10/09/2008 - (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - A pair of Pacific Division rivals, as well as Stanley Cup hopefuls, will meet tonight in Silicon Valley as the San Jose Sharks welcome the Anaheim Ducks to HP Pavilion.
Both teams made the postseason last spring, but neither lived up to expectations. The Ducks, who became the first West Coast team to win the Stanley Cup in 2007, was bounced out by Dallas in last year's opening round.
San Jose beat Calgary in the first round, but was also knocked out by the Stars in the conference semifinals, marking the third straight year that the Sharks were eliminated in the second round.
A change may have been in order after the team was ousted in the 2007 postseason and Sharks general manager Doug Wilson nearly did fire Ron Wilson, but opted instead to give the head coach a last chance in 2007-08. Shortly after San Jose was knocked out in Game 6 against Dallas, the GM fired Wilson and after a lengthy search selected Todd McLellan as the new bench boss.
McLellan was an assistant with the Detroit Red Wings over the last three years and won a Stanley Cup ring last season with the club. Tonight's contest will mark his first regular-season game as an NHL head coach.
The Sharks will once again be led on offense by centerman Joe Thornton, who has a whopping 302 points in 222 career games with San Jose. He paced the team with 29 goals and 67 assists last season. Thornton is suffering from a sore groin, but is expected to play tonight.
San Jose's biggest offseason addition came on defense when Dan Boyle was acquired in a trade with Tampa Bay. The 32-year-old is known as one of the better offensive blueliners in the game and should help boost the team's power play.
Back in goal will be Evgeni Nabokov, who had his finest season as an NHL goaltender in 2007-08 and was runner-up to legendary New Jersey netminder Martin Brodeur for the Vezina Trophy.
Nabokov posted a career-high 46 wins and his 2.14 goals against average was also a personal best mark. He played well in the postseason, posting a shutout and a 2.18 GAA in 13 games.
Distractions began for the Ducks in the weeks following their championship in 2007 and those issues wound up dogging Anaheim during their title defense season. The main problems involved defenseman Scott Niedermayer and left wing Teemu Selanne, who both contemplated retirement before eventually returning to Anaheim over the course of the season.
That won't be an issue this year as both Niedermayer and Selanne are with the team to begin the season.
As the Conn Smythe winner in the 2007 postseason, Niedermayer is an obvious key for the Ducks, but so is Selanne, who needs to help add some offensive punch to a club that was 28th in the NHL with just 2.40 goals per game last season.
As poor as the offense was for the Ducks last season, the defense was the exact opposite. Anaheim gave up just 2.24 goals per game during the regular season, finishing second behind the eventual Stanley Cup champion Detroit Red Wings.
The top pairing of Niedermayer and Chris Pronger has a lot to do with the defensive success, but No. 1 goaltender Jean-Sebastien Giguere certainly doesn't hurt the Ducks in their own zone.
The 31-year-old Giguere had possibly his best regular season a year ago, as he went 35-17-6 with a 2.12 goals against average and .922 save percentage. Both the GAA and save percentage marked career bests for the Montreal native.
Anaheim won the season series against the Sharks, 5-3, in 2007-08 and has won seven of 11 and nine of the last 14 meetings overall. The Ducks have also taken eight of their previous 11 contests in northern California.
San Jose has lost six of its last seven season-opening contests, while Anaheim has began three of its last five campaigns with wins.
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<< Red Wings begin Cup defense against Leafs
(Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Detroit Red Wings will begin their Stanley Cup title
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NEW YORK (AP) -By staying away from the cupcakes, Southern California earned itself a slim new ranking.
No. 1 always seems to fit USC.
Southern California jumped two spots to No. 1 in The Associated Press Top 25 on Tuesday, rewarded by voters for opening the season with a dominant performance on the road against a BCS conference opponent.
Georgia and Ohio State, the preseason Nos. 1 and 2, respectively, started their seasons with glorified scrimmages at home against FCS (formerly I-AA) teams. USC, however, traveled across country to face Virginia and could not have been more impressive in a 52-7 victory.
Georgia fell to No. 2 and Ohio State to No 3.
"We realize that rankings so early in a season are certainly fluid. But rankings do help establish a pecking order for things later in the season," USC coach Pete Carroll said in a statement. "As for moving into the No. 1 spot, it's nice to know that people think highly of our team."
Since reaching No. 1 on Dec. 7, 2003, the final-regular season AP poll of that season, USC has been No. 1 in 39 polls, by far the most of any team during that time.
"Some have said the voters are taking our schedule into consideration," Carroll said. "Our philosophy has always been to schedule outstanding opponents. We need to play challenging games like we just did, traveling across the country to open the season at Virginia. Games like that bring out our best and make us stronger as a team."
The latest voting was close. USC received 21 first-place votes and 1,539 points from the 65-member media panel. Georgia had 20 first-place votes and 1,506 points. Ohio State got 15 first-place votes and 1,497 points.
"I'd say we've evolved as pollsters," said Stewart Mandel of SI.com, who moved USC up to No. 1. "In the past, voters just kind of automatically moved teams up and kept teams where they were if they won."
Georgia beat Georgia Southern 45-21 on Saturday and Ohio State opened with a 43-0 win over Youngstown State.
"There's a bit of a growing backlash for the amount of teams that open with I-AA cupcakes," said Mandel, whose book "Bowls, Polls and Tattered Souls" chronicles college football's controversies. "To see a team [USC] go on the road and play a New Year's Day bowl team from last season, and not only play them but destroy them, how could you not reward that team?"
USC also jumped past Georgia to No. 1 in the USA Today coaches' poll, which has the same top five as the AP poll.
"It's definitely a privilege to be No. 1. But it's not heartbreaking to me if we drop," Georgia offensive lineman Josh Davis said. "It doesn't matter right now what we're ranked. What matters is our next game and right now, that's Central Michigan. The only time the polls matter is in December. That's when the polls matter."
While the Bulldogs opened easy, their schedule ultimately should be as difficult as any team's. Georgia's big nonconference test is at No. 15 Arizona State on Sept. 20. The Bulldogs also face six Southeastern Conference rivals that've been ranked in the first two polls.
As for Ohio State, the Buckeyes play at USC on Sept. 13 before getting into the Big Ten schedule.
But of the teams in this week's top 10, USC and Texas are the only ones that don't play an FCS opponent, and the Trojans are the only team that doesn't play a team from a non-BCS conference.
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The last team to drop from No. 1 after a victory was USC last season. LSU jumped from No. 2 to No. 1 when it beat Tulane 34-9, the same week the Trojans edged Washington 27-24 on the road.
The last preseason No. 1 team to lose the top spot after winning its opening game was Florida in 2001. The Gators beat Marshall 49-14, but preseason No. 2 Miami opened with a 33-7 victory over Penn State and the Hurricanes jumped to No. 1 with Florida slipping to second.
The next four teams in the new Top 25 stayed the same: No. 4 Oklahoma (two first-place votes), No. 5 Florida (five first-place votes), No. 6 Missouri (one first-place vote), No. 7 LSU (one first-place vote) and No. 8 West Virginia.
No. 9 Auburn and No. 10 Texas each moved up a spot, taking advantage of Clemson's big drop. Clemson, ninth in the preseason, fell out after losing 34-10 to Alabama on Saturday.
Also falling out after losses were Virginia Tech, Pittsburgh and Tennessee.
Moving into the rankings were No. 21 Fresno State, No. 22 Utah, No. 23 UCLA and No. 24 South Carolina.
Alabama moved up 11 spots after its big victory over Clemson.
The second 10 started with No. 11 Wisconsin, followed by Texas Tech, Alabama and Kansas. BYU and Arizona State were tied for 15th. Rivals BYU and Utah are both ranked for the first time since 1996.
South Florida was No. 17, ahead of Oregon, Penn State and Wake Forest at No. 20.
The final five were all the teams to move into the ranking, except for Illinois, which dropped four spots and tied South Carolina for No. 24.
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