Devils try to bounce back in Buffalo

Hockey Betting Lines

02/14/2012 - (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The New Jersey Devils will try to get back in the win column this evening when they visit the Buffalo Sabres for a clash at First Niagara Center.

The Devils had won a season-high five straight heading into a two-game homestand, but New Jersey dropped a shootout decision Thursday against St. Louis before losing in regulation to Florida on Saturday.

New Jersey, which is sixth in the Eastern Conference playoff race, was burned once again by Florida's Kris Versteeg on Saturday at Prudential Center.

Versteeg put the Panthers ahead in the second period with his fifth goal in four meetings against the Devils this season and Florida went on to post the 3-1 decision. Former Devils backup goaltender Scott Clemmensen also got the better of his former teammates, stopping 27 shots for the win.

Martin Brodeur, returning after a one-game absence because of an ankle injury, turned aside 17 shots in New Jersey's first regulation defeat in eight games (5-1-2). Steve Bernier scored the lone goal for the Devils.

"It wasn't anything they did... we started to throw the puck away," said New Jersey captain Zach Parise. "It's frustrating because we've been playing really well of late. It wasn't a great effort by us."

The Devils hope to claim a fifth straight road win tonight. New Jersey hasn't lost away from the Garden State since Jan. 10 in Calgary and the Devils are 16-10-1 as the guest this season.

The Sabres will also try to recapture their recent winning ways tonight after suffering their first regulation loss since the All-Star break on Saturday. Buffalo had won three in a row and was 5-0-1 in six outings before dropping a 2-1 decision to the visiting Tampa Bay Lightning.

Tampa Bay scored both of its goals in the second period on Saturday and Jason Pominville notched Buffalo's lone score just over seven minutes into the third period. Ryan Miller made 26 saves in the losing effort for the Sabres, who outshot Tampa by a 14-5 margin in the third period, but couldn't come up with the equalizer.

"After the second we talked about just getting more pucks towards the net and making plays in the offensive zone," Sabres center Derek Roy said of the third period.

Buffalo is tied with the Lightning and the Islanders for the 12th seed in the East and the trio of teams is eight points out of a playoff spot.

The Sabres are completing a four-game homestand tonight, but will leave for just one game on the road before returning to western New York for another four-game residency. Buffalo is 13-10-6 as the host this season.

Tonight's test is the fourth and final scheduled meeting between Jersey and Buffalo this season. The Devils won the first two meetings against Buffalo before the Sabres posted a 2-1 shootout win in New Jersey on Jan. 24. New Jersey has taken two of three and five of its last seven in Buffalo.

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FOOTBALL TRASH TALK

NFL Football Trash Talk

Trash talk has a place in every competitive endeavor (except baseball; those stirrup-wearers are too busy chewing on their sunflower seeds and their supplements to worry about what their opponents are doing).

Fantasy sports is no exception. Any intelligent discussion of the subject would probably start with a thesis statement or a definition of terms. Thankfully, this wont be an intelligent discussion.

Let me just say that I am happy to take a place in this space alongside my talented colleagues, even our commissioner. (You should see how she bleats like a demented paper boy about league fees on our fantasy site).

Trash talking, I would argue, is primarily about amusing your friends, their sheeplike demeanors and sloping foreheads notwithstanding. The best place I have found for football trash talking is at www.SportsAlarm.com.

Beyond the entertainment factor, though, I would recognize that the sophomoric ritual has one advantage, when properly applied. It magnifies your fantasy triumphs and mitigates your fantasy failures by transforming the eventual point total into an afterthought. Winning makes it seem like your opponent really is a truss-owning, lapel-pin-wearing nitwit. And in defeat, trash talk can be the air bag to break the fall from your hyperbolic heights. The plug-necked yahoos on your team, you can say, will be sacking groceries by the end of the season.

The best trash talk, in my view, is layered and nuanced. And it doesnt focus only on your opponents team. It picks apart your opponent. The idea is to create a shock-and-awe-scale blizzard of nonsense, and the goal is to make your opponent drop his hands from his keyboard in exasperation.

What team does your opponent root for? Accuse a Giants fan of having a Joe Namath pillowcase. Wheres your opponent from? Give a look of concern no matter his reply, then say, I'll try to type slower for you next time. Is your opponent into politics? Label everyone a tax-and-spend corporate shill.

Cap all that with a liberal application of irrelevance. For instance, dont just conclude by saying your opponent is a twerp who drafts like my grandmother. Say that your opponent is a sweater-wearing, eyebrow-plucking twerp who drafts his team about as well as Zsa Zsa Gabor gave acceptance speeches at the Oscars. By the time your foe makes sense of that, his starting running back will have had puppies.

But what about you? Hmm? Recall a memorable slam? Have a tried-and-true technique? Know someone who seems impervious to insult? Take a moment and tells us about it. Put together some (fit-for-publication) thoughts. You wont be too busy returning phone messages from your friends, Im sure, to reply.

In addition to the trash talking, the Sports Alarm has a huge gallery of high resolution pictures of beautiful women and models in bikinis. The most popular models are: Lindsay Lohan, Carrie Underwood, Alessandra Ambrosio, and Paris Hilton.