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**Udog** · 05-16-2017, 07:31 AM

Armadillo: Tuesday's six-pack

— Miami Marlin pitchers have hit a batter in 10 consecutive games, tied with ’09 Phillies for longest such streak since 1913.

— DL update: Outfielders AJ Pollock, Carlos Gomez, Hunter Pence all hit the shelf Monday.

— Arizona 7, NY Mets 3– Over last four games, Mets were outscored 16-7 from 7th inning on.

— Giants 8, Dodgers 4– San Francisco won five of its last six games.

— Indians 8, Rays 7– Chris Archer gave up five runs in the first inning.

— Celtics 115, Wizards 105– Home team won all seven series games. Boston plays the Cavaliers next.

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Armadillo: Tuesday's List of 13: Nobody asked me, but………

13) Week 1 of the NFL season, ESPN has a Monday night doubleheader; this year, one of the announce teams that night will be Beth Mowins/Rex Ryan, an unusual pairing.

Mowins has done college football on ESPN for years; she is highly competent but she isn’t getting this gig because she is good, she is getting it because she’s a woman- that’s the world we live in now.

Look at the people ESPN fired this month; they’re working on evening out the demographics of their workforce.

This will be Ryan’s first-ever NFL game behind a microphone and he gets it in primetime, which is odd. If he is outspoken he should be good– he acted in an Adam Sandler movie couple years ago and was very good at it. Thing is, he has to be outspoken and not hold back on criticizing people he knows. We’ll see.

12) Someone on Twitter (a media professional) was critical of Kenny Albert getting national TV gigs, which is ridiculous, but again typical of the world we live in. If you prepare really well, set up your partner to look good and have no shtick, then some people won’t like you, because they care more about style than substance. Albert is everything a play-by-play guy should be.

11) For a good part of this weekend, the Cubs’ outfield was Kyle Schwarber, Javier Baez and Ian Happ, a catcher and two infielders. At some point, this will hurt you defensively.

10) Mets blew a 7-1 lead Sunday, lost 11-9 in Miller Park; Neil Walker’s baserunning didn’t help them any.

When the Mets were up big, they had a half-inning end on a first-to-second double play, when Walker was a runner on third base. He coasted towards the plate; had he sprinted, he would’ve scored before the third out was made on a tag at second base. But he didn’t, the run didn’t count and it turned out to be a run the Mets really needed later on.

9) Texas Rangers are 6-0 when AJ Griffin starts; they scored 52 runs in the six games.

8) Kyle Stanley birdied the 17th hole island green at the PLAYERS Championship all four days this past weekend, just the second person ever to do that (Paul Azinger).

7) Former big league catcher David Ross makes his ESPN analyst debut on Wednesday night’s Boston-St Louis game, with Jon Sciambi and Aaron Boone.

6) Duke landed PG recruit Trevon Duval, a 5-star recruit. He’ll be in college from Labor Day until the Blue Devils get KO’d from the NCAA tournament. Duke will be a very young team next season.

5) There are now 58 billionaires living in Los Angeles County; hope they all buy suites in the Rams’ new stadium.

4) To people who are complaining about Colin Kaepernick being a free agent, what about Jay Cutler? You don’t think Cutler is better than Kaepernick? If a team had shown interest in signing Cutler, no way would he be working on TV this fall.

3) New idea in marketing: Florists were running ads Monday to sell Mother’s Day stuff to people who forgot to send flowers/gifts on Sunday. Balloons with “I’m really sorry!!!” on them?

2) Toronto Blue Jays have 14 pitchers, 11 position players right now; that means they have only one bench player, other than the backup catcher. Nobody better get ejected.

1) Would Gregg Popovich make a good President? Our country needs someone who is respected by most everyone– there is too much hatred/divisiveness these days. We need someone who can do the right thing without a political agenda. Hard to find people like that nowadays.

**Udog** · 05-16-2017, 08:38 AM

Tuesday’s Stanley Cup Playoffs betting preview: Ducks at Predators

A game within the game is developing between Nashville's Ryan Johansen and Anaheim's Ryan Kesler, with the Predators' top line center bristling at what he considers suspect tactics by his counterpart.

Anaheim Ducks at Nashville Predators (-150, 5)

Penguins are Las Vegas' big favorites to hoist the Stanley Cup: Live From Las Vegas
The Stanley Cup playoffs are down to its final four teams and the defending Cup champs, the Pittsburgh Penguins, are huge betting favorites to win it all again. We talk NHL conference finals odds with Matthew Holt of CG Technology in Las Vegas.

Series tied 1-1

The Anaheim Ducks are repeatedly driving home one point against their opponents on their run to the Western Conference finals: No lead is safe against them. Following their latest come-from-behind victory that earned a split on home ice, the Ducks visit the Nashville Predators on Tuesday night in Game 3 of the best-of-seven series.

Anaheim erased an early two-goal deficit to avoid falling into a 2-0 series hole Sunday night, following a pattern that saw it storm back from three goals down against Calgary and Edmonton in the first two rounds of the playoffs. "I wish we didn't get down in the first place," Ducks forward Rickard Rakell said. "It's almost like we feel, 'Oh, we've got nothing to lose now.' It's almost like that's when we play our best game. Maybe sometimes we shouldn't wait for that to get going." The Predators allowed more than three goals in this postseason for the first time in Sunday's 5-3 setback but can take solace in the fact that the next two games are at Bridgestone Arena, where they have won nine in a row in the playoffs since back-to-back defeats against Anaheim a year ago. "Now we’re heading home and have another opportunity at home," Nashville netminder Pekka Rinne said following a shaky performance in Game 2. "That’s the best part of it."

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

LINE HISTORY: The Preds opened as -145 home favorites for Game 3 and by Monday evening that moneyline was up to -150. The total opened at 5.

INJURY REPORT:

Ducks - D Kevin Bieksa (Questionable, lower body), RW Logan Shaw (Questionable, lower body), RW Patrick Eaves (Out Indefinitely, lower body), D Simon Despres (Out Indefinitely, concussion).

Predators - LW Kevin Fiala (Out For Season, leg).

ABOUT THE DUCKS (55-26-11-3, 35-39 O/U): Anaheim coach Randy Carlyle made a calculated gamble in Game 2 when, with his team trailing by two goals, he shuffled his lines and replaced Corey Perry with rookie Ondrej Kase on the No. 1 unit with captain Ryan Getzlaf and Nick Ritchie. Kase scored the tying goal in the second period -- his first of the playoffs -- as part of a huge night for that line that saw Getzlaf collect three assists and Ritchie score the decisive tally, his second-game winner in three contests. "We think that moving him up and down in our lineup gives us some flexibility, because he's a fearless player for his size," Carlyle said of Kase. "And he goes into the areas and can make plays with good players."

ABOUT THE PREDATORS (50-32-8-4, 43-40 O/U): A game within the game is developing between Nashville's Ryan Johansen and Anaheim's Ryan Kesler, with the Predators' top line center bristling at what he considers suspect tactics by his counterpart. "I don't know what's going through his head over there. Like, his family and his friends watching him play, I don't know how you can cheer for a guy like that," Johansen said. "I'm just trying to go out there and play hockey, and it (stinks) when you've got to pull a stick out of your groin every shift." Despite the simmering feud, Johansen scored one goal and set up another Sunday to give him 13 points, tying for the most in a postseason in franchise history.

TRENDS:

* Ducks are 5-1 in their last 6 road games.
* Predators are 5-1 in their last 6 vs. Pacific.
* Over is 6-1-2 in Ducks last 9 road games.
* Under is 8-1-2 in Predators last 11 home games.
* Under is 2-0-3 in the last 5 meetings in Nashville.

CONSENSUS: 68 percent of the public is siding with the home chalk Predators on the moneyline and 68 percent are on the Over.

**Udog** · 05-16-2017, 08:48 AM

NHL
Dunkel

Tuesday, May 16

Anaheim @ Nashville

Game 51-52
May 16, 2017 @ 8:00 pm

Dunkel Rating:
Anaheim
10.159
Nashville
13.591
Dunkel Team:
Dunkel Line:
Dunkel Total:
Nashville
by 3 1/2
7
Vegas Team:
Vegas Line:
Vegas Total:
Nashville
-145
5
Dunkel Pick:
Nashville
(-145); Over

NHL
Long Sheet

Tuesday, May 16

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ANAHEIM (55-26-0-14, 124 pts.) at NASHVILLE (50-32-0-12, 112 pts.) - 5/16/2017, 8:00 PM
Top Trends for this game.
NASHVILLE is 240-193 ATS (+522.9 Units) revenging a loss versus opponent since 1996.
NASHVILLE is 30-18 ATS (+3.7 Units) when playing against a team with a winning record this season.
NASHVILLE is 22-11 ATS (+10.3 Units) when playing against a team with a winning record in the second half of the season this season.
ANAHEIM is 55-40 ATS (+4.4 Units) in all games this season.
ANAHEIM is 37-20 ATS (+10.9 Units) second half of the season this season.
ANAHEIM is 30-19 ATS (+9.2 Units) when playing against a team with a winning record this season.
ANAHEIM is 20-11 ATS (+8.4 Units) when playing against a team with a winning record in the second half of the season this season.

Head-to-Head Series History
ANAHEIM is 10-8-0 straight up against NASHVILLE over the last 3 seasons
9 of 12 games in this series have gone OVER THE TOTAL over the last 3 seasons . (Over=+6.3 Units)

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NHL
Armadillo's Write-Up

Monday, May 15

Home side won six of last eight Anaheim-Nashville games; Ducks lost 3-1/5-0 in last two visits to Music City. Over is 3-0-2 in last five series games. Predators are 9-2 in playoffs, 5-0 at home; under is 4-1-1 in their last six games overall. Nashville allowed five goals in last game, after allowing total of seven goals in its previous five games. Anaheim won five of last seven games (over 5-1-1). Ducks are 1-22 on power play in their last seven games; Nashville is 0-12 in its last three games.

Conference finals
Ottawa-Pittsburgh
Ottawa 2-1 OT
Pitt 1-0

Nashville-Anaheim
Nashville 3-2 OT
Anaheim 5-3

NHL

Tuesday, May 16

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Trend Report
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8:00 PM
ANAHEIM vs. NASHVILLE
Anaheim is 2-4 SU in its last 6 games when playing on the road against Nashville
Anaheim is 13-4 SU in its last 17 games
Nashville is 4-2 SU in its last 6 games when playing at home against Anaheim
The total has gone UNDER in 6 of Nashville's last 8 games at home

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Announcement

Tuesday's NHL Trends and Indexes - 5/16

Tuesday's NHL Trends and Indexes - 5/16

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