Bruins aim for consecutive wins in test with Islanders
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03/14/2009 - (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Eastern Conference-leading Boston Bruins will try to win consecutive games for the first time in over two weeks while also extending their winning streak over the New York Islanders today at TD Banknorth Garden.
Boston is still tops in the East with 97 points despite going just 5-8-3 since February 7. However, the Bruins' recent struggles have allowed New Jersey to pull within six points for the top mark in the East, while Detroit is now even with Boston in the race for the Presidents' Trophy.
The Bruins, who haven't won two straight since February 24 and 26, bounced back from consecutive defeats to the New York Rangers and Columbus with Thursday's 5-3 victory over Ottawa.
Phil Kessel scored twice to leave him just one goal shy of his first-career 30-goal campaign in what is his third NHL season. P.J. Azelsson also scored and added an assist, while Aaron Ward and Chuck Kobasew tallied for Boston as well.
Tim Thomas stopped 25-of-28 shots in helping the Bruins improve to 23-6-5 at home this year.
Boston, which leads Montreal by 17 points for first in the Northeast Division, has won four straight overall versus the Islanders, including a 7-2 home win back on November 28. That victory increased the Bruins' home winning streak over New York to four straight.
The Islanders, though, have won five of their last seven games and ended a seven-game road losing streak on Thursday with a 3-2 overtime win over the Canadiens.
Kyle Okposo netted the game-winner just 26 seconds into OT, marking his fourth straight game with a goal. The 20-year-old and seventh overall pick of the 2006 draft is now tied with the traded Bill Guerin for the club lead in goals with 16.
Mike Iggulden scored his first NHL goal in fourth career game, while Frans Nielsen also tallied for the Islanders, who are still just 7-23-3 on the road this season. Yann Danis stopped 24-of-26 shots for the Islanders.
Blake Comeau had two assists for his second multi-point game on what is now a six-game point streak. Comeau has three goals and five helpers over the run.
New York plays the third test of a season-long six-game road trip.
(Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The floundering Phoenix Suns hope to put the brakes on an ugly six-game losing streak Saturday when they welcome the Oklahoma City Thunder to US Airways Arena. Phoenix hasn't lost seven straight games since an eight-game s
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Just one victory shy of Roy's
FOOTBALL TRASH TALK
NFL Football Trash TalkTrash 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.