Football Betting

Park's late tally leads Isles over Lightning

Hockey Betting Lines

02/13/2010 - Uniondale, NY (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Richard Park scored twice, including the game-winning tally late in regulation as the New York Islanders edged Tampa Bay, 5-4, at Nassau Coliseum.

Kyle Okposo, Doug Weight and Blake Comeau each posted a goal and one assist for the Islanders, who have won two of three after a seven-game losing streak.

Martin Biron picked up his fourth win of the season with 38 saves.

Steven Stamkos had a goal and a helper for the Lightning, who have dropped their last two after winning four straight. Steve Downie, Mike Lundin and Nate Thompson also scored.

Antero Niittymaki allowed five goals on 33 shots in defeat.

The Islanders assumed a 5-4 advantage with 2:22 left in regulation on a disputed score.

Park's wraparound at the left post was stopped by Niittymaki's quick pad, but the forward squared himself and shot high and just inside the right post. The ruling on the ice was no goal, but a review determined that the puck clearly crossed the goal line on its way to the net.

Niittymaki went to the bench for an extra attacker with 1:27 remaining, and Biron withstood tense moments down the stretch, including a body stop on a deflected Kurtis Foster chance with one second to play.

Comeau opened the scoring for the Isles at 7:31, outwaiting Niittymaki and slipping a shot under the crossbar from the right side. Stamkos evened the game off a passing play from Foster and Martin St. Louis at 11:14.

Lundin's shot from a faceoff win made it 2-1 Bolts with 5:31 left in the first, but Weight picked up his first of the season at 4:26 of the second period.

Thompson's redirection of an Alex Tanguay chance put Tampa back on top with 7:33 left in the second, but the Islanders scored twice in a 60-second span to take the lead.

First, Tavares tallied on a wrister from the slot at 16:12, then Park poked home a loose puck off a Comeau shot at 17:12.

Downie's tip of a Mattias Ohlund blast less than three minutes into the third provided a 4-4 deadlock.

Game Notes

Despite the loss, Tampa Bay took three of four in the season series...Both teams are in action on Sunday before the Olympic break, as New York hosts Ottawa while Tampa heads to Manhattan to face the Rangers...Biron and Niittymaki teamed up in goal for the Flyers from February 2007 until the end of last season.

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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.