'Canes top Devils for sixth straight home win; Brodeur rests

Hockey Betting Lines

03/18/2009 - Raleigh, NC (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Anton Babchuk scored a pair of goals as Carolina stormed past New Jersey, 4-2, on a night the Devils rested all-time wins leader Martin Brodeur.

"He's got a huge shot. When he's gotten a chance to step into it, he's been really good," said Carolina head coach Paul Maurice of Babchuk, who recorded his 10th and 11th goals of the season and his first multi-goal contest of the year. "A lot of that is confidence. He's scored enough this year that he wants the puck. There's not a lot of guys who want to stand in front of him."

Eric Staal and Sergei Samsonov registered a goal apiece for the Hurricanes, who snapped a three-game slide and moved into a tie with idle Montreal for the seventh seed in the Eastern Conference.

In his 19th consecutive start, Cam Ward was sharp with 41 saves, as Carolina won its season-high sixth straight home game.

Zach Parise and Brian Gionta tallied for the Devils, who saw their four-game win streak ended.

Kevin Weekes -- starting for the first time since February 19, and spelling Brodeur after he set the NHL record for goaltender wins with his 552nd on Tuesday -- took the loss after allowing four goals on 32 shots.

Babchuk converted a rebound off a scramble in front of the Devils' net for a power-play goal midway through the first period. Rod Brind'Amour had the first shot foiled by Weekes, then Samsonov shoveled the puck off the netminder before the third chance, from the offensive-minded defenseman went in.

Staal cashed in on another Carolina power play 1:25 into the second period, slapping a shot from a sharp angle to the right of Weekes.

Parise netted a 5-on-3 goal with 6:38 left in the second which halved New Jersey's deficit, but Babchuk restored the two-goal edge with 38 seconds to play on a power-play blast from the high slot.

Samsonov made it 4-1 for the Hurricanes with 7:46 left in regulation, streaking around Weekes at the top of the crease and scoring as he fell forward.

The Devils drew within two on a power play as Gionta managed to sneak a shot between Ward's pads with 2:17 left, but were not able to get any closer.

"We didn't do the right things in our own zone," said Devils head coach Brent Sutter. "You've always got your guard up coming after having what's happened to us this past week in such great ways. In the five-on-five we did a lot of great things and their goaltender was good for them tonight."

Game Notes

Carolina has won three straight meetings and both this season...The Hurricanes continue their three-game homestand on Friday against the Islanders, and the Devils host Minnesota that same day...Devils forward Jamie Langenbrunner's nine-game point streak came to an end...Carolina finished 3-for-5 with the extra man and New Jersey converted 2-of-6 chances.

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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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