Saturday Trends and Indexes 12/30

[Udog]

NHL
Write-up

Hot Teams
Senators won last three games, posting shutouts in last two.
Islanders wonlast four home games, posting shutouts in last three. New Jersey won three of last four games.
Atlanta won last five games, allowing eleven goals. Buffalo won three of its last four games.
Montreal won six of last eight, but one of last three games.
Bruins won five of their last six games. Predators won seven of their last nine games.
St Louis won four of its last five games.

Cold Teams
Maple Leafs lost four of last five games.
Rangers lost last seven games, scoring zero goals in last two. Washington lost five of its last six games.
Tampa Bay lost ten of last fourteen games.
Colorado lost last two games, allowing nine goals.
San Jose lost four of its last six games. Coyotes lost six of the last nine games; they're 3-10 after a win this season.
Canucks lost six of their last seven games. Edmonton lost six of its last eight games.

Series Records
Senators are 3-1 vs Toronto this season: 4-1/0-6/6-2/7-2.
Islanders won seven of last nine games vs Devils.
Home side won both Washington-Ranger games this season.
Thrashers are 3-2 in last five games vs Buffalo.
Montreal is 3-1 vs Lightning this year: 4-2/3-1.
Bruins, Predators didn't play last season.
Blues are 2-1 vs Colorado this season: 4-1/1-4/4-2.
Sharks are 2-1 vs Phoenix this season: 2-1/4-0/2-3.
Oilers are 2-1 vs Vancouver this season: 1-2/2-1/4-0.

Back-to-Back Situations
Ottawa is 1-4 on back end of back/back.
Devils are 4-0 on road if they played at home night before.
Rangers are 3-4 on back end of back/back.
Montreal is 2-3 on back end of back/back.
Nashville is 6-2 on back end of back/back.
Blues are 2-7 on back end of back/back.
Sharks are 2-3 on front end of back/back.
Oilers are 1-4 on front end of back/back.

Totals
Under is 5-2-1 in Ottawa's last eight games.
Five of Devils' last six road games went over the total.
Under is 15-8 in last twenty-three Ranger games.
Five of last seven Atlanta road games went over the total.
Under is 6-2-1 in Montreal's last nine road games.
Last five Boston road games all went over the total.
Six of last eight Colorado road games went over the total.
Last six San Jose road games stayed under the total.
Under is 13-6 in Vancouver's road games.

[Udog]

Six-Pack for Saturday

Texas Tech trailed Minnesota 38-7 with 7:47 left in third quarter, then posted the biggest comeback in bowl history, winning 44-41 in overtime. Have a nice winter, Gophers.

Minnesota has been victim in two of the four biggest comebacks in bowl history, both in last six years. They also lost a home game to Michigan in '03 after leading 35-7.

Oregon State trailed 38-24 midway thru fourth quarter, but scored two TDs, and went for winning 2-pointer with 0:23 left and won the game. Beavers won nine of last 10 games.

Kentucky led Clemson 7-6 late in first half, had 4th-and-7 from inside its own 20, and ran a fake punt!!! Not only did it work, but they hit 70-yard TD pass on next play. That's the kind of inspired coaching you get when the head coach just signed a new contract.

Bad day for Big 11, whose first two bowl teams lost.

Air Force hoop team did it again, winning 78-48 at a Santa Clara club that had won eight of its last ten games.

[Udog]

Saturday's List of 13:

Random weekend thoughts.........

13) If you add the contracts of JD Drew ($70M), Zito ($126M) and Matsuzaka ($52M), you get a total of $248M; multiply by .04, and you get $9,920,000, which is what scumweasel agent Scott Boras' take was on this baseball bonanza, assuming he gets the standard 4% fee.

12) Jets have their Australian punter holding for kicks and it's a dumb idea; how about letting someone who is used to handling the ball (like, for more than two years of his life?) hold for kicks? Graham has fumbled two snaps the last couple of weeks.

11) Jamal Anderson of the Falcons holds the NFL record with 410 carries in a season; Larry Johnson needs 27 carries this week to break that record. ESPN.com points out that the year after Anderson's 410 carries, he lugged the ball 19 times, so beware.

10) Oklahoma State QB Reid is very good; I can see magazine covers next summer, calling him the next Vince Young. He's not that good. Yet.

9) Funny thing about bowls is that there are lot of them on artificial turf, but not that many college teams play on carpet anymore. Moving on to college basketball………

8) VMI is getting 93.5 possessions/game, 2.9 more than anyone else in country; of the teams we follow on this site, Washington plays fastest, with 77.6 poss/game.

7) That said, Tennessee is by far the most fun team to watch, ranking 23rd on offensive efficiency and 10th in pace. A very excellent combination.

6) Duke ranks 10th in country, getting 25.5% of their points from foul line; they also rank 24th (out of 336 teams) as their opponents score only 15.4% of their points from charity stripe. Not that Duke gets preferential treatment from officials……

5) The top three teams in country in offensive efficiency are Air Force-Florida-North Carolina, in that order….on defense, top three are Oklahoma-Duke-UConn.

4) Tim Floyd can coach college ball; USC is 4th in defensive efficiency, and is playing tough despite lacking a true point guard. When they add OJ Mayo next year, look out.

3) Conference RPI's of note:
1) ACC 2) Pac-10 3) Missouri Valley 7) Big East 22) America East 27) MAAC. Bad year for the Metro Atlantic.

2) West Virginia gets 45.7% of its points on 3's, most of anyone. Manhattan gets 11.6% of its points, by far the least.

1) Surprising RPIs: 4) Butler 12) UNLV 26) Ohio State
34) Davidson 61) Holy Cross and 62) Syracuse