Halak, Habs send series with Caps back to Montreal

Hockey Betting Lines

04/23/2010 - Washington, DC (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Montreal went back to Jaroslav Halak and the moved paid off as he came up with 37 saves to help the Canadiens stay alive with a 2-1 win over the Washington Capitals in Game 5 of their Eastern Conference quarterfinal series.

Halak, benched in Game 4 after starting the first three games and being pulled from net halfway through Game 3, allowed just one goal to Alex Ovechkin as the Canadiens kept their playoff hopes alive and now trail the Capitals, 3-2, in the best-of-seven set.

Travis Moen and Michael Cammalleri each had a goal for the Canadiens, who won the first game of this series in overtime, but proceeded to drop the next three.

Semyon Varlamov, starting his third straight game after relieving Jose Theodore in Game 2, stopped 26 shots for top-seeded Washington.

The series heads back to Montreal where Game 6 will be played on Monday.

Montreal struck 90 seconds into the game as Andrei Markov sent a backhand pass from the left boards to the inside left circle where Cammalleri's quick wrister found its way past Varlamov.

At the 7:01 mark of the first, the Habs took a 2-0 lead. Brian Gionta chipped the puck out front from behind the net as he was getting hit and Moen was able to backhand the puck into the left corner of the net.

Washington controlled play for much of the remainder of the opening period, but Halak was able to keep them off the board thanks to his 15 saves.

The Caps continued to apply pressure to start the second period and their worked paid off 3:52 in. A slap shot by John Carlson at the right point found its way through a maze of players, hit off the skate of Mike Knuble in front and Ovechkin was able to jam home the rebound to make it a 2-1 game.

Varlamov kept his team in the game with 10 saves in the middle stanza.

Washington was awarded a power play 5:15 into the third when Benoit Pouliot was called for holding, but Halak came up with several saves during the man advantage, including a stop on a point-blank shot from Tomas Fleischmann.

The Caps had several more opportunities through the third period, but a too many men on the ice call with 1:07 to play effectively killed any chance the team had of tying the game.

Halak finished the final period with 12 saves for the win.

Game Notes

The Washington power play, which was first overall in the league during the regular season, went 0-for-5 in the game and is just 1-for-24 in the series...The only time Montreal came back from a 3-1 deficit was in the 2004 quarterfinals against Boston...Montreal went 0-for-6 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.

NFL Betting Lines

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