Announcement

**Udog** · 01-01-2019, 09:25 AM

Armadillo: Tuesday's six-pack

NBA’s top six players in 3-point %age:

6) Bojan Bogdanovic, Pacers 46%

5) Derrick Rose, Wolves 46.2%

4) Danilo Gallinari, LAC 46.4%

3) Davis Bertans, Spurs 48%

2) Joe Harris, Nets 48.3%

1) Seth Curry, Trailblazers 50%

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Armadillo: Tuesday's List of 13: Happy New Year, everyone!!!!

13) This is the first NFL season ever where no team finished 8-8; NFL went to the 16-game schedule in 1978, with two seasons since then shortened by work stoppages.

12) Eight NFL head coaches were fired Sunday/Monday, 25% of the league’s coaches.

11) Steelers’ star WR Antonio Brown missed Sunday’s game with the Bengals, but apparently he wasn’t hurt, he was being disciplined after an incident in practice with a teammate, who was Ben Rothlisberger. Witnesses say it was a fairly ugly incident.

Sounds like it was an unhappy year in Pittsburgh, with Le’Veon Bell’s holdout and the coach screwing up game management situations and now Brown at odds with teammates. Throw in the defensive coordinator not knowing that Bengals’ TE Tyler Eifurt was hurt back in October, and it wouldn’t be surprising if whole lot of people were let go Monday, but they weren’t.

10) Oakland Raiders hired NFL Network analyst Mike Mayock as its GM; Mayock has been contributing to NFL Network and NFL.com since 2004, mostly in scouting, but he’s never worked in an NFL front office before.

Raiders have three first round draft picks in April and $100M in cap room to work with.

9) UCLA’s basketball team is 7-6 and has lost its last four games, which cost Steve Alford his job Monday. Bruins lost at home to Belmont, Liberty- those teams are both ranked in the top 80, but the coaching change was made, even before conference play begins. Our society isn’t terribly patient. Alford is a good guy; not sure why a move had to be made right now.

Alford/UCLA never seemed like a great match; will be fascinating to see where Bruins set their sights for a new coach. Murry Bartow is the interim coach; his father Gene was the coach who replaced John Wooden at UCLA, and who later started UAB’s basketball program.

Would Billy Donovan have any interest in the UCLA job? I’d have to ask, if I’m UCLA.

8) Mark Richt was fired as football coach at Miami; official word was “retired”, but guys don’t quit jobs like that. Richt is 58, would be curious to hear him on TV, hopefully learn from him.

Houston fired coach Major Applewhite; Dana Holgorsen has been mentioned as a potential target for the Cougars, but how is Houston a better job than West Virginia? Kliff Kingsbury has apparently turned down “a lucrative offer” from Houston to stay on as an assistant at USC.

7) Manny Diaz left as DC at Miami to become head coach at Temple, but when Richt retired (or was fired), Diaz quickly bolted Temple and is now the head coach at Miami. Oy.

6) Ole Miss signed former Michigan/Arizona coach Rich Rodriguez as its new OC, joining former Colorado coach Mike MacIntyre as its new DC, giving the Rebels an impressive staff around relatively inexperienced head coach Matt Luke.

6) This from the Grand Forks Herald:

Dan Shrader is a 38-year old full-time sanitation worker in the Minneapolis/St Paul area, who spends 50 hours a week driving a daily garbage route, dumping trash at the landfill and helping manage a 32-truck fleet.

He never played in the NHL, he never played college or pro hockey, he never played organized hockey growing up, period, but he is an amateur scout for the Winnipeg Jets, in charge of watching the Minnesota region for prospects. Pretty good second job for a garbageman.

If you like something a lot and work hard enough at it, all things are possible.

5) Hartford 79, Boston College 78 OT— ACC teams shouldn’t lose to America East teams.

4) City of Toronto had free bus/subway service from 7pm-7am New Year’s Eve, which is really good. More cities should do that; the less people who drive on New Year’s Eve, the better.

3) Stanford 14, Pittsburgh 13— Condoleeza Rice was on the Stanford sidelines for this game; not sure if she was auditioning for a coaching job or not. Pitt finishes year 7-7; always wondered if kids like enjoy going to El Paso for a bowl- seems like an unusual place for a bowl.

2) Oregon 7, Michigan State 6— In its last four games, Michigan State scored 6-6-14-6 points. That not good. Before Monday, last time they completed more than half their passes was October 27.

Mario Cristobal gets a bowl win in his first year at Oregon; it was Ducks’ first bowl wins since 2014, in a season when they had their third HC in last three years.

1) Hope you guys out there all have a Happy New Year; thanks for reading. I’m hoping that 2019 will be a year when we all get along better and tolerate each other’s opinions more. Our diversity is part of what makes this country unique, in a good way.

**Udog** · 01-01-2019, 09:46 AM

NHL

Tuesday, January 1

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Trend Report
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Boston Bruins
Boston is 5-12 ATS in its last 17 games
Boston is 4-2 SU in its last 6 games
The total has gone OVER in 6 of Boston's last 9 games
Boston is 1-4 ATS in its last 5 games on the road
Boston is 8-15 SU in its last 23 games on the road
The total has gone UNDER in 14 of Boston's last 18 games on the road
Boston is 2-4 SU in its last 6 games when playing on the road against Chicago
The total has gone UNDER in 5 of Boston's last 7 games when playing on the road against Chicago
Chicago Blackhawks
Chicago is 5-1 ATS in its last 6 games
Chicago is 5-1 SU in its last 6 games
The total has gone OVER in 13 of Chicago's last 18 games
Chicago is 4-2 ATS in its last 6 games at home
Chicago is 3-6 SU in its last 9 games at home
The total has gone OVER in 5 of Chicago's last 6 games at home
Chicago is 4-2 SU in its last 6 games when playing at home against Boston
The total has gone UNDER in 5 of Chicago's last 7 games when playing at home against Boston

Philadelphia Flyers
Philadelphia is 4-2 ATS in its last 6 games
Philadelphia is 1-4 SU in its last 5 games
The total has gone UNDER in 7 of Philadelphia's last 9 games
Philadelphia is 1-7 SU in its last 8 games on the road
The total has gone UNDER in 5 of Philadelphia's last 6 games on the road
Philadelphia is 5-2 ATS in its last 7 games when playing Nashville
Philadelphia is 3-5-2 SU in its last 10 games when playing on the road against Nashville
The total has gone OVER in 6 of Philadelphia's last 8 games when playing on the road against Nashville
Nashville Predators
Nashville is 1-8 ATS in its last 9 games
Nashville is 1-6 SU in its last 7 games
Nashville is 1-5 ATS in its last 6 games at home
Nashville is 11-4 SU in its last 15 games at home
The total has gone UNDER in 4 of Nashville's last 6 games at home
Nashville is 2-5 ATS in its last 7 games when playing Philadelphia
The total has gone OVER in 6 of Nashville's last 8 games when playing at home against Philadelphia

Los Angeles Kings
Los Angeles is 5-2 ATS in its last 7 games
Los Angeles is 5-1 SU in its last 6 games
The total has gone UNDER in 5 of Los Angeles's last 6 games
Los Angeles is 5-1 ATS in its last 6 games on the road
Los Angeles is 7-16 SU in its last 23 games on the road
The total has gone UNDER in 17 of Los Angeles's last 23 games on the road
Los Angeles is 2-5 SU in its last 7 games when playing Vegas
The total has gone UNDER in 7 of Los Angeles's last 10 games when playing Vegas
Los Angeles is 4-1 ATS in its last 5 games when playing on the road against Vegas
Vegas Golden Knights
Vegas is 14-6 SU in its last 20 games
Vegas is 2-4 ATS in its last 6 games at home
Vegas is 7-2 SU in its last 9 games at home
Vegas is 5-2 SU in its last 7 games when playing Los Angeles
The total has gone UNDER in 7 of Vegas's last 10 games when playing Los Angeles
Vegas is 1-4 ATS in its last 5 games when playing at home against Los Angeles

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**Udog** · 01-01-2019, 09:51 AM

Blackhawks' outdoor curse in Winter Classic and this week's NHL betting predictions and picks
Jason Logan

The Chicago Blackhawks have struggled in their past Winter Classic matchups, and are +105 underdogs heading into this one against the Boston Bruins.

The calendar flips to 2019 in a big way, with the NHL ringing in the New Year with their annual Winter Classic on January 1. That kicks off a busy week of NHL betting action. If you’re dropping some bucks on the pucks, here are the highlights on the hockey board.

THE GREAT OUTDOORS

The NHL holds its Winter Classic, the league’s 26th outdoor game, on New Year’s Day, with the Boston Bruins and Chicago Blackhawks doing battle at Notre Dame Stadium in South Bend, Indiana. Looking back at the previous 25 outdoor events, the road team has gone 15-10 SU, with those contests producing a 11-10-4 Over/Under count – including 6-3-1 to the O/U over the last 10 games.

Chicago is dubbed the home team for this Original Six matchup, having lost all but one of its previous five outdoor games, going back to 2009. The Blackhawks were outscored by a total of 20-9 in those showcase games but head into 2019 with momentum, having picked up victories in five of their last six contests and outscoring foes 20-14 (allowing only 2.3 goals per game) in that span.

Boston, which is 1-1 in outdoor games all time, has four wins in its last six games before a brief break heading into the Winter Classic. The Bruins suffered through a two-game skid, allowing 10 total goals, before getting an impressive 3-2 overtime win at Buffalo Saturday.

The forecast in South Bend is calling for rain New Year’s Eve with that stopping overnight, leaving cloudy skies and temperatures in the low 30s for the 1 p.m. ET puckdrop.

WAKING UP IN VEGAS

The Los Angeles Kings open 2019 in Las Vegas but won’t get to enjoy the Sin City party since they play in Colorado on New Year’s Eve. The Kings take on the Avalanche at 8 p.m. ET Monday and then hit the ice the next night – New Year’s Day – for a 9 p.m. ET matchup with the rival Golden Knights.

Los Angeles is expected to start promising goaltending prospect Cal Petersen, who may be playing in his final start for the big club before getting sent back to the minors with Jack Campbell returning from injury. Petersen allowed three goals in Vegas in his most recent start, a 4-3 overtime win for the Kings on December 23, and has given up nine goals on 107 total shot since No. 1 netminder Jonathan Quick returned to action.

The Kings are 2-2-1 with a 4-1 Over/Under mark in the second of back-to-back games this season and 2-5 in their last seven matchups with Vegas.

MARCH OF THE PENGUINS

The Pittsburgh Penguins are starting to look like Stanley Cup contenders again, after a slow start to the 2018-19 season. Pittsburgh has won five in a row heading into a New Year’s Eve battle with the Minnesota Wild, totaling 18 goals and allowing only five against during this streak.

Pittsburgh comes to the Big Apple to take on the New York Rangers on Wednesday – the lone home stand for the Blue Shirts in a six-game span that sends N.Y. out West following this matchup with Pittsburgh. The Rangers have hemorrhaged goals in recent games, allowing an average of 3.9 per game in December and have played Over the NHL betting total in all but two of their 11 games so far this month.

Surprisingly, this is the first meeting between Pittsburgh and New York this season, with the teams playing Over the number in all four of their head-to-head clashes last season, posting a collective average of 7.5 goals scored in those contests.

GOALIE PROFILE

Robin Lehner, New York Islanders

Lehner is both a feel-good story and cautionary tale for young NHLers, having overcome alcohol and pill addiction to remain sober for nine months. The Islanders netminder has been fantastic between the pipes, helping New York post a 7-2-1 record in its last 10 contests. Since November 29, Lehner has started six games, allowing only seven goals against in those outings, heading into his New Year’s Eve reunion with his former club the Buffalo Sabres. The Isles have played Under the total in all six of those starts for the Swede, who owns a 2.21 GAA and .926 save percentage on the season. After Monday’s game with Buffalo, New York takes on Chicago at home Thursday and plays at St. Louis on Saturday.

INJURY UPDATE

Dustin Byfuglien, Winnipeg Jets: The Jets will be missing their top two-way player for about a month with Byfuglien suffering an injury to his left leg in Saturday’s loss to Minnesota. Byfuglien is not only the Jets’ emotional leader but its best scoring defenseman, recording four goals and 25 assists on the season. Winnipeg leads the Central Division with a 24-12-1-1 record and has earned +4.25 units for NHL moneyline bettors this season. The Jets’ second-ranked power play will absolutely miss Byfuglien, scoring at a 28.6 percent clip on the man advantage. That could give value to the Under in upcoming Winnipeg games.

HAT TRICK TRENDS

The Tampa Bay Lightning are 50-24 in their last 74 road games and open a three-game West Coast run at Anaheim on New Year’s Eve. The Bolts are 30-7-2-0 on the season (+14.9 units) and don’t present much value on the moneyline at home, but should be more affordable on the road this coming week.

The Vancouver Canucks are the best puckline bet – hockey’s version of the pointspread – in the NHL, with a 29-12 record when getting or giving 1.5 goals. That’s stacked +13.28 units for NHL puckline players this season. Bettors may want to pump the breaks on the Canucks, however, with a challenging schedule this week. Vancouver is in the midst of a six-game road swing, having won at Calgary and Edmonton last week, and have upcoming games at New Jersey, Ottawa, Montreal, and Toronto – a daunting four games in six nights.

The Penguins are on an 8-2 tear in their last 10 and look like the dominant offense bettors have come to know and love the past decade. Pittsburgh’s Stanley Cup futures opened at 10/1 before the season and dipped to 12/1 just before this current hot streak. Sidney Crosby & Co. will quick climb the Stanley Cup betting odds board if they stay on this pace in January.

**Udog** · 01-01-2019, 10:21 AM

NHL
Dunkel

Tuesday, January 1

Boston @ Chicago

Game 27-28
January 1, 2019 @ 1:00 pm

Dunkel Rating:
Boston
10.792
Chicago
11.805
Dunkel Team:
Dunkel Line:
Dunkel Total:
Chicago
by 1
5
Vegas Team:
Vegas Line:
Vegas Total:
Boston
-150
6
Dunkel Pick:
Chicago
(+130); Under

Philadelphia @ Nashville

Game 29-30
January 1, 2019 @ 8:30 pm

Dunkel Rating:
Philadelphia
8.694
Nashville
9.595
Dunkel Team:
Dunkel Line:
Dunkel Total:
Nashville
by 1
7
Vegas Team:
Vegas Line:
Vegas Total:
Nashville
-200
5 1/2
Dunkel Pick:
Nashville
(-200); Over

Los Angeles @ Vegas

Game 31-32
January 1, 2019 @ 9:00 pm

Dunkel Rating:
Los Angeles
8.827
Vegas
12.456
Dunkel Team:
Dunkel Line:
Dunkel Total:
Vegas
by 3 1/2
7
Vegas Team:
Vegas Line:
Vegas Total:
Vegas
-240
5 1/2
Dunkel Pick:
Vegas
(-240); Over

NHL
Long Sheet

Tuesday, January 1

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BOSTON (21-14-0-4, 46 pts.) at CHICAGO (15-20-0-6, 36 pts.) - 1/1/2019, 1:05 PM
Top Trends for this game.
BOSTON is 80-64 ATS (+147.6 Units) in road games on Tuesday nights since 1996.
CHICAGO is 48-76 ATS (-63.4 Units) in all games over the last 2 seasons.
CHICAGO is 15-30 ATS (-23.0 Units) second half of the season over the last 2 seasons.
CHICAGO is 10-29 ATS (-24.7 Units) after a division game over the last 2 seasons.
CHICAGO is 19-43 ATS (-30.4 Units) when playing against a team with a winning record over the last 2 seasons.
CHICAGO is 10-26 ATS (+38.5 Units) when playing against a team with a winning record in the first half of the season over the last 2 seasons.

Head-to-Head Series History
CHICAGO is 2-2 (+0.3 Units) against the spread versus BOSTON over the last 3 seasons
CHICAGO is 2-2-0 straight up against BOSTON over the last 3 seasons
3 of 4 games in this series have gone UNDER THE TOTAL over the last 3 seasons . (Under=+1.9 Units)

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PHILADELPHIA (15-18-0-5, 35 pts.) at NASHVILLE (23-15-0-2, 48 pts.) - 1/1/2019, 8:35 PM
Top Trends for this game.
NASHVILLE is 33-15 ATS (+12.3 Units) revenging a loss versus opponent over the last 2 seasons.
PHILADELPHIA is 89-87 ATS (+196.1 Units) in road games when playing against a team with a winning record in the first half of the season since 1996.
NASHVILLE is 43-41 ATS (-14.2 Units) when playing against a team with a losing record over the last 3 seasons.
NASHVILLE is 14-17 ATS (-14.2 Units) when playing against a team with a losing record in the first half of the season over the last 2 seasons.

Head-to-Head Series History
NASHVILLE is 3-2 (+0.6 Units) against the spread versus PHILADELPHIA over the last 3 seasons
NASHVILLE is 3-2-0 straight up against PHILADELPHIA over the last 3 seasons
3 of 5 games in this series have gone UNDER THE TOTAL over the last 3 seasons . (Under=+0.8 Units)

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LOS ANGELES (16-21-0-3, 35 pts.) at VEGAS (23-15-0-4, 50 pts.) - 1/1/2019, 9:05 PM
Top Trends for this game.
LOS ANGELES is 43-50 ATS (-25.9 Units) second half of the season over the last 3 seasons.
LOS ANGELES is 32-44 ATS (-23.9 Units) vs. division opponents over the last 3 seasons.
LOS ANGELES is 21-38 ATS (-17.9 Units) when playing against a team with a winning record over the last 2 seasons.
VEGAS is 88-57 ATS (+29.7 Units) in all games over the last 2 seasons.
VEGAS is 37-16 ATS (+18.1 Units) vs. division opponents over the last 2 seasons.

Head-to-Head Series History
VEGAS is 7-4 (+1.3 Units) against the spread versus LOS ANGELES over the last 3 seasons
VEGAS is 7-4-0 straight up against LOS ANGELES over the last 3 seasons
7 of 9 games in this series have gone UNDER THE TOTAL over the last 3 seasons . (Under=+4.7 Units)

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Announcement

Tuesday's NHL Trends and Indexes - 1/1

Tuesday's NHL Trends and Indexes - 1/1

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