York Leaves Lundqvist For Conference

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The Rangers have outscored the Flyers 19-6 over their current series winning streak, one that includes a pair of shutout wins in New York and, of course, a 3-2 win when the teams last met outdoors in the Winter Classic on Jan. 2. The Blueshirts got a pair of goals from Mike Rupp at Philadelphia's Citizens Bank Park and 34 saves by Henrik Lundqvist, including a huge stop on Danny Briere on a penalty shot with 19.6 seconds remaining.

 

Lundqvist was again the star in the Rangers' most recent trip to the ice, backstopping his club to a 1-0 shootout win at Buffalo. Lundqvist made 34 saves through overtime and stopped four of the five skaters he faced in the tiebreaker. Marian Gaborik and Ryan Callahan had shootout tallies on the Sabres' Ryan Miller.

 

New York bounced back from a shootout loss to New Jersey the previous day and has points in four straight (3-0-1). The Blueshirts open a three-game homestand with this divisional clash and could have defenseman Steve Eminger back in action.

 

Skating on the power play, Claude Giroux appeared to be tripped by New Jersey's Dainius Zubrus at the point. No call was made and Zubrus started an odd-man rush that ended in a short-handed goal by the Devils' Ilya Kovalchuk with 57 seconds left in the opening frame.

 

The Flyers eventually got goals from Wayne Simmonds -- his career high-tying 16th of the season -- Jaromir Jagr, Giroux and Jakub Voracek in the third, but couldn't extend their five-game point streak (3-0-2). Philly outshot New Jersey 24-1 in the third frame, setting a new franchise mark for largest single-period shot differential according to the Elias Sports Bureau.

 

Sergei Bobrovsky got the start and gave up six goals on 23 shots. Ilya Bryzgalov halted all eight shots he faced in relief.

 

Pittsburgh, meanwhile, has won nine of its last 10 and has gotten within two points of Philadelphia for the conference's fourth seed.

 

"Philadelphia is one of the highest-scoring teams in the league and you get into this building, momentum shifts and the crowd gets into it. You can see what can happen," New Jersey head coach Peter DeBoer said when asked if he was concerned going into the third. "We did enough to win. Like I said, this isn't an easy place to win in. We will take it."

 

New Jersey now looks to match its season-high four-game win streak from Dec. 12-17 despite still having a number of injured players out of action. That list includes Travis Zajac, Henrik Tallinder, Adam Henrique, Adam Larsson and Ryan Carter.

 

The Penguins, of course, remain without superstar Sidney Crosby as well as solid center Jordan Staal, but that hasn't stopped the club from playing well as of late. Pittsburgh rebounded from losing the opener of a four-game swing in Toronto 1-0 on Wednesday with yesterday's 2-1 victory over Boston.

 

Malkin's 28th goal of the season -- second most in the NHL -- was also his league-leading 60th point. He has points in eight of his last 10 games, with 15 in that span.

 

(Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Boston Bruins hope to avoid matching their longest losing streak of the season this afternoon as they visit a Washington Capitals club that has its eyes set on first place in the Southeast Division. The Bruins haven't been very impressive in February's early goings, getting blanked 3-0 by the Hurricanes on Thursday before suffering a 2-1 setback to the Penguins yesterday. It marks the first time since Dec. 6-8 that the Northeast Division leaders have lost consecutive games.

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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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