but wasn't able to close out Anaheim.
Tuomo Ruutu and Eric Staal lit the lamp and Cam Ward made 31 saves in defeat for the Hurricanes, who squandered a chance to secure their first three-game winning streak since October 12-18.
"Our effort was there," Staal said. "It's just unfortunate things went against us in the overtime."
Tonight marks the second stop on a three-game road trip for the 'Canes, who have a dismal 6-13-7 record as the guest this season. The swing is set to end Monday in Montreal.
Carolina has won three of the last four meetings against the Avalanche, but the Hurricanes are winless in their past nine at Colorado, going 0-6-1 with a pair of ties since. They haven't won there since picking up an overtime win as the Hartford Whalers on Feb. 9. 1996.
<< Giggs to play another year at United
Manchester, England (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Manchester United manager Sir Alex
Ferguson has revealed that midfielder Ryan Giggs will return to the club for
another season after signing a one-year contract extension.
The 38-year-old Giggs m
<< Magic welcome Hawks to central Florida
(Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Orlando Magic try to stay hot tonight when they welcome
the Atlanta Hawks to the Amway Center.
This, of course, is the first meeting between these Southeast Division rivals
since Atlanta knocked the Magic out of last
<< Mavs visit Love, Timberwolves
(Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Minnesota Timberwolves will have Kevin Love back in the
lineup tonight versus the Dallas Mavericks at Target Center after serving a
two-game suspension for stomping on Houston's Luis Scola during the third
quarter of Satu
<< Pacers battle Grizzlies on Beale Street
(Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The much-improved Indiana Pacers hope to salvage the back-
end of a brief two-game road trip tonight when they square off with the
Memphis Grizzlies on Beale Street.
Indiana is coming off a 97-98 loss in Atlant
Blackhawks hope to halt fall in San Jose >>
(Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The free-falling Chicago Blackhawks will try to end their
longest losing streak in over four years when they continue a lengthy road
trip with tonight's battle against the San Jose Sharks at HP Pavilion.
The Blackhawks are
Stars aim for rare win in Buffalo >>
(Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Dallas Stars have yet to win the back end when playing
games on consecutive nights. That won't make ending their lengthy losing
streak in Buffalo any easier.
The Stars try to pick up their first road win against the Sa
Celtics head north of the border to face Raptors >>
(Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Boston Celtics may have seen their longest winning
streak of the season come to a halt on Thursday. But, a trip north of the
border to face the Toronto Raptors could get them back on track.
Boston saw its five-game win
Lin, Knicks try to stay hot vs. Lakers >>
(Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The flavor of the day in Gotham faces another tough test on
Friday, when Jeremy Lin and the Knicks play host to Kobe Bryant and the
Lakers at Madison Square Garden.
Lin has exploded from obscurity over the past wee
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.
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