Red-hot Flyers destroy Canadiens in Game 1

Hockey Betting Lines

05/16/2010 - Philadelphia, PA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Michael Leighton made 28 saves to earn his first career playoff shutout, and the Philadelphia Flyers continued their torrid play with a 6-0 rout of the Montreal Canadiens in Game 1 of the Eastern Conference finals.

Leighton, forced into action in the midst of the Flyers' Game 5 conference semifinal series after Brian Boucher went down with a knee injury, improved to 3-0 in this postseason. Philadelphia, which remarkably recovered from a 0-3 series deficit to Boston in its previous series, has now ripped off five straight playoff wins for the first time since a six-game stretch in 1995.

"I'm obviously happy the way things went. It makes it easier when we score that many goals," Leighton said. "I was seeing a lot of the pucks. They don't have a big presence like Boston did...I just had to make the saves I should make in the first (period), and we kind of went from there."

Braydon Coburn, Scott Hartnell, James van Riemsdyk, Claude Giroux and Danny Briere each posted a goal and an assist in the resounding victory to start what is one of the most unlikely of series. Philadelphia and Montreal enter this set as the seventh and eighth seed, respectively, giving the Flyers home- ice advantage for the first time in the post-lockout era. It is the first matchup between the two lowest seeds since the current playoff format was adopted in 1994.

Simon Gagne also scored for the Flyers, who will look to take a two-game series lead at home on Tuesday.

"You have to stay grounded," Briere said. "It's just one game. We know (the Canadiens are) going to come back a lot stronger in their next game. The goal was to keep home-ice advantage, so we're halfway there. We need to win the next game at home, and we need to concentrate on that. We have to clear our minds -- we're happy about (this win), but let's move on and concentrate on the next one."

Jaroslav Halak, who helped the Habs notch unlikely series victories over Presidents' Trophy-winning Washington and defending champion Pittsburgh, was scorched for four goals on only 14 shots. Carey Price made nine saves in relief of Halak, who was pulled midway through the second period.

The loss is the worst to start a series for Montreal since 1919.

"It's a matter of adjusting our game and raising our level of intensity," said Habs head coach Jacques Martin. "Tonight, we didn't play a team game. We played an individual game, and you can't be successful that way."

The Canadiens controlled play for most of the first period, but the Flyers were the only team to find the back of the net.

Both teams were called for a penalty within 51 seconds of each other in the opening couple minutes, leaving the Flyers with a short power play at the tail end of the sequence. Philadelphia capitalized on its advantage, as Ville Leino drew a defenseman to the ground near the net and shoved the puck toward the cage. Halak was unable to corral the rebound, and Coburn stuffed it in at 3:55.

The Habs outshot the Flyers, 13-6, in the opening frame, but Leighton made a couple good saves to keep the Canadiens off the scoreboard. With 6:41 left, Leighton was able to steer away a fluttering puck from the point with his blocker, and he cut off Scott Gomez's angle inside two minutes to make a pad stop.

The hosts picked up their play dramatically in the second period, scoring early and often to take a commanding lead.

Giroux won an offensive zone faceoff, skated toward the net and flicked the disc toward Halak. Van Riemsdyk was able to find it in front and push it past the netminder just 30 seconds into the period for a 2-0 cushion.

Just under four minutes later, a second after a Montreal penalty expired, Briere took a soft pass from Matt Carle at the top of the left circle and blistered a slapshot above Halak's glove for a three-goal advantage.

Then, approaching the midway point of the period, Gagne's wrister from the right wing found its way past a screened Halak, and the Habs went to Carey Price in net for the remainder of the game.

Hartnell scored at 12:13 of the third, and Giroux added another tally just over a minute later to cement the victory. Leighton needed to stop only five shots in the final 20 minutes to secure the whitewash.

Game Notes

The Flyers came into this postseason having lost six consecutive Game 1s but have won two of three this season...Montreal had allowed only 12 goals in its previous six games...Philadelphia has won 21 of 28 series when winning Game 1...Briere has a three-game goal streak and a five-game point streak, and Gagne has a five-game point streak...Philadelphia is now 5-1 at home in the postseason, and Montreal is 5-4 on the road...The Habs have won three of the five postseason meetings between these clubs, although the Flyers won the last meeting in the 2008 conference semis...Leino and Carle both had two assists...Giroux has a plus-four rating.

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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.

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