Leafs try to stay hot in Winnipeg

Hockey Betting Lines

02/07/2012 - (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - It certainly seems as though the Toronto Maple Leafs made a collective New Year's resolution of ending the franchise's longest playoff drought ever.

The Leafs look to continue their climb up the Eastern Conference standings this evening and match their longest win streak of the campaign as they battle the offensively-challenged Winnipeg Jets for the final time this regular season.

Toronto has yet to qualify for the playoffs since the 2004-05 lockout, with its six-year absence marking the longest ever for the Original Six franchise. However, the Maple Leafs' current three-game win streak and string of six consecutive contests with a point (5-0-1) has pushed the club into the seventh spot in the East with 62 points, one ahead of the Senators and one back of the sixth-place Devils, who visit the conference-leading Rangers tonight.

After getting consecutive shutouts from goaltender James Reimer to kick off this win streak, the Maple Leafs turned up the offense last night in a 6-3 win over the visiting Oilers. Reimer saw his shutout streak end just 21 seconds into the game, but settled down to make 27 saves and help Toronto improve to 10-4-1 since the start of the calendar year. That includes a season-high four- game win streak from Jan. 3-10.

Toronto has pulled within six points of first-place Boston in the Northeast Division as well, but isn't looking ahead of itself.

"There's not a whole lot of scoreboard watching on our part," said Leafs head coach Ron Wilson about his club, which vaulted over the idle Sens in the standings with the win. "We just try to take care of our own business and worry about ourselves."

Phil Kessel scored twice and added an assist for his second straight three- point game. The forward is tied for second in the NHL with 29 goals and third with 57 points. He reached the 300 career point mark in last night's win, as did captain Dion Phaneuf thanks to a pair of assists.

Clarke MacArthur scored a goal to give him five tallies and four assists over a five-game point streak, while Mikhail Grabovski had two assists and has logged 12 points in his past six contests.

Having relocated from Atlanta to Winnipeg this previous offseason, the Jets have enjoyed their time at home this year as evidenced with a 15-8-2 mark. However, the franchise is just 9-16-4 away from its new home and returns to Winnipeg this evening following a 2-4-0 road trip.

The Jets were shut out twice on the swing, including Sunday's 3-0 defeat in Montreal. Ondrej Pavelec gave up three goals on 23 shots for Winnipeg, which did not score more than two goals in any game on the trip. That left more than a few Jets discouraged, including leading-scorer Blake Wheeler, who picked up a career-high seven penalty minutes versus the Canadiens that included just his second ever fighting major.

"Just overall it's been frustrating. We can't score goals," said Wheeler. "Our goalie was phenomenal again tonight and when you lose 3-0, what can you say? It's not like it was 3-2 where we had a chance to win the game."

The Jets failed to score a power-play goal on the trip, going 0-for-15. Playing a seventh straight game without concussed forward Evander Kane, who leads the club with 18 goals, hasn't helped a Winnipeg team that sits 10th in the East and five points out of first place in the Southeast Division.

Tonight's matchup with the Leafs won't help the Jets break out of their season-high funk on the man advantage. Toronto has gone 15 straight games without allowing a power-play goal, the longest such streak in the league since the Chicago Blackhawks went 19 straight games without giving up a power- play goal in 1969-70.

Toronto is a perfect 22-for-22 over its current run, which is its longest for the franchise since 1940-41.

The Maple Leafs have sandwiched a pair of home wins around a 3-2 setback to the Jets in Winnipeg on Dec. 31. Toronto notched a 4-0 win in the previous meeting on Jan. 5 behind a 24-save effort by Jonas Gustavsson, one of seven shutouts suffered by Winnipeg this year.

Kessel has three goals and two assists in the three meetings.

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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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