Jets wrap road trip against Canadiens

Hockey Betting Lines

02/05/2012 - (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Luckily for the Winnipeg Jets, they got a day of rest before wrapping their six-game road trip.

The Jets hope to break even on the swing this afternoon in a meeting with the Montreal Canadiens, who are still searching for their first victory since the All-Star break.

Winnipeg is 2-3 on its second-longest road trip of the season -- it had a seven-game swing from Oct. 27-Nov. 8 -- and picked up a big win over Tampa Bay on Thursday. However, the Jets were in action again the following night and dropped a 2-1 test to the Panthers, falling to 0-9-0 in the second half of games on consecutive nights.

Chris Mason made 28 saves and Bryan Little had the goal for the Jets, who were looking to win three straight on the road for the first time since Dec. 4-13, 2010. Instead, the 10th-place club in the East fell five points behind Florida for first place in the Southeast Division.'

"Our team can't give up 20 minutes of free play and expect to win the game," Jets head coach Claude Noel said. "If we would have played the first 20 minutes, there's the one goal they got, you still have a chance to win the game."

The Canadiens have yet to do any winning since the All-Star break. They looked to have picked up some much-needed momentum with a big 7-2 win over the Red Wings before the hiatus, but have been outscored 11-4 in three games since. That includes yesterday's 3-0 loss to the visiting Capitals.

Former Montreal goaltender Tomas Vokoun made 30 saves for Washington, while Habs backup Peter Budaj made 20 saves. He also faced a pair of penalty shots in the game, stopping one of them.

"The intensity was in the right place," said Montreal coach Randy Cunneyworth. "We were doing the right things, but unfortunately it resulted in our third loss this week."

Montreal's Scott Gomez remains without a goal through his first 22 games of this season and he hasn't scored in a year, since Feb. 5 of last season.

The Canadiens lost the opener of a three-game homestand and have dropped five of their last seven as the host.

The Habs have won four of their last five versus the Jets franchise and responded from a 4-0 shutout loss in Winnipeg in late December with a 7-3 home win on Jan. 4. Lars Eller posted his first career four-goal game in the Montreal win.

The Jets have lost two straight and six of their last eight in Montreal.

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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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