Announcement

**Udog** · 05-18-2015, 06:50 AM

Armadillo: Monday's six-pack

-- Doc Rivers is first NBA coach to lose two playoff series that he led 3-1.

-- Golden State was 4-0 vs Houston this year; in NBA history, teams that were 4-0 against foe in regular season are 55-6 in series if clubs meet again in playoffs.

-- 14 NBA teams won playoff series after being down 2-0; six of those 14 came in the Finals. Nine teams wn series after being down 3-1; none came in the Finals.

-- Rockets are first team since '06 Suns to win a series they trailed 3-1.

-- Troy Tulowitzki (quad) missed his last two games, making him harder to trade.

-- It is going to be a very long summer for the Clippers.

**********

Armadillo: Monday's List of 13: Wrapping up a sports weekend........

13) Dick Vitale's gala in Florida this weekend raised $2.38M to fight pediatric cancer; he has done so much good work to raise $$$ to fight cancer, he gives a lot of himself and deserves a ton of credit.

12) Giancarlo Stanton hit a homer way over the CF fence in Miami Saturday; the CF fence is 418 feet away- the ball had to go 500 feet. Funny thing is that a guy sitting way out in the CF bleachers caught the ball bare-handed and it did not seem to hurt the guy. Was just funny to see.

11) All of Stanton's power couldn't save Mike Redmond's job; they're naming a new manager at 11am this morning. If Stanton ever leaves the Marlins, he will be surprised that not every team is as dysfunctional as the Marlins.

The next manager is going to get lucky; Jose Fernandez is on his way back and when he gets there with Henderson Alvarez also healthy now, Miami is going to have a hell of a lot better team than Redmond managed.

10) In his last eleven games, Bryce Harper is 22 for his last 39; he has nine HRs, 22 RBI during that time.

9) Oakland A's have an awful bullpen; its kind of like back in 1980, when Billy Martin led the A's to an 83-79 record after they had been 54-108 in '79. Martin only cared about getting re-hired in the Bronx, so he strip-mined the A's and refused to use the awful bullpen-- using up their starters as much as he could. The team progressed, Martin went back to the Bronx and then the pitching in Oakland went in the toilet, because the five starters all got burned out.

From 1982-86, the A's were an average of 13 games under .500; he set the franchise back five years-- this year, the A's will suck but they won't ruin the arms of the pitchers at least.

8) Don't believe me? Here are the stats for the 1980 A's starting pitchers:
-- Rick Langford, 33 starts, 28 complete games
-- Mike Norris, 33 starts, 24 complete games
-- Matt Keough, 32 starts, 20 complete games
-- Steve McCatty, 31 starts, 11 complete games
-- Brian Kingman, 30 starts, 10 complete games

7) Odd trivia: Matt Keough's ex-wife Jeana was one of original characters on Real Housewives of Orange County-- she was also one of the models in one of the first real popular music videos on MTV, ZZ Top's Sharp Dressed Man.

6) 150 plate appearances this year; Yoenis Cespedes has walked five times.

5) People are starting to talk up Adrian Beltre as a future Hall of Famer and rightfully so, but you put his numbers next to Aramis Ramirez' numbers and they're surprisingly similar. Beltre is a much better fielder, but still.....

4) In his acting career, Jim Caviezel has played Jesus, golfer Bobby Jones and the high school football coach who won 151 games in a row. But one of his first roles was as an extra, a college basketball player in Blue Chips, one of my favorite movies. He should write a book someday.

3) Speculation around the Marlins had Wally Backman as a possible manager in Miami, but late Sunday night that was said to be kaput. Eduardo Perez is young, but used to be the Marlins' hitting coach. Miami is still playing former manager Ozzie Guillen-- maybe he is the man.

2) Kevin Durant went to prep school at Montrose Christian, one of those out-of-the-way prep schools that have great hoop teams and not much else. Now word comes out that the school is in financial trouble and may fold- they're out of the bigtime basketball business. Feel bad for the Montrose kids who are going to be seniors next year; now they have to find new schools for this fall.

1) Shelby Miller came within an out of a no-hitter; 26 minutes later, Redmond got fired. Rory McIlroy won by seven shots in Charlotte, Montreal wants a major league baseball team again (Rays??). Just another quiet Sunday.

**Udog** · 05-18-2015, 06:54 AM

NHL
Dunkel

Monday, May 18

Tampa Bay Lightning @ New York Rangers

Game 55-56
May 18, 2015 @ 8:00 pm

Dunkel Rating:
Tampa Bay Lightni
13.504
New York Rangers
12.612
Dunkel Team:
Dunkel Line:
Dunkel Total:
Tampa Bay Lightni
by 1
5
Vegas Team:
Vegas Line:
Vegas Total:
New York Rangers
-140
4 1/2
Dunkel Pick:
Tampa Bay Lightni
(+120); Over

NHL
Long Sheet

Monday, May 18

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

TAMPA BAY (58-30-0-8, 124 pts.) at NY RANGERS (62-26-0-7, 131 pts.) - 5/18/2015, 8:05 PM
Top Trends for this game.
NY RANGERS are 62-33 ATS (+21.3 Units) in all games this season.
NY RANGERS are 42-18 ATS (+11.9 Units) second half of the season this season.
NY RANGERS are 33-23 ATS (-2.2 Units) when playing against a team with a winning record this season.
NY RANGERS are 22-12 ATS (+8.1 Units) when playing against a team with a winning record in the second half of the season this season.
TAMPA BAY is 12-3 ATS (+15.8 Units) in road games when trailing in a playoff series since 1996.
TAMPA BAY is 183-194 ATS (+415.9 Units) when playing against a team with a winning record in the second half of the season since 1996.
NY RANGERS are 83-94 ATS (-27.6 Units) after a 3 game unbeaten streak since 1996.

Head-to-Head Series History
TAMPA BAY is 5-5 (+0.3 Units) against the spread versus NY RANGERS over the last 3 seasons
NY RANGERS is 5-5-0 straight up against TAMPA BAY over the last 3 seasons
5 of 9 games in this series have gone OVER THE TOTAL over the last 3 seasons . (Over=+1.0 Units)

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

NHL
Short Sheet

Monday, May 18

Eastern Conference Finals - Best of 7 - Game 2 - NYR Leads 1-0

Tampa Bay Lightning at New York Rangers, 8:05 ET
Tampa Bay: 26-11 SU after 1 or more consecutive losses
NY Rangers: 22-26 SU in home games after a 4 game unbeaten streak

NHL
Armadillo's Write-Up

Monday, May 18

Rangers won Game One 2-1 on a goal with 2:25 left, after they lost three games with Tampa Bay during the season; they were outscored 15-7 in three games against Lightning the regular season. Four of last six series games went over; Lightning won three of last four visits to this building. All thirteen Ranger playoff games were decided by one goal. Under is 5-2-1 in last eight Lightning games; they've won four of last six on road. Rangers allowed six goals in winning last four games overall. Rangers outhit Tampa Bay 30-18 in Game 1- only Lightning goal came on the power play.

2015 NHL playoffs
Tampa Bay vs NY Rangers
NYR 2-1, -$143, U5

Chicago vs Anaheim
Ana 4-1, -$135, N5

NHL

Monday, May 18

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Trend Report
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

8:00 PM
TAMPA BAY vs. NY RANGERS
Tampa Bay is 6-3 SU in its last 9 games
Tampa Bay is 4-1 SU in their last 5 games when playing NY Rangers
NY Rangers are 4-1 SU in their last 5 games
The total has gone UNDER in 5 of the NY Rangers last 6 games

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

**Udog** · 05-18-2015, 07:08 AM

NHL

Monday, May 18

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Game of the Day: Lightning at Rangers
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Tampa Bay Lightning at New York Rangers (-135, 4.5)

An inability to prevail in one-goal games spelled the difference for the New York Rangers in last season's Stanley Cup Finals loss to Los Angeles, but they are perfecting the winning formula this time around. New York looks to take a 2-0 edge over the visiting Tampa Bay Lighting in Monday's Game 2 of the Eastern Conference final after squeezing out a 2-1 victory in the series opener.

All 13 of the Rangers' postseason games have been decided by one goal and they are 9-4 overall, with seven having been deciding by 2-1 margins. "This is a comfortable place for us to be," New York forward Martin St. Louis said after his team's NHL record 15th consecutive one-goal decision dating to last postseason. "We've been in tight games all year in the playoffs. We're used to it." The Rangers also managed to finally solve Lightning netminder Ben Bishop, who had won his first eight career starts against them, but Tampa Bay coach Jon Cooper was rankled more by his team's overall performance. "one team played like they'd been there before and the other one played like they hadn't," Cooper said.

TV: 8 p.m. ET, NBCSN, CBC, TVA

LINE HISTORY: As of this writing, sportsbooks have not moved off New York -135 since opening.

INJURY REPORT: Tampa Bay - B. Boyle (questionable), M. Ohlund (I-R). New York - M. Zuccarello (questionable).

ABOUT THE LIGHTNING: Tampa Bay needs to find a way get some balanced scoring after Ondrej Palat netted the lone tally in Game 1, giving the "Triplets" line of Palat, Tyler Johnson and Nikita Kucherov 18 of the team's 35 goals in the postseason. "To be honest I don't think we tested (Rangers goaltender Henrik) Lundqvist as much as we should have, not a lot of quality shots, not a lot of shots period," said Lightning captain Steven Stamkos, a 43-goal scorer in the regular season. "We have to find a way to generate more." Ryan Callahan returned to the lineup five days after undergoing an appendectomy but fellow forward Brian Boyle sat out Game 1 and did not practice Sunday.

ABOUT THE RANGERS: Veteran forward Dominic Moore, who has played with nine different teams (including the Lightning), scored the game-winner with 2:25 left in regulation in Game 1 when a pass from Kevin Hayes caromed off his knee and into the net. Even though it was a bit of a fluke, Moore's teammates said it was no accident that he was in position for the decisive tally. "I'm all about preparation and I can see him almost being like a goalie with everything he does to prepare himself to get into the right place going into every game," Lundqvist said. "I think that's why he's been so consistent throughout his career as well. He brings his game to a level that he's helping the team every night."

TRENDS:

*Under is 3-1-1 in Lightning last 5 overall.
*Under is 9-1-1 in Rangers last 11 overall.
*Lightning are 8-2 in their last 10 games playing on 1 days rest.
*Rangers are 30-8 in their last 38 when their opponent scores 2 goals or less in their previous game.

CONSENSUS: Per Consensus, 61 percent of support is on the Rangers.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

**Udog** · 05-18-2015, 05:11 PM

NHL

Monday, May 18

Rangers a red-hot under play this postseason

The under has been red hot for the New York Rangers this postseason. Heading into Game 2 of the Eastern Conference final against the Tampa Bay Lightning Monday night, the under is 10-2-1 in the Rangers' 13 playoff games.

This is thanks mostly in large part to the ridiculous play of goaltender Henrik Lundqvist.

Lundqvist is 9-4 this postseason with a crazy good 1.56 goals against average and a .945 save percentage.

With the incredible run the Rangers are on, the total for Monday's Game 2 at Madison Square Garden has opened at a low 4.5, but has crept up to 5.0 at some books.

Announcement

Monday's NHL Trends and Indexes - 5/18

Monday's NHL Trends and Indexes - 5/18

Comment

Comment

Comment

Comment