Announcement

**Udog** · 05-23-2016, 08:43 AM

Armadillo: Monday's six-pack

Odds on six of the NFL's more interesting games this fall...........

-- Week 2-- Eagles @ Bears (-3)-- Monday night in Windy City.

-- Week 3-- Falcons @ Saints (-1)-- Monday night on Bourbn Street.

-- Week 4-- Dolphins @ Bengals (-6.5)-- Thursday night in Queen City.

-- Week 5-- Bucs @ Panthers (-8.5)-- Monday night in Charlotte.

-- Week 6-- Jets @ Cardinals (-6)-- Monday night in the desert.

-- Week 7-- Texans @ Broncos (-3.5)-- Osweiler against his old team.

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

13) Blue Jays manager John Gibbons had an interesting week;
Sunday: ejected, Monday: ejected.
Tuesday-Thursday: suspended in connection with Sunday's ejection
Friday/Saturday: He actually managed the whole game both days.
Sunday: ejected-- good work if you can get it.

12) Washington Nationals played 13 of their first 44 games against Miami; now the teams will play only six more times the rest of this season. .

11) Albuquerque Isotopes are the Rockies' AAA team; they're having a bad year, losing six games in a row and 10 of last 12.

Things are so bad that the team employee who wears the "jar of salsa" costume during the Chile Race promotion pulled a leg muscle this weekend nad is now out of action.

10) From 2013-15, Hillary Clinton made 94 speaking engagements, earned $21.6M doing so. Thats million, with an M. Yikes.

9) Phil Mickelson agreed to forfeit nearly $1 million that the Securities/Exchange Commission said was unfairly earned on a tip from an insider trading scheme run by a former corporate director and a professional gambler.

Who plays Mickelson in the movie that will inevitably be made about this?

8) Thunder 133, Warriors 105-- This makes Game 4 a very interesting game. if the Spurs/Warriors go a combined 140-24 in the regular season and neither makes the NBA Finals, teams will be resting players constantly next season. No bueno.

7) I'm sitting here watching the 1995 movie Jury Duty, a movie so stunningly bad that I can't turn it off. For some reason, Dick Vitale was in this movie as a TV leegal analyst, basically playing his TV role, yelling and screaming. 21 years later, this movie is still on pay TV-- is this a great country or what?

6) I was watching the 1991 movie Forget Paris the other night, where Billy Crystal is an NBA ref; in the opening scene, he makes a critical call in a playoff game against the Phoenix Suns, who had Charles Barkley, Kevin Johnson, Dan Majerle.

25 years later, Barkley is the best studio analyst the NBA has; Majerle is the coach at Grand Canyon College an up-and-coming D-I team and Johnson somehow is mayor of Sacramento, where he has saved the NBA's Kings from moving several times.

Real life is often stranger than fiction.

5) Then there is the 1973 movie "World's Greatest Athlete", where Seahawk coach Pete Carroll had an untitled role as a college football player. Also in this fine movie are the guy who played Mr Whipple in the old Charmin TV commercials, the guy who played General Burkhalter on Hogan's Heroes and former Viking QB Joe Kapp.

4) Why do the Texas Rangers want a new stadium? The one they play in is only 22 years old- teams should have to stay at least 40 years in a new stadium.

3) Tim Lincecum signed with the Angels for $2.5M; Halos are in even worse shape than the A's- their payroll is $164,673,333, compared to Oakland's $86,806,234.

2) While I am on this subject, the A's are 19-26 this year with a starting pitching rotation that is totally in shambles with Sonny Gray ineffective/hurt. After making the playoffs in 2012-14, the Ivy League genuses in the Oakland front office decided to trade Yoenis Cespedes for Jon Lester so they could win the 2014 World Series. The plan failed.....miserably.

109-154, thats the A's record since July 31, 2014- they pay Billy Butler $10M a year, Jed Lowrie $7M, Coco Crisp $11M. People talk about Moneyball all the time, but the 2001-03 A's were good for three reasons-- Hudson, Mulder, Zito. Starting pitchers.

Without solid starting pitchers (6+ innings most every night) your team has absolutely zero chance to contend. None. Pitching is the most critical element in baseball.

1) Congratulations to my friend Gary DiNola for being inducted into the Upstate New York Basketball Hall of Fame last night. I spent four years (1994-98) as one of his assistants and it one was one of the most interesting/fun eperiences of my life.

**Udog** · 05-23-2016, 08:46 AM

NHL

Monday, May 23

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Monday's NHL Conference Finals betting preview: Sharks at Blues
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Blues head coach Ken Hitchcock on goalie Jake Allen, "He gave us exactly what we needed. He's a competitive son of a gun."

San Jose Sharks at St. Louis Blues (A: +110, H: -130, O/U: 5)

Series tied 2-2

Although the St. Louis Blues recorded their third six-goal outburst of the postseason, coach Ken Hitchcock was more interested in the play at the other end of the ice. With that in mind, goaltender Jake Allen will receive his second consecutive start in Game 5 on Monday as the Blues look to gain the advantage in the Western Conference final when they host the San Jose Sharks.

"He gave us exactly what we needed. He's a competitive son of a gun," Hitchcock told reporters of the 25-year-old Allen, who manned the crease in place of a struggling Brian Elliott and made 31 saves in St. Louis' 6-3 triumph on Saturday. While the Blues evened the series at two victories apiece, San Jose's Martin Jones will need to collect himself after seeing his impressive shutout streak halted just shy of 154 minutes. "We've responded well anytime we've needed to this year, all season long," the 26-year-old Jones said after yielding four goals on 19 shots to earn an early exit in Game 4. "We'll get ready for the next one. I don't really have to change anything. Prepare like I have been for the next game."

TV: 8 p.m. ET, NBC Sports Network, CBC, TVAS

PROBABLE GOALIES:

Sharks - Martin Jones (W/L: 10-6, GAA: 2.07, SAVE %: .921)

Blues - Jake Allen (W/L: 1-0, GAA: 1.64, SAVE %: .930)

ABOUT THE SHARKS (56-33-9, 49-38 O/U): Captain Joe Pavelski extended his point streak to five games (two goals, four assists) with his franchise-best and NHL-leading 10th goal through Saturday. Fellow forward Joe Thornton set up the tally for his third assist in two contests and 11th of the playoffs, putting him two behind Logan Couture for the team lead. The 27-year-old Couture was held off the scoresheet in Game 4, but dominated the faceoff circle by winning nine of 12 draws.

ABOUT THE BLUES (59-30-11, 39-45 O/U): The availability for captain David Backes and rookie forward Robby Fabbri will be decided prior to Game 5, as Hitchcock did not shed any additional light for reporters on Sunday. Both forwards suffered undisclosed injuries and missed a significant portion of ice time in Saturday's victory, with Hitchcock telling reporters that "(Backes) had pompoms out. He was cheerleading. He was doing a good job." Fabbri notched an assist on the first of Troy Brouwer's two power-play goals on Saturday for his team-leading 14th point, while the latter's seven tallies in the 2016 playoffs match his sum total of his initial 78 career postseason games.

TRENDS:

* Sharks are 3-12 in their last 15 Conference Finals games.
* Blues are 1-5 in their last 6 home games vs. a team with a road winning % of greater than .600.
* Over is 4-0 in Sharks last 4 following a loss of 3 or more goals.
* Under is 4-1 in the last 5 meetings.

CONSENSUS: Early Consensus data is showing that the public is heavily favoring the Blues at home in Game 5 at a rate of 70 percent. The Over is scoring a good chunk of the totals wagers at 63 percent.

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**Udog** · 05-23-2016, 08:50 AM

NHL
Dunkel

Monday, May 23

San Jose @ St. Louis

Game 19-20
May 23, 2016 @ 8:00 pm

Dunkel Rating:
San Jose
13.461
St. Louis
12.109
Dunkel Team:
Dunkel Line:
Dunkel Total:
San Jose
by 1 1/2
4
Vegas Team:
Vegas Line:
Vegas Total:
St. Louis
-130
5
Dunkel Pick:
San Jose
(+110); Under

NHL
Short Sheet

Monday, May 23

San Jose at St Louis, 8:05 PM ET
San Jose: 14-6 SU as a road underdog of +100 to +200
St Louis: 26-36 SU at home after a game where 9 or + total goals were scored

NHL
Armadillo's Write-Up

Monday, May 23

San Jose-St Louis (2-2)
Sharks shut St Louis out in their two series wins; road team won six of last nine St Louis-San Jose tilts- under is 3-1 in this series. San Jose won three of last four games here; they're 4-4 on road in playoffs so far this year. Blues lost three of last four home games, under is 3-1 in their last four games overall. San Jose is 2-15 on power play in series, the Blues are 2-12. St Louis is 5-3 on road so far in playoffs- they scored six goals on only 27 shots in Game 4, after getting blanked in Games 2-3.

Playoffs tally: 1st round-- Home: 23-24, Over: 16-17-14
2nd round-- Home: 16-9, Over: 11-5-9
Conference finals-- Home 4-5, Over 4-4-1

NHL

Monday, May 23

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Trend Report
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8:00 PM
SAN JOSE vs. ST. LOUIS
San Jose is 15-8 SU in its last 23 games
San Jose is 11-5 SU in its last 16 games on the road
The total has gone UNDER in 4 of St. Louis's last 5 games when playing San Jose
St. Louis is 2-5 SU in its last 7 games when playing at home against San Jose

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**Udog** · 05-23-2016, 10:10 AM

NHL
Long Sheet

Monday, May 23

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SAN JOSE (56-34-0-8, 120 pts.) at ST LOUIS (59-31-0-10, 128 pts.) - 5/23/2016, 8:05 PM
Top Trends for this game.
ST LOUIS is 59-41 ATS (+8.6 Units) in all games this season.
ST LOUIS is 36-24 ATS (-0.6 Units) second half of the season this season.
ST LOUIS is 34-23 ATS (+3.5 Units) when playing against a team with a winning record this season.
ST LOUIS is 23-14 ATS (+7.8 Units) when playing against a team with a winning record in the second half of the season this season.
SAN JOSE is 22-9 ATS (+12.5 Units) in a road game where where the total is 5 or less this season.
SAN JOSE is 19-9 ATS (+8.5 Units) in road games second half of the season this season.
SAN JOSE is 32-15 ATS (+13.0 Units) revenging a loss versus opponent this season.
SAN JOSE is 25-12 ATS (+11.1 Units) when playing against a team with a winning record this season.
SAN JOSE is 20-6 ATS (+12.6 Units) when playing against a team with a winning record in the second half of the season this season.

Head-to-Head Series History
SAN JOSE is 8-5 (+1.8 Units) against the spread versus ST LOUIS over the last 3 seasons
SAN JOSE is 8-5-0 straight up against ST LOUIS over the last 3 seasons
7 of 12 games in this series have gone OVER THE TOTAL over the last 3 seasons . (Over=+2.0 Units)

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Monday's NHL Trends and Indexes - 5/23

Monday's NHL Trends and Indexes - 5/23

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