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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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Michael Vick is back, Brett Favre isn't and the NFC East remains the best division in the NFC, maybe in all of football.
As players start to gather for the start of another season, some things change and some stay the same in the world of the NFL.
The NFC East has been the dominant division in the National Conference for a while, despite limited playoff success, save for the New York Giants surprise Super Bowl win two seasons ago.
Hell, there's a generation of kids in Texas who have never seen the Cowboys win a playoff game (last win was in 1996).
But collectively, the Giants, Eagles, Cowboys and Redskins (well, maybe not so much the Redskins) are as good as a division gets in an NFC conference that has struggled to stay competitive with the AFC side.
Sports bettors have both acknowledged the NFC East's dominance, as one glance at the NFL future odds menu will show.
Looking over the NFL betting odds at online sports book MySportsbook.com we see the top three teams listed to win the NFC Championship are all from the NFC East:
Dallas Cowboys - 7 - 1
Philadelphia Eagles - 13 - 2
New York Giants - 9 - 2
Slotting in behind these three are two teams from the NFC North: the Minnesota Vikings (15-2) and the Chicago Bears (10-1).
Again, despite the lack of recent playoff success, the Dallas Cowboys are popular with the sports betting community, as they hold 14% of all the money wagered on who will win the NFC Championship.
So far, the New York Giants are the bettors' favorite to represent their conference in the Super Bowl, as they have 24% of the overall NFC Championship betting volume.
And what about the Philadelphia Eagles? For the most part, the Eagles had a very productive offseason, the kind that could bring them back to the top.
They had a good draft adding the likes of WR Jeremy Maclin and RB LeSean McCoy.
Unfortunately, the team received a blow when long-time defensive coordinator Jim Johnson passed away on Tuesday.
But this team will make a real run at the division title this year. Going into the regular season, Philly is listed at +240 to win the division.
Last season the Eagles were 9-6-1 SU and 10-6 ATS.
Teams from the NFC East will play teams from the AFC West in the regular season and the Eagles haven't really been a good bet in the last 20 games against the likes of San Diego, Oakland, K.C. and Denver, only going 8-12 ATS.
Two seasons removed from that Super Bowl title, the New York Giants see themselves listed as the odds-on favorite in NFC East championship futures at +162.
Plaxico Burress is gone and with him all the bad publicity surrounding the gun in the sweatpants incident, but can they replace him in the offense?
Last season the Giants were a very reliable bet going 12-4 ATS.
In the Giants' last 20 games against fellow teams from the NFC East; they are 13-7 ATS.
Dallas is listed at +240 to win the division.
Dallas went 9-7 SU and 7-9 ATS last season and with the amount of talent the Cowboys have, a similar performance won't do.
The Cowboys have been atrocious against divisional rivals, going 6-14 ATS in their last 20.
The Washington Redskins are longshots to win the division at +550.
Visit MySportsbook.com for free sportsbook odds RSS feeds go to MySportsbook.com for all your betting football needs.
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