1. Yao Ming’s season ending injury. My first reaction – wow, that sucks. My second reaction – with Rick Adelman at the helm, the team isn’t going to struggle as much as people think. That should create some value as the public over-reacts.

2. Scott Kazmir needed an MRI on his elbow. Ouch. I am relatively bullish on the Rays, and I think that there is very big value in playing the over on their season total. A lot of that value would evaporate if Kazmir isn’t okay. Thankfully, the MRI didn’t turn up anything.

3. Barry Bonds. The word is that no one seems interested in him, but I don’t buy that for a second. The guy is scum, but his OPS was 1.065 last year. That’s ridiculously good. Sooner or later some team is going to admit that they are interested, they are going to bring himin, and, sadly, they are going to be significantly better for it.

4. Tennessee. You finally get to number one, and then you let it all slip away with a lackluster effort and a loss at Vanderbilt? Oops.

5. NHL trading day. I love what Dallas did in adding Brad Richards. The West is going to be very tough. Pittsburgh took a huge gamble by trading away a ton of young talent for Marian Hossa, but I like the gamble, and I think it will comedown to them and New Jersey in the East.

6. Ottawa Senators. They fired coach John Paddock today. Wow. Remember at the start of the year when they couldn’t lose if they tried? What a wasted opportunity it looks like this season is going to be.

7. Jamaal Magloire signed with Dallas as a free agent. he hasn’t been anywhere near his former All-Star caliber recently, but he’s only 29 and he needs a better situation. This could be it. This makes Dallas significantly better in my eyes. Just what we needed – a Western conference that is even tougher.

8. Drake lost to Missouri State. The Bulldogs are a great story, but this game is an example of why I am going to find it hard to trust in the postseason.

9. Derrick Rose. Memphis’ stud frosh point guard missed practice on Monday with the flu, and is listed as questionable tonight against Tulsa. I will be filing away if and how he plays as an indicator of his heart and grit. Further, I’ll be looking to see how Rose’s whole team bounces back from a disheartening setback. Bettertha Tennessee bounced back from the win, I hope.

10. Congress is after Clemens again. What would it take to make this whole ugly, depressing thing just go away?

Post from: Ultra Sports Bet

I wouldn’t touch the Monday Night game with a 100 foot pole. Both teams are ridiculously flawed and I don’t see any way to squeeze any value out of it. It’s also a frustratingly dull night on the college front. What’s a guy to do to get a little action? Look to the rink, I guess. There are two games that are reasonably interesting on Monday night:

Anaheim (+100) at Columbus – Anaheim got a huge boost with the announced return of Scott Niedermayer this week, and I expect them to ride that wave to a victory over the struggling Blue Jackets.

Edmonton at Dallas (-1.5 +155) – I am from Calgary, so hatred for the Oilers is programmed into my DNA. Dallas is a better team, and the Oilers don’t travel well. I’ll take a risk at this price that Edmonton won’t be competitive.

UPDATE: Anaheim won, and so did Dallas, but not by enough. That means I exactly break even on the day. That seems fitting for a sports day that was so flat and uninteresting.

Post from: Ultra Sports Bet

Instead of this bad excuse for sports entertainment I am going to go watch Sidney Crosby, aka Wayne Gretzky Jr., play live in my hometown of Calgary for the first time ever. Normally I am blindly loyal to my Flames, but in this case I will be cheering for Sidney to get about 8 goals. Even if he gets no points, though, it will still be much better than the football mess. Since we are on the hockey topic, I don’t bet on the NHL much, but I think that the value in this game is with Pittsburgh (+120) in the first period. Calgary has not been starting strong recently, and Crosby’s presence has created a bit of a circus in town, so it is quite likely that they won’t jump off to a good start again. I also like Pittsburgh (+146) for the game including overtime, and that may make me a bad Flames fan.

Post from: Ultra Sports Bet

The NHL season got off to a premature and slightly ridiculous start in London, England when the Los Angeles Kings beat the defending Stanley Cup Champion Anaheim Mighty Ducks 4-1. Before you file this under ‘Who really cares?’, you might as well pay a bit of attention because hockey can present a large number of betting opportunities if you pay a little attention.

A couple of things of note came out of this game. First, hockey takes a while to get interesting. The play was sloppy and uneven, the defending champs even looked disinterested at times, and it was barely more than a preseason game that counts in the standings. Like most sports, it makes sense to let things settle out a bit before you start throwing your bankroll towards hockey.

One player really caught the eye, though. L.A. has had horrible goaltending problems since, well, Kelly Hrudey left. It’s way too early to say that that has changed, but 19 year old rookie goalie Jonathan Bernier was extremely impressive in his first start. This is worth looking at for a number of reasons as a bettor. If he wins a couple more games early on then the Kings’ prices will be inflated because of the hype (or at least as much hype as their is in the NHL). If the Kings continue to use him a lot, though, then we could see him start to burn out later in the year like Rick DiPietro and Marc-Andre Fleury did. That’s all moot if Bernier doesn’t stay with the big team, but if he does then he could present opportunities.

Post from: Ultra Sports Bet