Isles visit Sabres, aim for consecutive wins

Hockey Betting Lines

12/27/2008 - (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Fresh off their first win in December, the New York Islanders will try for back-to-back victories when they visit the Buffalo Sabres for tonight's matchup at HSBC Arena.

The Islanders ended their longest losing streak in 11 years Friday night as they downed the visiting Toronto Maple Leafs. New York had lost 10 games in a row for the club's longest skid since another 10-game losing streak from December 22, 1997 to January 10, 1998.

Bill Guerin scored twice for 400 career goals, as the Islanders rolled to Friday's 4-1 decision over the Maple Leafs.

New York goalie Rick DiPietro made his return after a 27-game absence following knee surgery and stopped 28 shots for his first win of the season. DiPietro also notched an assist, the 14th of his career, and passed Billy Smith for most career points by an Islanders goaltender.

Kyle Okposo and Freddy Meyer also scored for the Isles, who had not won since beating Ottawa on November 29. New York hasn't posted consecutive victories since recording wins in Buffalo and Montreal on November 22 and 24, respectively.

Doug Weight, who leads the Isles with 29 points, sat out the contest with a groin injury and is questionable for tonight's game.

Tonight marks the first of two straight and six of seven on the road for the Islanders, who are 5-12-1 as the visitor and have lost eight straight away from the Coliseum.

The Sabres, meanwhile, lost their third straight game Friday evening in Washington. Alexander Ovechkin scored a highlight reel goal in the third period which turned out to be the game-winner, lifting the Capitals over Buffalo, 3-2, at the Verizon Center.

Thomas Vanek notched his 25th goal of the season, one shy of Philadelphia's Jeff Carter for the league lead, and Patrick Lalime made 31 saves in a losing effort.

Maxim Afinogenov also scored for the Sabres, who have lost five of seven overall.

The Sabres, who are 9-8-2 as the host this year, are ending the 2008 calendar year with back-to-back home games. Buffalo will also welcome the Caps to western New York on Tuesday.

The Islanders and Sabres have split a pair of meetings this year with each club picking up a win on the opposition's ice. Buffalo has won 10 of the last 14 tilts in the series, but the Islanders have taken two of their last three at HSBC Arena.

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FOOTBALL TRASH TALK

NFL Football Trash Talk

Trash 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.