Blackhawks aim to rebound in Game 2 vs. Canucks

Hockey Betting Lines

05/03/2010 - (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The second-seeded Chicago Blackhawks will try to bounce back from a blowout loss in the opener of the Western Conference semifinals, when they host the Vancouver Canucks in Game 2 tonight at United Center.

The Blackhawks also hosted Game 1 on Saturday, but were slammed, 5-1, by the third-seeded Canucks. In its first round series against Nashville, Chicago lost the opener at home by a 4-1 count before rebounding to win the series in six games.

This series is a rematch of last year's conference semifinals, which Chicago won in six games before losing to Detroit in the West finals. The Canucks also won the opener in last year's matchup when they had home-ice advantage.

Roberto Luongo made 36 saves and Vancouver scored the first five goals of the game en route to Saturday's easy victory in the Windy City.

Christian Ehrhoff and Mason Raymond each had a goal and an assist while Henrik Sedin, Michael Grabner and Kyle Wellwood each added a goal for the Canucks, who eliminated Los Angeles in six games to reach this stage.

Both the Blackhawks and Vancouver had a considerable layoff between the first and second round of the playoffs. Chicago was playing its first game since April 26, while the Canucks had been off since April 25.

"I was able to make a few saves early and it got me going," said Luongo. "That was nice to get in the action right away since we hadn't played since Sunday. Now we've got to keep it going."

Patrick Kane scored the lone goal while Antti Niemi made 20 saves in the loss for the Blackhawks. Niemi was pulled after the second period and replaced by Cristobal Huet, who stopped all three shots he faced.

"Sometimes when you have a long layoff it hurts," said Kane. "But they had the same thing, though, so there's no excuse for it. Maybe we came in thinking it was going to be an easy series which obviously it's not."

Niemi, who will get the start again tonight, has surrendered a total of 12 goals on 74 shots over his last three games. Luongo has stopped 90-of-95 shots over the same span.

The Blackhawks were 29-8-4 as the host during the regular season and is 2-2 at United Center in the postseason. Vancouver, which will host Game 3 on Wednesday, was 19-20-2 on the road this year and is 3-1 as the guest in the playoffs.

This marks the fourth time the clubs have battled in the postseason. Vancouver's only series victory over Chicago was in the 1982 conference finals, when the Canucks ousted the Blackhawks in five games before getting swept by the New York Islanders in the Stanley Cup Finals.

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SPORTS BETTING - Tennis is an underrated and under-utilized bettors' sport.

Ten years ago, at just about this time, I called Alan Boston in Vegas and left him a voicemail that went something like this (abridged version): "Hey Alan, Chad Millman from ESPN The Magazine calling. I want to do a book about wise guys, you in?"

A couple weeks later I got a message back (abridged version): "I don't know, maybe," Boston said. "Call me and we'll talk about it. But not later today. I got $1,000 on Andre Agassi to win the French Open at 40-1, and he's in the finals."

Here's what happened next (abridged version): Agassi won his tourney. Boston won his $40,000. I wrote sportsbook.

In the ten years since, how much has been wagered on the big-time tennis events? Put it this way: The Nevada Gaming Commission doesn't even track the number year by year because it's so small.

"Tennis makes up about one-tenth of one percent of our take," says Lucky's bookmaking boss Jimmy Vaccaro. "The last big golf major we probably had $100,000 worth of bets. In tennis, we might have written two big tickets."

Tennis' lack of popularity amongst the American bettoratti is no surprise, really. For starters, the biggest sports betting holidays -- the Super Bowl, the NCAA tourney -- are must see TV. People, at least the degenerates I know, plan vacations around watching those events in Vegas sports books.

But Wimbledon? Doesn't exactly reel in the whales. "Seriously, it's the nuts as an event," says Boston. "But who even knows when it's on?"

Here's another reason that helps explain why golf gets traction, something I call "The Bubbe Theory." My Bubbe is pushing 95 and has cataracts so bad that, to her, even the most crystalline Chicago day is mostly cloudy. But she still listens to the Cubs games, and she still calls me in a fit if she disagrees with something Rick Telander writes in the Chicago Sun Times. She's a sports fan. If she doesn't know you, you're just filling a niche. And niche players, even historically good ones like Roger and Raf, don't drive betting volume. Only the highest profile names attract square money, which inflates wagering totals like a shot of saline to the lips. Bubbe, and the public, loved Agassi, tennis' last cross-the-rubicon, mainstream draw. She also has a crush on Tiger. She's given me standing orders to put a sawbuck on the big cat whenever I walk through a sports book (or mistakenly tap into one via my Internet machine.) That explains why the Masters is getting $100K in action at some books while the four tennis majors might not get that combined this year.

This isn't a case of tennis being a difficult sport to bet. In fact, in Europe, it's probably the second most popular sport for gambling after soccer. Granted, as the WSJ football betting last week and The Mag's Shaun Assael examined in even greater depth last year, that might be because gamblers across the pond see it as an easy game to fix. But it could also be because, over there it holds the kind of sway the big two do over here.

Street corners in Spain are peppered with public courts and kids doing their best Raffy impressions. In some war torn parts of Eastern Europe poverty-stricken kids view tennis as an escape route, like football or basketball here. A couple years ago The Mag's Lindsay Berra wrote a great piece about Belgrade's Jelena Jankovic, Ana Ivanovic and Novak Djokovic. They learned the game as kids while bombs were raining down on their homeland. They practiced in drained swimming pools. Not exactly Nick Bolletierri conditions.

In the United States, casual fans think tennis is played four times a year. But on the tightly packed European continent, national interest in homegrown talent runs deep every weekend. Of the ATP's current top 20 players, only two, tennis betting and James Blake, are American. Fourteen are from Europe, representing six different countries.

No wonder fans from Lisbon to Bhudapest get jacked up for the net game, whether it's Wimbledon or a low-level tourney like the Estoril Open in Portugal (congrats to Spain's Albert Montanes for winning that one, btw). Chances are good that someone representing their flag will not only be playing, but have a shot at winning.

And that's all any bettor can ask for.

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