Announcement

**Udog** · 05-25-2016, 07:37 AM

Armadillo: Wednesday's six-pack

-- NFL awarded Super Bowls to Atlanta-Miami-LA; two of those three cities are getting new stadiums, which is not a coincidence.

-- Nationals 7, Mets 4-- Matt Harvey wouldn't asnwer questions after game. Uh-oh.

-- Bengals' TE Tyler Eifert hurt his ankle in the Pro Bowl, had it operated on this week, may miss Cincinnati's season opener. What took so long?

-- BYU's football team has a tough September: Arizona, @ Utah, then UCLA, West Virginia at home. They also visit Michigan State, Boise State, Cincinnati later on.

-- 28 college football teams changed head coaches this year, 22% of all I-A teams.

-- Oklahoma City 118, Golden State 94-- Thunder go up 3-1; defending champs are in real trouble- they gave up 70+ points in first half of this game.

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Armadillo: Wednesday's List of 13: Mid-week musings.......

13) Under Armour, UCLA signed a 15-year, $280M apparel/shoe deal this week, which will make entitled athletes in football/basketball complain that they're not going to get a piece of that pie. They are getting a free college education, so there's that.

12) In a probably-related development, Pac-12 football teams will play fewer 10:30 kickoff games, in part so Under Armour brand can get more eastern exposure on TV.

11) Monday night in Miami, Logan Morrison took a marginal pitch for a strike and before the TV people could mute their field mikes, Morrison unleashed a string of obscenities against plate umpire Lance Barksdale. Good stuff.

10) Former NBA vet Kerry Kittles signed on as an assistant coach at Princeton.

9) ACC-Big 14 basketball challenge is a mere six months away; Michigan State-Duke is the premere matchup. UNC-Indiana, Ohio State-Virginia, Purdue-Louisville are some of the other featured games.

8) Devin Watson, who scored 20.3 ppg as a soph at San Francisco LY, transferred to San Diego State, where he will sit out this year, then play two more years. More good news for Steve Fisher; Malik Pope dropped out of the NBA Draft, will go back to school for another year. Decisions like that will mean a lot next winter.

7) Delaware Blue Hens finally hired a basketball coach, Notre Dame assistant coach Martin Inglesby, who has ties to the Philadelphia area. Plus Mike Brey used to be the Delaware coach, so that helps. Delaware has very few players; hiring a coach on May 24 is not the ideal way to run an athletic program.

6) Looking thru all-time college records today, noticed that Rams' QB Case Keenum holds I-A records for most career passing yards (19,217) and pssing TDs (217). it didn't prevent the Rams from spending a king's ransom on acquiring Jared Goff to take Keenum's job, but those records are still impressive.

5) Are there any phone booths left in this country? Was watching a movie the other night and someone ran to a phone booth to make a call, which automatically makes it a fairly old movie, I guess.

4) Was doing NFL research today; Carolina beat the Buccaneers twice LY, 37-23 and 38-10. Panthers scored nine TDs in the two games: two by the defense, with five of the seven TDs scored by the offense coming on drives of less than 50 yards.

3) NHL's Florida Panthers had 103 points this year, most they've ever had in their 23-year history, but they just fired their scouting dorector who had been with the team for 14 years, thru seven head coaches and five GMs. There is a battle there between the analytics people and the old school people, and analytics people are winning.

2) Long time ago, November 1993, I'm an assistant high school basketball coach, in my first year at this school, whose program was a mess. Our head coach is a great guy but he was in over his head at this job. After the second game of the year (we had won the first game), there were some attitude problems in the group.

Coach said something after that game that I've never forgotten: "So we lose a game and the rats start jumping off the ship", one of the all-time best quotes I've heard.

That is where the Warriors are now; their bandwagon is emptying quickly; nitwit media people have declared this series over, even though nine NBA teams have rallied from 3-1 deficits to win their series. Steve Kerr will probably rally his troops with an "us against the world" speech, since no one thinks Golden State can rally now.

We'll see.

1) White Sox TV voice Jason Benetti has an inspirational story; he was born with cerebral palsy, but never let that stop him. He went to college at Syracuse, then got his law degree from Wake Forest. He later joined ESPN and now has a job broadcasting ball in the major leagues, and he is very good at it. Good for him.

**Udog** · 05-25-2016, 07:40 AM

NHL

Wednesday, May 25

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Wednesday's NHL Conference Finals betting preview: Blues at Sharks
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Hitchcock made a bold move prior to Game 4 and replaced Brian Elliott with Jake Allen - and he's hoping for a similar result in Wednesday's Game 6 by turning back to Elliott.

St. Louis Blues at San Jose Sharks (A: +140, H: -160, O/U: 5)

Sharks lead series 3-2

The San Jose Sharks are one win away from the first trip to the Stanley Cup final in franchise history and can punch their ticket with a victory over the visiting St. Louis Blues in Wednesday's Game 6. The Sharks pushed the Blues to the brink of elimination with a 6-3 win in St. Louis on Monday to seize a 3-2 lead in the best-of-7 series.

San Jose relied on a familiar formula to edge closer to advancing beyond the Western Conference final for the first time in four attempts -- a staunch power play and its No. 1 line anchored by captain Joe Pavelski. "You don't get this chance every day on home ice," Sharks forward Chris Tierney said of the possibility of wrapping up the series at the SAP Center. "Sometimes you might not get this chance in your career, or maybe once. I think guys know that and they really want to take advantage of it." The Blues fell to 4-6 at home with Monday's loss, but they won Games 5 and 7 in Dallas in the second round and had their best performance of their series with a 6-3 victory in Game 4 at San Jose. "The realization is we win or we go home," St. Louis captain David Backes said. "That's how much onus we need to put on playing our best game of the series."

TV: 9 p.m. ET, NBCSN, CBC, TVAS

PROBABLE GOALIES:

Blues - Brian Elliott (W/L: 9-8, GAA: 2.34, SAVE %: .928)

Sharks - Martin Jones (W/L: 11-6, GAA: 2.13, SAVE %: .918)

ABOUT THE BLUES (59-31-11, 40-45 O/U): Coach Ken Hitchcock made a bold move prior to Game 4 and replaced goaltender Brian Elliott with Jake Allen - and he's hoping for a similar result in Wednesday's win-or-go-home Game 6 by turning back to Elliott, who was pulled in Game 3 after starting the first 17 games of the postseason. "We got the jolt we needed from Jake," Hitchcock said in explaining why he's going back to Elliott. "These are Brian's playoffs. We'd like to see him finish the job." What St. Louis really needs is some production from leading scorer Vladimir Tarasenko, who has failed to register a point in the series and has one goal -- an empty-netter -- in the last eight contests.

ABOUT THE SHARKS (57-33-9, 50-38 O/U): Pavelski is showing why he wears the "C" for San Jose, not only scoring a playoff-leading 12 goals but making them count -- he tied Game 5 by scoring late in the second period before putting the Sharks ahead to stay 16 seconds into the third with a highlight-reel deflection. "You think back to some of the best scorers ever," Sharks coach Peter DeBoer said. "His ability to get his stick on pucks in the offensive zone, in front of the net, different angles, is as good as anybody I've ever seen. But it's a great lesson. He works at it every day." Joe Thornton set up three goals Monday to tie teammate Logan Couture with a playoff-best 14 assists.

TRENDS:

* Blues are 4-0 in their last 4 after allowing 5 goals or more in their previous game.
* Sharks are 6-1 in their last 7 home games.
* Over is 16-3-7 in Blues last 26 games playing on 1 days rest.
* Over is 4-0-1 in Sharks last 5 Wednesday games.
* Blues are 8-3 in the last 11 meetings in San Jose.

CONSENSUS: The home team San Jose Sharks are getting 61 percent of the public wagers for Wednesday's Game 6. The Consensus picks on the total are favoring the Over at a rate of 65 percent.

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**Udog** · 05-25-2016, 07:43 AM

NHL
Dunkel

Wednesday, May 25

St. Louis @ San Jose

Game 23-24
May 25, 2016 @ 9:00 pm

Dunkel Rating:
St. Louis
13.174
San Jose
12.160
Dunkel Team:
Dunkel Line:
Dunkel Total:
St. Louis
by 1
4 1/2
Vegas Team:
Vegas Line:
Vegas Total:
San Jose
-160
5
Dunkel Pick:
St. Louis
(+140); Under

NHL
Short Sheet

Wednesday, May 25

St Louis at San Jose, 9:05 PM ET
St Louis: 31-19 SU in road games
San Jose: 9-12 SU in home games after a win by 2 goals or more

NHL
Armadillo's Write-Up

Wednesday, May 25

San Jose-St Louis (SJ 3-2)
Road team won seven of last ten St Louis-San Jose games- under is 3-2 in this series, but last couple of games went over. San Jose won three of last four games here, St Louis won three of last four road tilts. San Jose is 4-18 on power play in series, Blues are 3-15. St Louis is 6-3 on road so far in playoffs- they gave up three goals on only nine shots in third period of Game 5, after Sharks tied game with 1:27 left in second period. St Louis lost four of last five games when they scored less than four goals. San Jose held five of last six opponents under four goals.

Playoffs tally: 1st round-- Home: 23-24, Over: 16-17-14
2nd round-- Home: 16-9, Over: 11-5-9
Conference finals-- Home 4-7, Over 6-4-1

NHL

Wednesday, May 25

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Trend Report
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9:00 PM
ST. LOUIS vs. SAN JOSE
St. Louis is 4-1 SU in its last 5 games on the road
The total has gone UNDER in 4 of St. Louis's last 6 games when playing San Jose
San Jose is 4-2 SU in its last 6 games
San Jose is 6-1 SU in its last 7 games at home

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**Udog** · 05-25-2016, 09:14 AM

NHL
Long Sheet

Wednesday, May 25

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ST LOUIS (59-32-0-10, 128 pts.) at SAN JOSE (57-34-0-8, 122 pts.) - 5/25/2016, 9:05 PM
Top Trends for this game.
SAN JOSE is 26-12 ATS (+8.1 Units) when playing against a team with a winning record this season.
SAN JOSE is 21-6 ATS (+14.1 Units) when playing against a team with a winning record in the second half of the season this season.
ST LOUIS is 59-42 ATS (+5.4 Units) in all games this season.
ST LOUIS is 29-16 ATS (+12.7 Units) in a road game where where the total is 5 or less this season.
ST LOUIS is 21-11 ATS (+9.9 Units) in road games second half of the season this season.
ST LOUIS is 34-24 ATS (+7.9 Units) when playing against a team with a winning record this season.
ST LOUIS is 23-15 ATS (+6.1 Units) when playing against a team with a winning record in the second half of the season this season.
SAN JOSE is 13-17 ATS (-10.3 Units) in a home game where where the total is 5 or less this season.
SAN JOSE is 28-29 ATS (-23.3 Units) in home games second half of the season over the last 2 seasons.
SAN JOSE is 9-12 ATS (-7.7 Units) in home games after a win by 2 goals or more this season.

Head-to-Head Series History
SAN JOSE is 9-5 (+2.8 Units) against the spread versus ST LOUIS over the last 3 seasons
SAN JOSE is 9-5-0 straight up against ST LOUIS over the last 3 seasons
8 of 13 games in this series have gone OVER THE TOTAL over the last 3 seasons . (Over=+3.0 Units)

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Wednesday's NHL Trends and Indexes - 5/25

Wednesday's NHL Trends and Indexes - 5/25

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