Blueshirts lock up playoff spot

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04/06/2007 - New York, NY (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Jaromir Jagr had a goal and an assist and Henrik Lundqvist made 25 saves as the New York Rangers clinched a playoff berth with a 3-1 win over the Montreal Canadiens at Madison Square Garden.

Petr Prucha and Marek Malik also scored for New York, which has won eight of 10 and secured its second straight postseason appearance after missing it the previous seven seasons.

The feisty Sean Avery had an assist for the Rangers, who moved into the sixth spot in the Eastern Conference, two points ahead of idle Tampa Bay. The Lightning, though, have two games remaining, while the Rangers have just one.

Jaroslav Halak made 22 saves through the first two periods and Cristobal Huet stopped all eight shots he faced in the third for the Canadiens, who had a chance to secure a playoff spot.

Sheldon Souray scored for Montreal, which still sits in eighth place in the conference with 90 points, one ahead of Toronto. The Maple Leafs and Islanders are currently playing at Nassau Coliseum.

Montreal travels to Toronto on Saturday in the season-finale for both teams.

The Rangers started the scoring just 2:53 into the contest. Prucha took the puck into the offensive zone along the right side boards and from the top of the circle slapped a shot that beat Halak low to the stick side.

New York extended its lead with 8:42 left in the second period. After taking Michael Nylander's backhanded pass from the bottom of the left circle, Jagr snapped a shot from near the top of the circle over the glove side of Halak.

Jagr then had a hand in the Rangers' third goal. Just 7:08 after his goal, Jagr sent a cross-ice pass from the right side boards that hit the skate of Avery at the top of the left circle. The puck died and Malik skated on to it and slapped a shot that went by Halak's stick side.

Souray avoided the shutout for the Canadiens, scoring a power-play goal with just under five minutes to play. But that was as close as the Canadiens could get.

Game Notes

Souray's power-play goal was his 19th of the season and 26th overall...Jagr has 96 points this season and is just three points behind Paul Coffey (1,531) for 11th place all-time...New York's regular season ends on Saturday at Pittsburgh.

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Football Betting Sportsbook Accepts Credit Cards

Michael Vick is back, Brett Favre isn't and the NFC East remains the best division in the NFC, maybe in all of football.

As players start to gather for the start of another season, some things change and some stay the same in the world of the NFL.

Bet 2010 Super Bowl Odds

The NFC East has been the dominant division in the National Conference for a while, despite limited playoff success, save for the New York Giants surprise Super Bowl win two seasons ago.

Hell, there's a generation of kids in Texas who have never seen the Cowboys win a playoff game (last win was in 1996).

But collectively, the Giants, Eagles, Cowboys and Redskins (well, maybe not so much the Redskins) are as good as a division gets in an NFC conference that has struggled to stay competitive with the AFC side.

Sports bettors have both acknowledged the NFC East's dominance, as one glance at the NFL future odds menu will show.

Looking over the NFL betting odds at online sports book MySportsbook.com we see the top three teams listed to win the NFC Championship are all from the NFC East:

Dallas Cowboys - 7 - 1

Philadelphia Eagles - 13 - 2

New York Giants - 9 - 2

Slotting in behind these three are two teams from the NFC North: the Minnesota Vikings (15-2) and the Chicago Bears (10-1).

Again, despite the lack of recent playoff success, the Dallas Cowboys are popular with the sports betting community, as they hold 14% of all the money wagered on who will win the NFC Championship.

So far, the New York Giants are the bettors' favorite to represent their conference in the Super Bowl, as they have 24% of the overall NFC Championship betting volume.

And what about the Philadelphia Eagles? For the most part, the Eagles had a very productive offseason, the kind that could bring them back to the top.

They had a good draft adding the likes of WR Jeremy Maclin and RB LeSean McCoy.

Unfortunately, the team received a blow when long-time defensive coordinator Jim Johnson passed away on Tuesday.

But this team will make a real run at the division title this year. Going into the regular season, Philly is listed at +240 to win the division.

Last season the Eagles were 9-6-1 SU and 10-6 ATS.

Teams from the NFC East will play teams from the AFC West in the regular season and the Eagles haven't really been a good bet in the last 20 games against the likes of San Diego, Oakland, K.C. and Denver, only going 8-12 ATS.

Two seasons removed from that Super Bowl title, the New York Giants see themselves listed as the odds-on favorite in NFC East championship futures at +162.

Plaxico Burress is gone and with him all the bad publicity surrounding the gun in the sweatpants incident, but can they replace him in the offense?

Last season the Giants were a very reliable bet going 12-4 ATS.

In the Giants' last 20 games against fellow teams from the NFC East; they are 13-7 ATS.

Dallas is listed at +240 to win the division.

Dallas went 9-7 SU and 7-9 ATS last season and with the amount of talent the Cowboys have, a similar performance won't do.

The Cowboys have been atrocious against divisional rivals, going 6-14 ATS in their last 20.

The Washington Redskins are longshots to win the division at +550.

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