World Cup betting players know how much a good goalkeeper can affect their team’s chances, and the same happens in the NHL, where a pair of goalies are outplaying their counterparts, and it has resulted in 2-0 series leads.

Michael Leighton is playing out of his mind right now for Philadelphia, stopping all 58 shots, like MMA fighter on the defensive in a UFC 116 betting match up,  as the Flyers outscored Montreal 9-0 in the first two games of the Eastern Conference finals.  Leighton has now on a shutout streak of 165:50, and he was especially big in the first period of Game 2, when he turned back all 16 Montreal shots.  Leighton is only in nets because Brian Boucher got hurt in Game 5 of their series with Boston, but he’s paying huge dividends right now for the Flyers.

Antti Niemi was thought to be the weak link for Chicago heading into the playoffs, but he has allowed just three goals on 72 shots over the first two games as the Blackhawks won both games in San Jose in the Western Conference.  Niemi was on fire in Game 1’s 2-1 win as he made 44 saves, and he’s outplayed San Jose goalie Evgeni Nabokov by a substantial margin.  Now, he’ll just have to step up his game at home as Niemi is just 3-3 at the United Center so far in the playoffs.  The Blackhawks have a massive opportunity heading home with a 2-0 lead, and Niemi will be the key to their betting odds for the rest of the series

The race for the final playoff spots in the Eastern Conference, like Champions League Betting, is going down to the wire. By the looks of it, Montreal is sitting comfortably with 87 points and two games to go. It is unlikely that they will miss the playoffs this year.

That leaves the Flyers, the Bruins, and the Rangers to battle for the last two spots.

The Rangers had a convincing victory over the Leafs on Wednesday night and by doing so kept there playoff hopes alive. They have two games remaining and sit in ninth with 84 points.

Boston has three games to go with them taking on the Sabres tonight. Buffalo is a tough team to beat so Boston will have to show a lot of desperation. The Bruins sit uncomfortably in eighth place with 85 points.

Finally, the Flyers, sitting in seventh place with 87 points, have two games left on their schedule. They face the Rangers next on Friday night. This will definitely be a game to watch. The Rangers have a chance to tie the Flyers in points on Friday night with a win in regulation time.

It gets better. The Flyers and Rangers will face off again on Sunday April 11^th for their final game of the season. If the Rangers win on Friday, then this game will most likely decide which one of the two teams makes it to the playoffs. You will have to plan your masters betting strategy while watching this game. It is unlikely for the Bruins to lose all three remaining games, so this game would be a real showdown.

Prediction

The Flyers are an experienced team and are unlikely to lose two straight games to the Rangers. It will be interesting to see what the NHL odds for this will look like. Both teams will certainly be playing with a lot of desperation. The only thing to save the Rangers at this point would have to be the brilliant play of Henrik Lundqvis. His skills and experience may prove to be the defining factor.

In NHL news, the book per head saga surrounding the proposed rule change regarding headshots continues.

Although it is unclear when exactly it will come into effect, it appears likely that the rule will be in place before the end of this season. The players however, want more discussion before there is any agreement to a new permanent rule change. While the players are in support of a temporary ban to provide a solution for the remainder of the season, the NHL’s competition committee has made it clear their desire for talks this summer before any new permanent regulations are put into place.

The competition committee is made up of five players, four general managers and one owner. Their assent is required for any rule change - from there, the rule must be approved by the NHL’s 30 governors. In the case of a mid-season rule change, such as the proposed tweaking, a unanimous vote of approval is required from the governors. Were this a sporting contest, sportsbook cappers would consider the rule-change a lock at this point.

The rule change calls for a minor or major penalty to be assessed for “blindside” hits to the head, with all such hits subject to an automatic review by the league’s hockey-operations department. The move comes on the heels of a series of brutal blindside hits in recent memory, with the most recent being Pittsburgh Penguins forward Matt Cooke’s hit on Boston’s Marc Savard - a blindside check which left Savard out cold and out of competition after suffering a concussion.

NHL playoff sports betting is picking up and so are the injuries to playoff teams. Some of the betting tips being given are to wait until the week before the playoffs to see who is healthy and who is not.

The Chicago Blackhawks are 5 to 1 favorites to win the Stanley Cup, but in the last week they have been racked with injuries on defense. A few days after Alexander Ovechkin violently ended the season of Chicago defenseman Brian Campbell, Anaheim player James Wisniewski took out Chicago defenseman Brent Seabrook with a crushing upper body hit that left Seabrook limp on the ice. It is unknown how long Seabrook will be out or if he will miss the playoffs.

In an update on the Brian Campbell hit, Alexander Ovechkin has said that he did not mean to hurt Campbell and is apologetic about the defenseman’s injuries. Ovechkin claims it was a clean hit and he is confused as to why he was suspended. The incident has caused the NHL rules committee to re-evaluate penalties for hits to the head.

High-scoring winger Mikael Samuelsson was knocked out of the game against the New York Islanders after sustaining an upper body check. Samuelsson has 30 goals for the Canucks this season and his offense would be sorely missed in the playoffs.

The goalie injuries keep piling up in Philadelphia. Just a couple of weeks ago starting goalie Ray Emery was lost to the team for the season because of hip surgery. Michael Leighton stepped in and took over the number one spot. In a recent game against Nashville Leighton injured his ankle and is scheduled to undergo an MRI to see how badly he is hurt. It is unknown at this point how long Leighton will be out and the Flyers have him listed as day-to-day.

National Hockey League disciplinarian Colin Campbell has stated that Pittsburgh Penguins winger Matt Cooke will not be suspended for his hit on Boston Bruins center Marc Savard, which didn’t surprise too many online betting cappers for some reason.

Campbell made the announcement from Boca Raton, Florida, where the annual general managers meetings are currently taking place.

Cooke delivered a blindside shoulder to the head of Savard with five minutes to play in Pittsburgh’s 2-1 win on Sunday. The Bruins’ pivot hit the ice hard and laid motionless for several minutes while medical staff attended to him, before being taken off the ice on a stretcher.

The 32-year old had since been diagnosed with a grade two concussion, and is out indefinitely for Boston. Savard has admitted to suffering from constant headaches and exhaustion in the days since the hit took place. Doctors continue to monitor his progress.

The incident forced the issue of shots to the head to the top of the agenda in discussions at this week’s meetings. Currently, there is no rule in place that forbids players making shoulder contact to the head of an opponent, as long as it is within the rules of the game. However, a group of eight GM’s proposed yesterday a rule that will forbid players to make contact to the head of a defenseless opponent, and will forward the proposition to the league’s competition committee for approval.

In a recent independent medical study, it was revealed that 200 NHL players have suffered concussions over the past two seasons.

Boston Bruins center Marc Savard is out indefinitely after being diagnosed with a grade two concussion following a blindside hit to the head by Pittsburgh’s Matt Cooke.

The incident happened in Sunday’s 2-1 Penguins’ win.

Savard lost consciousness on the play for close to 20 seconds, and lay motionless on the ice for several minutes while medical staff attended to him. The Bruins’ top pivot was then taken off on a stretcher, and taken to a local hospital.

Savard returned to Boston Monday where he met with team doctor Peter Asnis and a brain specialist at Massachusetts General Hospital and was diagnosed. He complained of constant headaches and exhaustion, common symptoms of concussions. The 32-year old also admitted he did not remember blanking out, or the events immediately leading up to the point that he took the hit. The team said they have to watch how Savard progresses over the next few days before they will know how long he will be out.

The player who made the hit said he was only finishing his check. Cooke has a sports book reputation for questionable hits, and has been suspended before for what is considered dirty play. However, because the league mandate does not forbid shoulder-to-head hits as long as the puck is in range, the NHL is not expected to levy a suspension.

The incident coincidentally corresponds with the annual NHL general manager meetings in Florida, where hits to the head are the main topic.

It has been 24 hours since the end of the deadline and it is time for those doing sports betting to decide who came out of the busiest day in NHL history on top and who failed to get the job done.

Winners: Washington, Phoenix and Toronto.

The only knock on Washington was that they could use someone to back up Mike Green and might not be tough enough to deal with the playoffs. They picked up Joe Corvo and then added Milan Jurcina, Jason Chimera, Scott Walker and Eric Belanger. This added a solid, second-unit offensive-defensemen, in Corvo, and a bunch of depth and toughness; making them even more of a favourite to reach the Stanley Cup Finals.

Phoenix made a league high seven moves; with the biggest being the acquisitions of Peter Mueller and Wojtek Wolski. These will bolster their offence and makes them a solid playoff team that no one really wants to meet; a large step from the league joke that they were last year.

The Leafs are in the race for worst in the league but after their big moves before the Olympics Brian Burke was able to pick up three prospects and four draft picks while only giving up a minor league goaltender and two second to third line wingers. Great for a rebuilding team.

Losers: Flyers, Red Wings, Blackhawks and any other team looking for a goaltender.

In either the first games since or the last game before the deadline, each of these teams had to pull their goaltender during a blowout. Each team wanted a top tier goaltender and none of them managed to pick one up. Of the big names like Turco, Vokoun, Ellis and Halak rumoured to be on the block, none of them were moved. The only goalie that got traded was Vesa Toskala who moved for the second time in a month to the

With the Trade Deadline looming, reports out of Toronto have at least two teams putting down offers for Alexei Ponikarovsky. Whether Brian Burke pulls one today or waits until closer to the deadline to see if he can get a better deal is still to be seen but all signs point to the power forward being with another team before 3 pm tomorrow. Wayne Primeau and Lee Stempniak are said to have been asked about and are readily available to gather draft picks and free up some playing time for the Leafs young forwards.

The Philadelphia Flyers are actively pursuing Nashville’s Dan Hamhuis and it is reported that forward Ryan Parent and some other compensation (likely a mid-round draft pick) would be going the other way. The Flyers are trying to beef up their back line in case they are unable to acquire a better goaltender; something they have been rumoured to be inquiring about since Ray Emery was shut down for the remainder of the season.

The first of many players expected to be shipped out of Edmonton is heading to Nashville as the Oilers have sent Denis Grebeshkov to the Predators for a second round pick. In a nosedive since early in the season, the Oilers have made it clear that they will listen to any offers that will give young players or draft picks in return for their veterans.

Carolina and Florida have also made it clear that they will be sellers at the deadline with Joe Corvo, Aaron Ward, Andrew Alberts and Dennis Seidenberg heading up a group of highly sot after defensemen available from the two clubs.

The Flyer, Boston Bruins and Phoenix Coyotes are at the top of the list of clubs actively trying to improve their defence heading into the playoff push and you can expect a combination of the teams doing deals.

In the lead-up to the start of the tournament, Olympic Hockey odds had three favored teams; Canada, Sweden and Russia as at least two of the teams have been in each semi-final since the Soviet Union collapsed. Until this year, that is. There is only one remaining after the quarterfinals; the Canadian team that had to go through a qualifying game just to advance.

The powers of hockey are quickly seeing the gap between them and the former weak teams close at an alarming rate. While the tournament still had teams like Norway, Latvia and Germany, who were completely outplayed, Switzerland played the USA to a 3-1 loss, took the Canadians to a shootout and Belarus was in a close 4-2 loss to Sweden.

While these teams are not going to challenge for medals, the Slovakian team is off to the semi-finals along with a much improved American team and an always scrappy Finland. Slovakia has never placed higher than fifth in the Olympics but with the Marians (Hossa and Gaborik) and a strong young goaltender in Jaroslav Halak, they are a team to look out for.

The Finns have always been able to shut down a strong offence to knock a favorite out of the tournament; this year it was Sweden. Always a strong team they have never advanced to the elite level; never placed higher than second at the Olympics and in the IIHF World Cup they have 11 top four placements but only one gold in the past fifteen years. This might be their year as they have a matchup with USA who has only one medal (silver in 2000) since the Miracle on Ice.

The clear favorite should not be the Canadians. They dismantled the Russians in the quarterfinal and having fixed the defensive issues that cost them their game against the Americans, they are a lock for a medal; the question is what color.