Spezza lifts Ottawa over Nashville

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02/09/2012 - Ottawa, ON (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Jason Spezza netted two goals and added an assist, leading the Ottawa Senators to a 4-3 win over the Nashville Predators at Scotiabank Place.

Chris Phillips -- playing in his 1,000th NHL game -- contributed in a big way with a pair of goals, while Milan Michalek and Bobby Butler added a pair of assists apiece for the Senators, who snapped a seven-game skid. Alex Auld made 24 saves in the victory.

Martin Erat had a goal and an assist, while Patric Hornqvist and Gabriel Bourque scored and Ryan Suter added two assists for the Predators, who have dropped three of their last four. Pekka Rinne was tagged for all four goals on 29 shots.

Ottawa struck first at 4:46 of the opening period when Spezza accepted a pass on the left wing, crossed the blue line with speed and wired a quick wrister high past Rinne.

Nashville answered to tie the game at 18:46 of the first frame after Bourque buried a wrister past Auld off a nice drop pass in the slot from Jordan Tootoo.

Phillips picked up his first tally of the game at 7:50 of the second frame when he took a feed from Suter and snapped a wrister home from the slot to give the Sens the lead back at 2-1.

But, the Preds tied it at two with a power-play tally at 12:40 of the second frame when Ryan Suter let a simple wrist shot go from the left point that was deflected past Anderson by a perfectly-positioned Hornqvist in front.

The Senators though, responded with a power-play goal of their own with 1:05 to play in the second period as a result of some sloppy play by Nashville in its defensive zone.

After winning a faceoff to the left of Rinne, Nick Spaling attempted to take the puck around behind the net, but it was knocked off his stick and put home by Spezza amid a mad scramble in front.

Ottawa added a second power-play tally at 13:35 of the final stanza when Suter put a slap shot on net from the right point that was stopped by Rinne, but Phillips was there to stuff home the rebound for his second goal of the game and a 4-2 Sens lead.

Erat jammed home a rebound from in close with just 10 seconds left in regulation to pull Nashville to within 4-3, but it was too little, too late as the Sens held on for the win.

Game Notes

Nashville fell to 26-3-3 when scoring more than two goals,..Predators' forward Mike Fisher played his first game in Ottawa since being traded to Nashville last season. Fisher was taken by the Senators in the second round of the 1998 draft and played 10 full seasons with the club. He finished with a plus-1 rating in 17:36 of ice time...Nashville finished 1-for-5 on the power play, while the Senators went 2-for-6 with the man advantage.

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Michael Vick is back, Brett Favre isn't and the NFC East remains the best division in the NFC, maybe in all of football.

As players start to gather for the start of another season, some things change and some stay the same in the world of the NFL.

Bet 2010 Super Bowl Odds

The NFC East has been the dominant division in the National Conference for a while, despite limited playoff success, save for the New York Giants surprise Super Bowl win two seasons ago.

Hell, there's a generation of kids in Texas who have never seen the Cowboys win a playoff game (last win was in 1996).

But collectively, the Giants, Eagles, Cowboys and Redskins (well, maybe not so much the Redskins) are as good as a division gets in an NFC conference that has struggled to stay competitive with the AFC side.

Sports bettors have both acknowledged the NFC East's dominance, as one glance at the NFL future odds menu will show.

Looking over the NFL betting odds at online sports book MySportsbook.com we see the top three teams listed to win the NFC Championship are all from the NFC East:

Dallas Cowboys - 7 - 1

Philadelphia Eagles - 13 - 2

New York Giants - 9 - 2

Slotting in behind these three are two teams from the NFC North: the Minnesota Vikings (15-2) and the Chicago Bears (10-1).

Again, despite the lack of recent playoff success, the Dallas Cowboys are popular with the sports betting community, as they hold 14% of all the money wagered on who will win the NFC Championship.

So far, the New York Giants are the bettors' favorite to represent their conference in the Super Bowl, as they have 24% of the overall NFC Championship betting volume.

And what about the Philadelphia Eagles? For the most part, the Eagles had a very productive offseason, the kind that could bring them back to the top.

They had a good draft adding the likes of WR Jeremy Maclin and RB LeSean McCoy.

Unfortunately, the team received a blow when long-time defensive coordinator Jim Johnson passed away on Tuesday.

But this team will make a real run at the division title this year. Going into the regular season, Philly is listed at +240 to win the division.

Last season the Eagles were 9-6-1 SU and 10-6 ATS.

Teams from the NFC East will play teams from the AFC West in the regular season and the Eagles haven't really been a good bet in the last 20 games against the likes of San Diego, Oakland, K.C. and Denver, only going 8-12 ATS.

Two seasons removed from that Super Bowl title, the New York Giants see themselves listed as the odds-on favorite in NFC East championship futures at +162.

Plaxico Burress is gone and with him all the bad publicity surrounding the gun in the sweatpants incident, but can they replace him in the offense?

Last season the Giants were a very reliable bet going 12-4 ATS.

In the Giants' last 20 games against fellow teams from the NFC East; they are 13-7 ATS.

Dallas is listed at +240 to win the division.

Dallas went 9-7 SU and 7-9 ATS last season and with the amount of talent the Cowboys have, a similar performance won't do.

The Cowboys have been atrocious against divisional rivals, going 6-14 ATS in their last 20.

The Washington Redskins are longshots to win the division at +550.

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