Announcement

**Udog** · 05-25-2017, 07:35 AM

Armadillo: Thursday's six-pack

Odds to win the PGA Tour event at Colonial this weekend:

12-1— Jon Rahm, Jordan Spieth

14-1— Sergio Garcia

20-1— Jason Dufner

25-1— Matt Kuchar, Paul Casey

30-1— Bud Cauley, Kevin Kisner

35-1— Adam Hadwin, Tony Finau, Zach Johnson

**********

Armadillo: Thursday's List of 13: Doing some thinking out loud……..

13) Dodgers beat St Louis 2-1 in 13 innings late Tuesday night, but Cardinals tied the game in the 9th inning in an odd way. Clayton Kershaw was going for a complete game shutout but threw a wild pitch with a man on second and Randall Grichuk scored all the way from second with the tying run. Don’t see that more than a couple of times a year.

12) That game Tuesday started the Cardinals out on a 47-game in 48-day stretch that takes them up to the All-Star break. Has to be a makeup game in there somewhere, since teams generally aren’t allowed to play more than 20 consecutive days.

11) They had a 3:12 rain delay in Atlanta Tuesday nite; with non-division opponents only visiting a city once a year, teams don’t want to have to play doubleheaders, so they wait the rain out and finish the game when they can, which in this case was close to 2am.

10) If you’re trying to develop young pitchers, like the Milwaukee Brewers are, is it smart to have your AAA farm team in the high altitude of Colorado Springs?

Arizona, Colorado, Milwaukee, San Diego and the Mets all have their AAA teams in high altitude cities.

9) North Carolina’s 6-10 Tony Bradley scored 7.1 pts/game in 14.6 minutes per game, but he is bolting to the NBA, UNC’s first one/done player since 2007 (Brandan Wright).

8) Most overused word in English language these days: “process”. If ballplayers don’t know what to say during an interview, they “trust the process”- its become a cliche.

7) Former Duke guard Frank Jackson had a stress reaction in his foot last winter at Duke but reportedly played pain-free through the season, but decided to have surgery on the foot now to begin the rehabilitation process- he is expected to be back by late July, but summer league is in early July.

Unless the kid got a promise from an NBA team that they will draft him, what on earth was he thinking, signing with an agent? That prevented him from going back to school, having the operation on Duke’s dime, rehabbing all summer and then playing for the Blue Devils next winter.

6) Purdue’s chances of making the Final Four next spring went down the drain when big man Caleb Swanigan stayed in the NBA Draft. Matt Painter is suspect as a game coach, so they probably wouldn’t have made it anyway, but having Swanigan gave them an advantage.

5) All-time, there have been 18,988 major league baseball players; Houston’s new backup catcher Juan Centeno became the 875th all-time Astro this week.

4) Colorado’s Charlie Blackmon has 44 RBI, most in the major leagues and he bats leadoff— part of that is because Colorado has sacrificed 22 times (most in MLB) this year, giving him lot of guys in scoring position when he bats.

Blackmon has come to bat with a guy on 3rd base 15 times this year (T2 in MLB), also 15 times with a man on second base (most in MLB). Makes it easier to get a lot of RBI that way.

3) Phillies were 12-12 on May 1st; they are 3-17 since then, with all three wins in games started by Jeremy Hellickson- they’ve lost their last 15 games not started by Hellickson.

2) If/when David Ortiz gets in the Hall of Fame and I think he will, then Edgar Martinez has to get in, too, since that would eliminate the anti-DH bias. Playing in Seattle shouldn’t work against him; Ortiz played in the eastern media spotlight, Martinez didn’t.

Martinez had a career on-base percentage of .418, he hit .312 with 309 homers. A great hitter.

1) Eagles’ QB Carson Wentz spent 10 days in LA this spring with QB gurus Adam Dedeaux and Tom House (of baseball fame), to improve his throwing mechanics, I guess. Doug Pederson is the Eagles’ coach, a former NFL QB and apparently he wasn’t all that happy Wentz did that.

**Udog** · 05-25-2017, 08:41 AM

Thursday's NHL Stanley Cup Playoffs Betting Preview: Senators at Penguins

Continuing their improbable postseason journey will require the Senators to dethrone Pittsburgh at PPG Paints Arena -- a venue where they suffered a humbling 7-0 beatdown in Game 5.

Ottawa Senators at Pittsburgh Penguins (-200, 5)

Series tied 3-3

The Ottawa Senators bounced back from a lopsided drubbing with a gritty home victory over the reigning Stanley Cup champions to force a decisive Game 7 in the Eastern Conference final. Ottawa looks to advance to the Stanley Cup Final for the first time since 2007 and deny Pittsburgh a return trip when they visit the Penguins on Thursday night.

Continuing their improbable postseason journey will require the Senators to dethrone Pittsburgh at PPG Paints Arena -- a venue where they suffered a humbling 7-0 beatdown in Game 5. “We wanted to force Game 7 and that’s what we did," Ottawa forward Zack Smith said while acknowledging the Senators are well aware they are considered an overwhelming underdog. “That’s fine with us. I feel it’s been that way for most of the year and playoffs. That’s fine, we’ll play that role.” The Penguins are bidding to become the first team to make back-to-back appearances in the Cup Final since they turned the trick in 2008-09, but have a checkered history in winner-takes-all matchups with an all-time record of 3-7 record in Game 7s at home. “We’ve been in this situation before,” Pittsburgh defenseman Trevor Daley said. “We’re a confident team in here. We have a lot of veteran guys. We’ve been here before. We know what we need to do to get the job done in Game 7.”

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

LINE HISTORY: The Penguins opened as massive -225 moneyline favorites but by Wednesday evening that line was down to -200. The total opened at 5 and is not expected to move.

GOALIE MATCHUP: Craig Anderson (OTT) vs. Matt Murray (PIT)

Anderson - GP: 18, W/L: 11-6, 2.36 GAA, .922 SAVE %, 1 SO
Murray - GP: 4, W/L: 2-1, 1.33 GAA, .950 SAVE %, 1 SO

INJURY REPORT:

Senators - D M. Borowiecki (Questionable, leg), LW A. Burrows (Doubtful, leg).

Penguins - RW P. Hornqvist (Questionable, upper body), D J. Schultz (Questionable, upper body), RW T. Kuhnhackl (Questionable, lower body), D C. Ruhwedel (Questionable, concussion), D K. Letang (Out for season, neck).

ABOUT THE SENATORS (55-34-7-4, 39-53 O/U): Craig Anderson was away from the team for half the season to be with his wife during her cancer treatments, so the fact the he bounced back with a superlative 45-save effort in Game 6 after being yanked in the 7-0 debacle was no surprise to Ottawa. "It starts with the goalie," Senators coach Guy Boucher said. "It's like a quarterback in football and a pitcher in baseball, and we have it. We got that guy." Veteran Bobby Ryan, taken No. 2 overall in the 2005 NHL draft behind Pittsburgh captain Sidney Crosby, scored 13 times in 62 regular-season games but has six goals in 18 playoff contests after his tying tally in Game 6. Ryan's goal also ended Ottawa's 0-for-29 power-play drought.

ABOUT THE PENGUINS (61-26-8-5, 55-39 O/U): Pittsburgh has the luxury of sending out a pair of Conn Smythe Trophy winners in Crosby and Evgeni Malkin, who guided the team to Cup titles in 2016 and 2009, respectively. Crosby scored in three straight games prior to Tuesday's 2-1 setback and is tied for second in the postseason in scoring with 19 points. "I just think he in particular has played in arguably the most high-stakes environments in all different venues, whether it be the NHL, the Olympics, the World Cup," Penguins coach Mike Sullivan said. "He has such a wealth of experience to draw on and he's a fierce competitor." So is Malkin, who scored Pittsburgh's lone goal in Game 6 to boost his playoff-leading total to 24 points.

TRENDS:

* Senators are 1-4 in their last 5 road games vs. a team with a home winning % of greater than .600.
* Penguins are 24-8 in their last 32 home games vs. a team with a winning road record.
* Under is 6-2-1 in Senators last 9 Conference Finals games.
* Under is 8-3-1 in Penguins last 12 home games.
* Senators are 3-14 in the last 17 meetings in Pittsburgh.

CONSENSUS: 67 percent of users are siding with the home favorite Penguins and 60 percent of the totals wagers are on the Over.

**Udog** · 05-25-2017, 09:01 AM

NHL
Dunkel

Thursday, May 25

Ottawa @ Pittsburgh

Game 61-62
May 25, 2017 @ 8:00 pm

Dunkel Rating:
Ottawa
10.507
Pittsburgh
13.181
Dunkel Team:
Dunkel Line:
Dunkel Total:
Pittsburgh
by 2 1/2
6
Vegas Team:
Vegas Line:
Vegas Total:
Pittsburgh
-200
5
Dunkel Pick:
Pittsburgh
(-200); Over

NHL
Long Sheet

Thursday, May 25

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

OTTAWA (55-35-0-10, 120 pts.) at PITTSBURGH (61-26-0-13, 135 pts.) - 5/25/2017, 8:00 PM
Top Trends for this game.
PITTSBURGH is 125-81 ATS (+225.1 Units) in all games over the last 2 seasons.
PITTSBURGH is 30-12 ATS (+12.2 Units) in a home game where where the total is 5 or less over the last 2 seasons.
PITTSBURGH is 82-49 ATS (-5.4 Units) second half of the season over the last 2 seasons.
OTTAWA is 55-45 ATS (+104.5 Units) in all games this season.
OTTAWA is 35-29 ATS (+67.0 Units) second half of the season this season.
OTTAWA is 31-20 ATS (+56.0 Units) when playing against a team with a winning record this season.
OTTAWA is 19-13 ATS (+35.3 Units) when playing against a team with a winning record in the second half of the season this season.

Head-to-Head Series History
PITTSBURGH is 9-6 (+0.1 Units) against the spread versus OTTAWA over the last 3 seasons
PITTSBURGH is 9-6-0 straight up against OTTAWA over the last 3 seasons
7 of 14 games in this series have gone OVER THE TOTAL over the last 3 seasons . (Over=-0.7 Units, Under=-0.9 Units)

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

NHL
Armadillo's Write-Up

Thursday, May 25

Game 7 in series where home team is 4-2; Senators lost five of last six games in Steel City, getting blanked 1-0/7-0 in last two games in this arena. Under is 5-2-1 in last eight series games, since an 8-5 Penguin win here back in December. Ottawa lost four of last six road games; they have a whole country rooting for them- no Canadian franchise has won Stanley Cup since 1993. Pittsburgh has last line change, also the pressure of playing at home- they’re 3-2 in last five home games overall. Penguins are 5-22 on power play in their last seven games; Ottawa is 1-32 on power play in their last 11 games.

Conference finals
Ottawa-Pittsburgh
Ottawa 2-1 OT
Pitt 1-0
Ottawa 5-1
Pitt 3-2
Pitt 7-0
Ottawa 2-1

Nashville-Anaheim
Nashville 3-2 OT
Anaheim 5-3
Nashville 2-1
Anaheim 3-2 OT
Nashville 3-1
Nashville 6-3
Predators win series, 4-2

NHL

Thursday, May 25

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

8:00 PM
OTTAWA vs. PITTSBURGH
Ottawa is 2-4 SU in its last 6 games on the road
Ottawa is 1-6 SU in its last 7 games when playing on the road against Pittsburgh
Pittsburgh is 8-3 SU in its last 11 games at home
The total has gone UNDER in 8 of Pittsburgh's last 11 games at home

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

Announcement

Thursday's NHL Trends and Indexes - 5/25

Thursday's NHL Trends and Indexes - 5/25

Comment

Comment

Comment