Thrashers, Sens meet in Ottawa

Hockey Betting Lines

12/03/2008 - (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - A pair of struggling teams will meet tonight in Canada's capital city, as the Ottawa Senators welcome the Atlanta Thrashers for a matchup at Scotiabank Place.

The Thrashers have lost four straight and seven of their last eight games since tying a franchise record with five consecutive victories from November 2-14. Atlanta's slide has now dropped the club to the basement of the Eastern Conference with just 19 points on the year.

Atlanta's most recent setback came in a wild game at Montreal on Tuesday. The Thrashers trailed the Canadiens by a 3-0 score heading into the third period, but Atlanta scored three times within 59 seconds to knot the score early in the final stanza.

However, Andrei Kostitsyn put Montreal ahead for good with 5:11 left in the third, but it was Robert Lang's empty-net goal proved that to be the game- winner as Jason Williams scored for Atlanta with just 20 seconds left to arrive at the final 5-4 score.

Ron Hainsey scored twice for the Thrashers, who fell to 1-6-1 since the five- game win streak. Johan Hedberg made 28 saves in the losing effort.

Tonight marks the middle portion of a three-game road trip for the Thrashers, who are just 3-7-2 as the visiting team this season. Atlanta has lost three of its last four road tests and will complete this swing with Saturday's matchup against the New York Islanders.

Meanwhile, the Senators have had a dreadful start to the season, winning just eight of their first 22 games (8-10-4). Ottawa ended November by losing seven of nine contests (2-5-2) and heads into the new month as the last-place team in the Northeast Division with just 20 points.

The basement is not a familiar spot for the Senators, who have made the playoffs in each of the last 11 seasons and have eclipsed the 100-point mark in four of their last five campaigns.

Ottawa had recently won back-to-back tilts to end a six-game slide, but couldn't pick up its first three-game winning streak of the year as it dropped a road game Saturday against the Islanders. Freddy Meyer finished with a pair of goals and an assist to lift the Isles to the 4-2 victory at Nassau Coliseum.

Dany Heatley and Daniel Alfredsson both lit the lamp and assisted on a goal for the Senators. Alex Auld allowed three goals on 24 shots for Ottawa.

The Senators are kicking off a three-game homestand tonight and will also welcome Pittsburgh and Florida during the residency. Ottawa is just 5-5-2 as the host this year, but has won two straight at Scotiabank Place.

Ottawa has won six of 10 against the Thrashers and Atlanta has dropped three straight and four of its last five as the road team in the series.

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Big 12 Conference betting odds

Work left to do: Texas Tech, Oklahoma State, Kansas State

Texas joins Texas A&M and Kansas as locks after getting league win No. 11. Texas Tech greatly helped its own hopes and crippled OK State's with the two-point win Saturday. Is K-State the last reasonable hopeful? Could be an elimination match in Stillwater on Tuesday, at least for the Cowboys.

Work left to do:

Texas Tech [18-11 (7-7), RPI: 44, SOS: 12] A critical two-point win over OK State leaves the Red Raiders with Baylor and at Iowa State left. Get both and the Red Raiders likely are good to go. Get one and there could be some interesting comparisons with a K-State team that could finish two or three games "ahead" of them in the standings but doesn't have any of the quality wins Texas Tech has. Not a lot in nonconference play (against Arkansas in Little Rock being the best win, by far) to lean on.

Oklahoma State [18-9 (5-8), RPI: 50, SOS: 35] Still without a road win, the Cowboys now need to win two on the road just to get to .500 in conference play. It's hard to recall a team (OK, other than Clemson) falling so precipitously from lock status to almost certainly out of the NCAAs at this point. There are wins to be had in the last three, including a very big home game against K-State on Tuesday, but this team is reeling. Can you tell the pressure to win is getting to them with the way the final possession played out at Texas Tech? There are some good nonconference performances to lean on, specifically beating Missouri State and Syracuse on neutral floors and Pitt in OK City, but if the Pokes don't right this very, very soon, that won't be enough.

Kansas State [20-9 (9-5), RPI: 56, SOS: 96] It pays to be in the Big 12 North. The nine league wins are Colorado (twice), Missouri (twice), Iowa State (twice), Baylor, Nebraska and (a good one against) Texas. That helps explain the middling computer profile. The win over USC is nice, but the nonconference leaves a lot to be desired. The game at OK State in Stillwater on Tuesday is huge, as it could KO the Cowboys and leave K-State with a home date against Oklahoma with which to work.