Thomas lifts Bruins over Capitals

Hockey Betting Lines

02/05/2012 - Washington, DC (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Tim Thomas stopped 35 shots to lift the Boston Bruins to a 4-1 win over the Washington Capitals at Verizon Center.

Brad Marchand and Rich Peverley each had a goal and an assist while Milan Lucic and Tyler Seguin also scored for the Bruins, who had lost three of four coming in. Patrice Bergeron had two assists in the contest.

Marcus Johansson scored the lone goal for the Capitals, who have lost three of four. Tomas Vokoun gave up three goals on 29 shots in the loss.

Boston scored just after the midway mark of the first as Peverley sent a pass from the high slot to the front of the net where Lucic was all alone and he waited out Vokoun to the left before lifting the puck in.

It was a 2-0 game with 1:22 to play in the first on Marchand's backhand from the low left side.

The second period passed without a goal as Thomas made 10 stops and Vokoun turned aside nine, but the Bruins made it a 3-0 game just 6:38 into the third.

Bergeron brought the puck into the Washington end from the right side and at the point fired a pass over to the left point. Marchand held it there and dished it down to the front where Seguin redirected it past Vokoun.

Washington got on the board with 7:56 to play when Johansson scored on a sharp angle shot from the left side on a rush play.

However, that was as close as it got and Peverley scored into the empty net with under a minute to play to seal the win.

Game Notes

Boston plays in Buffalo on Wednesday...Washington hosts Florida on Tuesday...The Capitals had taken a 5-3 decision over the Bruins in Washington on January 24...Neither side scored on the power play as Boston had three chances and Washington one.

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FOOTBALL BETTING : Crabtree's base deal: six years, $32 million

Football Betting

In the wake of the news that the 49ers have signed receiver Michael Crabtree after an extended holdout, there has been not a hint of the dollars to be paid to Crabtree.

And since this means that his agent hasn't leaked the numbers, it means that his agent feels no specific motivation to do so.

Possibly because his agent isn't all that thrilled to have his name on the deal.

So the numbers will come from sources other than Crabtree's agent. And we've gotten our mitts into them.

Per a league source, Crabtree has signed a six-year, $32 million contract. (The total includes guaranteed money, base salaries, and the one-time incentive based on achieving minimum playing time.)

The deal also includes $17 million in guaranteed money.

As reported elsewhere, the deal can void to five years based on performance triggers, wiping out a final year base salary of $4 million. But they won't be easily reached.

The source tells us that, in his first four seasons (including 2009), Crabtree must either qualify for two Pro Bowls, or he must qualify for one Pro Bowl in one year and he must participate in 80 percent of the offensive snaps in a separate year in which the team makes the playoffs.

In other words, if in 2010 he qualifies for the Pro Bowl and the team makes the playoffs and he participates in 80 percent of the snaps, he'll still need to make it to the Pro Bowl or achieve the 80-percent/playoffs in another season.

Since the chances of Crabtree making the Pro Bowl or participating in 80 percent of the offensive snaps this year is roughly zero percent, he'll have three years to get it done.

And it won't be easy. Frankly, he'll be hard pressed to make it to one Pro Bowl in three years with the likes of Larry Fitzgerald, Calvin Johnson, Anquan Boldin, Steve Smith, the other Steve Smith, Hakeem Nicks, DeSean Jackson, Johnny Knox, Percy Harvin, Greg Jennings, Roddy White, T.J. Houshmandzadeh in the same conference for sportsbook betting.

So, by all appearances, it's a six-year deal. And at $17 million in guaranteed money, the per-year guarantee is a tepid $2.83 million per year.

There's another problem with the deal -- it has no mid-tier incentive package. Instead, the additional $8 million that Crabtree can earn (pushing the max value to six years, $40 million) requires the kind of unrealistic, mega-star performances that no rookie is likely to ever achieve.

So while the contract paid to Packers defensive tackle B.J. Raji covers five years and pays $22.5 million, he has the ability (if he's a solid player) to make up the difference between his base deal and Crabtree's five-year, $28 million haul via the mid-tier incentive package in Raji's deal.

And unless Crabtree meets the performance thresholds necessary to void the sixth year, he'll be stuck under contract for another year at a base salary of only $4 million.

There's one other area of concern with the deal. Crabtree, per the source, received no option bonus. Instead, he has significant money tied to a fairly new device known as a "discretionary salary advance," which unlike an opition bonus is subject to forfeiture if Crabtree decides in a year or two that he wants to hold out for a better deal. (We're also told that the 49ers have included language that would make certain escalators subject to forfeiture, too.)

Meanwhile, the deal falls well short of the mark for which Crabtree and agent Eugene Parker were aiming -- the five-year, $38.25 million contract paid by the Raiders to receiver Darrius Heyward-Bey, the seventh overall pick in the draft.

Even if Crabtree successfully voids the final year, he'll make more than $2 million per year less on average than Heyward-Bey.

Thus, as we explained earlier in the day, this is a deal that Crabtree could have done in July, which would have given him a much better chance of making a contribution to the 49ers during his rookie year.

So while the final outcome can be described as win-win, the broader view suggests that it's really a lose-lose situation.

NFL Betting Lines

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