Thrashers' playoff push resumes in Tampa

Hockey Betting Lines

03/06/2010 - (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Atlanta Thrashers will shoot for a third straight victory when they visit the struggling Tampa Bay Lightning tonight at St. Pete Times Forum.

The Thrashers have won two straight since the NHL came back from the Olympic break. Atlanta hasn't won three in a row since it tied a season with a four- game winning streak from November 25-30.

Atlanta comes into Saturday tied with the New York Rangers and Montreal for the eighth and final playoff spot in the Eastern Conference. The Lightning are three points behind in 11th place.

The Thrashers are coming off Thursday's decisive victory over the visiting New York Islanders, in which Nik Antropov scored twice and a pair of newcomers paid immediate dividends in Atlanta's 6-3 win.

Forwards Clarke MacArthur and Evgeny Artyukhin both lit the lamp in their Thrashers debuts. Atlanta acquired the towering Artyukhin from Anaheim on Monday and picked up MacArthur in a deal with Buffalo prior to Wednesday's trade deadline.

Niclas Bergfors and Maxim Afinogenov each registered a goal and an assist for Atlanta, which is 6-2-1 in its last nine games at Philips Arena. The Thrashers are just 13-14-6 on the road this season.

"It's important to get all the new guys going," Bergfors said. "It's always easier to settle in as a new guy when the team is winning."

Johan Hedberg stopped 34 shots in the win and is expected to start again for Atlanta tonight.

The Lightning, meanwhile, have lost five straight contests, including two in a row since the Olympic break.

After getting slammed by Philadelphia in a 7-2 loss on Tuesday, the Bolts dropped a 5-4 regulation decision Thursday night in Washington. Scott Walker scored a pair of third-period goals to lead the Capitals to the close win.

Vincent Lecavalier netted two scores for the Lightning, while Mike Smith was beaten five times on 34 shots to suffer the loss.

Steven Stamkos and Steve Downie got the other Tampa goals to extend impressive point streaks. Stamkos is carrying a franchise-record 15-game scoring streak, while Downie kept a nine-game streak intact.

Tampa Bay is 17-8-6 as the host this year and will try to avoid a third straight home loss tonight.

This evening's test marks the final regular season meeting between Tampa and Atlanta. The Lightning have won four out of five in the season series, but the clubs have split the last 10 overall encounters overall. The Thrashers have lost two straight and eight of their last 12 in Tampa.

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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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