Kiprusoff, Flames blank Sens

Hockey Betting Lines

03/12/2010 - Calgary, AB (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Miikka Kiprusoff stopped all 33 shots he faced for his 34th career shutout, as the Calgary Flames topped the Ottawa Senators, 2-0, at the Saddledome.

Jamal Mayers and Chris Higgins scored for the Flames, who won their fourth consecutive game and continued their fight to gain a playoff berth. The Flames have been hovering around the final spot in the West and currently sit one point above Detroit for the eighth position.

Brian Elliott allowed two goals on 25 shots for the Senators, who fell to 1-3-1 since the resumption of play following the Olympics and remained two points behind the Buffalo Sabres in the race for the Northeast Division crown.

The Senators failed on all five of their power-play chances.

The Flames opened the scoring at the 5:29 mark of the first period. Curtis Glencross' strong forechecking effort on a dump-in allowed him to gain control of the puck along the rear boards. Glencross sent a quick pass into the lower right circle, where Mayers corralled the disc and beat Elliott with a wrister.

Midway through the first period, the Senators thought they tied the game, but the celebration was short-lived as referee Rob Martell waived his arms signaling the goal was no-good. Replays showed that Milan Michalek's stick was above the crossbar when it deflected the puck into the back of the cage after a shot from the right point.

Both goaltenders saved all 12 shots they faced in the scoreless second period.

In the early stages of the third stanza, Ottawa gained a power play when Mark Giordano was whistled for cross-checking. However, solid penalty killing by the Flames and the inability of the Sens to gain quality scoring chances kept the visitors without a goal.

Ottawa's Peter Regin was all alone atop the crease for a rebound chance with 12 minutes to go, but he hit the crossbar.

Soon after, Calgary moved ahead by two on Higgins' eighth goal. Ian White intercepted a pass in the neutral zone, skated across the blue line down the left-wing side and, from near the half-wall, sent a pass through the slot for a successful one-timer by Higgins from inside the right circle at 9:05.

In the final minutes, Daniel Alfredsson had a good look from above the right circle, but Kiprusoff was quicker with the glove.

Game Notes.

The start of the game was delayed by 35 minutes due to a broken pane of glass which occurred during warmups...Despite the loss, the Sens have still won eight of their last 12 road games...Kiprusoff notched his fourth shutout of the season...The Flames were 0-for-3 on the power play.

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FOOTBALL BETTING : Crabtree's base deal: six years, $32 million

Football Betting

In the wake of the news that the 49ers have signed receiver Michael Crabtree after an extended holdout, there has been not a hint of the dollars to be paid to Crabtree.

And since this means that his agent hasn't leaked the numbers, it means that his agent feels no specific motivation to do so.

Possibly because his agent isn't all that thrilled to have his name on the deal.

So the numbers will come from sources other than Crabtree's agent. And we've gotten our mitts into them.

Per a league source, Crabtree has signed a six-year, $32 million contract. (The total includes guaranteed money, base salaries, and the one-time incentive based on achieving minimum playing time.)

The deal also includes $17 million in guaranteed money.

As reported elsewhere, the deal can void to five years based on performance triggers, wiping out a final year base salary of $4 million. But they won't be easily reached.

The source tells us that, in his first four seasons (including 2009), Crabtree must either qualify for two Pro Bowls, or he must qualify for one Pro Bowl in one year and he must participate in 80 percent of the offensive snaps in a separate year in which the team makes the playoffs.

In other words, if in 2010 he qualifies for the Pro Bowl and the team makes the playoffs and he participates in 80 percent of the snaps, he'll still need to make it to the Pro Bowl or achieve the 80-percent/playoffs in another season.

Since the chances of Crabtree making the Pro Bowl or participating in 80 percent of the offensive snaps this year is roughly zero percent, he'll have three years to get it done.

And it won't be easy. Frankly, he'll be hard pressed to make it to one Pro Bowl in three years with the likes of Larry Fitzgerald, Calvin Johnson, Anquan Boldin, Steve Smith, the other Steve Smith, Hakeem Nicks, DeSean Jackson, Johnny Knox, Percy Harvin, Greg Jennings, Roddy White, T.J. Houshmandzadeh in the same conference for sportsbook betting.

So, by all appearances, it's a six-year deal. And at $17 million in guaranteed money, the per-year guarantee is a tepid $2.83 million per year.

There's another problem with the deal -- it has no mid-tier incentive package. Instead, the additional $8 million that Crabtree can earn (pushing the max value to six years, $40 million) requires the kind of unrealistic, mega-star performances that no rookie is likely to ever achieve.

So while the contract paid to Packers defensive tackle B.J. Raji covers five years and pays $22.5 million, he has the ability (if he's a solid player) to make up the difference between his base deal and Crabtree's five-year, $28 million haul via the mid-tier incentive package in Raji's deal.

And unless Crabtree meets the performance thresholds necessary to void the sixth year, he'll be stuck under contract for another year at a base salary of only $4 million.

There's one other area of concern with the deal. Crabtree, per the source, received no option bonus. Instead, he has significant money tied to a fairly new device known as a "discretionary salary advance," which unlike an opition bonus is subject to forfeiture if Crabtree decides in a year or two that he wants to hold out for a better deal. (We're also told that the 49ers have included language that would make certain escalators subject to forfeiture, too.)

Meanwhile, the deal falls well short of the mark for which Crabtree and agent Eugene Parker were aiming -- the five-year, $38.25 million contract paid by the Raiders to receiver Darrius Heyward-Bey, the seventh overall pick in the draft.

Even if Crabtree successfully voids the final year, he'll make more than $2 million per year less on average than Heyward-Bey.

Thus, as we explained earlier in the day, this is a deal that Crabtree could have done in July, which would have given him a much better chance of making a contribution to the 49ers during his rookie year.

So while the final outcome can be described as win-win, the broader view suggests that it's really a lose-lose situation.

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