The 2013 NHL season is underway and is still set to be one of the best yet giving every team a greater chance to qualify for the brilliant Stanley Cup. Some hockey fans love to bet on their sport and they are all asking the same question at the moment “Who is the best team to bet on in the 2013 league?”
The first place to check is always the fans. They know the sport better than anyone else and are often the first to know who the hot favourites are. Experts Dan Rosen and E.J Hradek both think that the New York Rangers and the Vancouver Canucks will make it into the final, but Dan favours the New York Rangers overall due to their recent purchase of Rick Nash and E.J is backing the Canucks. If sport betting is more of an emotional wager than a monetary one, you’d be best spending your money at online casinos like and enjoying the various sports based games available. Download here!
Break away is a hockey themed slot game that applies the excitement and adrenaline of hockey with a 5 reel slot. The symbols scream hockey fan and include a goaltender, referee and the faceoff. Add to these the unmistakeable hockey sound effects and the chance to win some extra cash and you might get just as excited as watching the real thing. Games like these are a way to incorporate an enjoyment of gambling and a love of hockey without losing money by betting on your team out of loyalty. What’s more these are available all year round, and after this year’s freeze out there were plenty of fans that were grateful for that fact. It might not be quite the same as watching that puck hit the back of the net, but it’s a pretty close alternative.
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- Its always just a little more fun to beat the Red Wings.
- Heck of a game from both O'Reilly and Landeskog.
- O'Reilly is the first Av to reach 20 points and has 6 more points than Stastny.
- Varly looks to be back to playing well in net - the confidence has returned. The Wings really dominated most of the first - Varly did really well to keep the game 1-0.
- If Stastny's injury means that Kevin Porter plays on a line with Matt Duchene (like it did in the final stages of this game), I really hope Stastny isn't out too long. (Anyone know if Olver is healthy?)
- David Jones and Brandon Yip were pretty much invisible during the entire 8 game homestand. Yip has 0 points in 6 games.
- Stefan Elliott actually looked like a rookie a couple of times during this game.
- Well, that was fun.
- Big night for O'Reilly - I believe it was his first 3 point game of his career. We're barely into the 2nd quarter of the season and he need 10 points to have a career year. (I think he's gonna do it.)
- If you ask me, O'Reilly will be the next captain of the Avs.
- Even though he only gave up one goal and made a few nice saves in the first, Varlamov still looked far too uncomfortable in net. Hopefully, this game starts to rebulid his confidence.
- Why does Kevin Porter always make the wrong play with the puck?
- Somehow Jan Hejda was named 3rd star by McNab. I know he scored the Avs 3rd goal, but other than that, he played average to below average defense all night.
- I loved the way O'Byrne stuck up for Duchene in the first and fought Clarkson. Say what you want about this team, but there is no question about whether they are willing to protect each other.
- This has got to be Brodeur's last season, right?
- You know it was a good night when you kinda of get sick of hearing the goal song.
ABD's 3 Stars:1. Kyle Quincey - After suffering a season ending injury after "checking" Ovechkin in Washington last year, Quincey has bounced back and been the most consistent Avs player. He is 2nd on the team with 14 points, including 3 goals and has a been decent in his own zone - where he is a -3.
2. Ryan O'Reilly - If this award was only for games 1-10, Factor would have won it hands down. While he's slowed a little bit in November, his line (along with Landeskog and Winnik) carried the Avs to a good start. With 12 points so far in 2011-12, he is well on his way doubling his career best point total of 26.
3. Matt Duchene - If this award was only for games 11-21, Matty would have won it hands down. After his (typical) slow start, Duchene was back to the kind of form that has given him 2 of the last 4 ABD 1st stars - he led the team in scoring after 21 games.
ABD's Goats:
1. Seymon Varlamov - Varly played well to start the season, but he play dropped dramatically and he ended up with horrible numbers over 14 games. To put his .890 Save % and 3.30 GAA in perspective, both Budaj and Anderson (while in an Avs uniform) put up better numbers last year.
2. Jan Hedja - Like Varly, Hedja also had a strong start, but his team worst -15 is simply to glaring to ignore. To put his -15 in perspective, last year, over games 42-61 (which included a stretch where the team picked up 1 point over 10 games), the worst plus minus on the team was -17 (JM Liles).
Most surprising thing:
Ryan Wilson - During Preseason, Ryan Wilson was on the bubble along with Matt Hunwick and Stefan Elliott for the 6th defenseman spot. He beat out those two and he has been the Avs 2nd most consistent player, leading the team with a +3 and tied for the team lead in assists with 11.
Most expected thing:
12th in the Western Conference. No one outside of Colorado had the Avs finishing in the playoffs - and so far "the experts" have been proven right.
Team Stats:
Record: 9-11-1
Standings: 4th in NW division, 12th in Western Conference
Points: 19 (of 42)
Average points per game: 0.90*
Projected points total: 74
*As a baseline – last year Vancouver (1st in Western Conference) averaged 1.42 points a game and (8th in Western Conference) averaged 1.18 points a game – anything above 1.20 is going to get you into the playoffs.
Home record: 3-7-0
Points: 6 (of 20)
Average points per game: 0.60
Road record: 6-4-1
Points: 13 (of 22)
Average points per game: 1.18
Goal differential: -9 (Avs: 56 - Opponents: 65)
*includes goals awarded for winning a shootout
Special Teams:
Power Play: 25.7%, 2nd in the NHL
Penalty Kill: 77.5%, 26th in the NHL
OT Record: 1-1
Shootout Record: 2-0
Individual Stats:
Points Leaders:
1. Matt Duchene - 16
2. Kyle Quincey - 14
3. Milan Hejduk / Paul Stastny - 13
Goal Leaders:
1. Matt Duchene - 9
2. Milan Hejduk - 7
3. Paul Stastny - 6
Assists Leaders:
1. Kyle Quincey / Ryan Wilson - 11
3. Ryan O'Reilly - 10
Plus / Minus:
Plus leader: Ryan Wilson (+3)
Minus leader: Jan Hejda (-15)
Goalies:
Varlamov - 14 games, 5-8-1, .890, 3.30
Giguere - 8 games, 4-3-0, .924, 1.85
Final Thought:I believe this team should be challenging for one of the final playoff spots in the Western Conference. These 21 games, particularly the 10 games at home, will make it tough for that to happen. no comments
- So obvious stuff first: what a game for Duchene. Ok, the 2nd goal was practically handed to him, and the other two of the goals were perhaps a little soft, but he was flying all night long and made a lot of Stars players look silly trying to get the puck aways from him.
- With the emergance of O'Reilly as a true offense threat, I'm much more comfortable with Duchene playing on the wing.
- Duchene is now tied with O'Reilly with 10 pts.
- This was probably the first game we saw Varly give up some bad goals. Not all his fault - he certainly wasn't helped by his defenseman tonight - I'm looking at you O'Byrne.
- I'm also looking at you Hejda. Jan was god awful on the OT goal - losing his man behind the net and then skating right through Varly to try to get back on him.
- Wilson had a 3 pt night, who now has as many points as Paul Stastny.
- Zero points for Hejduk, Landeskog, Jones, and Lindstrom.
- How exciting was that 3 on 3? I'm not a "I hate the shootout" guy at all, but I wouldn't mind extending the game another 3 mins playing 3 on 3 before going to the shootout.
- Dater uses the term "losers lament" when he hears the old "we're working hard, we're just not getting the bounces" lines from a losing team, and I usually tend to agree.
- However, in this game, I thought the Avs really just weren't getting the bounces.
- The Avs outshot Phoenix in every period and the end total was 40-28.
- No doubt Mike Smith was hot, and had some huge stops most notibly on Stasnty, but he was also lucky. Duchene and Hejduk both had chances in close where the puck was rolling and they just missed the net, Lindstrom had a fantastic tip that simply hit Smith in the shoulder, and the posts bailed out Smith twice.
- I'm not saying these should have all gone in, but usually 1 or 2 of these would. And that would have completely changed this game.
- That's not to say everything was great. Sloppy plays by EJ (a pass to nowhere - 1st goal) Varly (poor rebound control - 3rd goal) and Quincey (outworked by Korpikowski - 3rd goal) gave Phoenix all goals they would need.
- Another -2 night from EJ and Hejda each who are now a combined minus 17 on the season. Plus / Minus isn't everything, but after 12 games, things should even themselves out a little more. (Example, the O'Reilly line is a combined -2.)
- Obvious stuff first - huge goal for Duchene. Last weekend, he was playing on the forth line in Chicago - you could see him getting better and better in the Calgary and Edmonton games until he finally scored the kind of big goal that he can. Let's hope this one really gets him going.
- It certainly doesn't hurt when he gets to play with Jones.
- This was easily EJ's best game this season. Smart solid defense play, no bad TOs, dangerous point shot on PPs.
- Another solid effort from Kyle Quincey, who had 2 pts and now is tied with Stastny and O'Reilly in the team lead for points with 8.
- O'Brien also had a wonderful game. He had more ice time than Hejda. Some players can get mean if they have to, and some are just mean all of the time. O'Brien is the latter.
- LA used to just push around this team. Not anymore. Even though they outshot 32-16, Colorado was able to hang with them in a mucky, no neutral zone game. LA was only able to score on PPs and the Avs ended up outshooting LA 7-6 in the 3rd, even though Colorado got the lead with less than 2 minutes into the period.
- The Avs have 7 wins this season, however, this is only their 3rd regulation win.
- I hate losing winnable games and a game where you outshoot your opponent 41-19 certainly qualifies as winnable.
- The Avs are now 0-3 at home. If you want to know why, the only stat you need to look at is 2 goals in 3 games. I'm sure there are plenty of other interesting stats to look at, but that's the only one that matters.
- The defense play of Hedja and Kevin Porter on Edmonton's 3rd goal could only be described as "clown shoes". Hopefully, it was bad enough that Porter will be out of the lineup on Sunday against the Kings.
- Its great when 2/3 of your 4th line will not be able to score, no matter how golden of a chance they get.
- Sacco may think that TJ Galiardi isn't playing up to his potential, and he may be right about that, but this team is clearly a worse team with Kevin Porter in the lineup. (/end Porter rant)
- Landeskog needs to stop taking goalie interference penalties on PPs. I don't care if the refs aren't getting the calls quite right, he can't let himself getting pushed into the goalie - he clearly isn't getting the calls.
- Duchene is one spectacular goal away from getting out of this slump. Until then, he will be criticized for playing too selfishly. Hockey is a funny game, isn't it?
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- 1st period shots on goal: Calgary 21, Colorado 5.
- Even though the Avs came out of that period with the score 1-1, that stat showed Calgary was sharp and working hard and the Avalanche were far from it.
- Realistically, you're going to have slow starts like these over a 82 game schedule - espeically after having 2+ days between games. Ideally, you would want your best goalie going (i.e. Varly) so he can steal a game for you.
- I'm certainly not blaming the loss on Giggy, but I wonder with Varly finds a way to hang on to shots that became rebounds.
- Duchene was at least visable tonight and almost scored a highlight reel spin-o-rama goal in the 2nd period. The problem was he looked to be trying to do it all himself.
- Dater was tweeting (I thought he wasn't going to tweet during games anymore?) that the team was doomed because Mueller is hurt and they have no 2nd line. I have two problems with this statement.
- 1. Who says O'Reilly's line isn't the 1st or 2nd line? Just because O'Reilly has always been thought of as a 3rd line center doesn't mean that is all he will ever be. He certainly isn't playing like a 3rd liner now - he is tied with Stastny for the team lead with 7 pts.
- 2. When Duchene gets out of he slump (and he will) whatever line is plays on will be instantally better and suddenly dangerous.
Another road game, another shootout win.
- Obvious stuff first: what a game from Landeskog. How many young players would get that chance late in the 3rd and not bury it?
- Incredible pass from O'Reilly on the play. Factor is now the leading scorer on the team with 7 assists.
- Had a great feeling as Lindstrom was skating in to take the 3rd shootout attempt because Crawford had never seen him before. I use the phrase "Player X beat Goalie Y like a rented mule" sparingly, but I think it applies here.
- I think its save to say that this wasn't EJs (and to a lesser extent Hedja's) best game. His giveaway to setup Frolik with Chicago's first goal was absolutely brutal and inexcusable but to his credit, he didn't completely meltdown after the play.
- I thought the Hejduk / Stastny / Jones line was a good move - Kobasew had shown he couldn't play with Jones and Stastny and now you've got a power forward (or the closest thing we have to it) in David Jones with our best pure goalscorer in old man Hejdie.
- That being said, and knowing how solid the O'Reilly line is - where do you put Duchene? He's not going to stay on the on the 4th line - Sacco was clearly sending Matty a message about working harder - which isn't a shock after a slow start and some defensive lapses. He'll probably center Kobesew and Lindstrom in Calgary.
- Only McClemment and McLeod had less time on ice than Dutchy in this game.
