Nash, Blue Jackets edge Rangers

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02/25/2007 - New York, NY (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Rick Nash scored the go-ahead goal in the second period, and the Columbus Blue Jackets erased a two-goal deficit with a pair of short-handed tallies, defeating the New York Rangers, 3-2, at Madison Square Garden.

Anders Eriksson and Jason Chimera both tallied for the Blue Jackets, who won for just the third time in their last 11 games while snapping a three-game slide. Fredrik Norrena was strong between the pipes, finishing with 40 saves for Columbus.

Blair Betts and Jaromir Jagr both scored and Henrik Lundqvist finished with 22 saves for the Rangers, who were playing their second game in a season-high six-game homestand. The Blueshirts have struggled in their quest for a postseason berth, dropping a pair of heartbreaking losses to the New Jersey Devils in a home-and-home series this past week, and four of their last five games overall.

The Rangers grabbed the early lead, punching through with their fourth shot on goal to make it 1-0. On a delayed penalty call, Betts took a pass from Ryan Hollweg and moved behind the net from Norrena's right to left, before stuffing the puck past the netminder on a wrap-around attempt at 2:46.

A little more than two minutes later New York struck again to make it 2-0, this time on the power play. With Columbus' Aaron Johnson off for interference, Jagr rifled a slap shot from the top of the right circle past Norrena at 5:11 for his 22nd goal of the season.

Eriksson got Columbus on the board, deflecting the puck past Lundqvist to make it a 2-1 game. David Vyborny had almost nothing on the initial shot, which he wristed from above the right circle. The disc went through heavy traffic, however, deflecting off two players, the last being Eriksson, before it skipped past the netminder with 1:24 remaining in the first period.

A pair of short-handed tallies gave Columbus a 3-2 lead in the second period.

After a takeaway by Fredrik Modin, Chimera gathered the puck in his own zone, then went through neutral zone unimpeded while moving along the left boards. Just a few strides over the blue line, Chimera unleashed a wrist shot that beat Lundqvist at 11:02 to square the game at 2-2.

Nash then gave his team a 3-2 lead while Eriksson was off for hooking. The shot, which was nearly identical to Chimera's, came off the left side and beat Lundqvist with 4:06 remaining in the middle stanza.

The third period belonged to New York, except where the scoreboard was concerned. The Blueshirts dominated in shots on goal, 17-4, but could not solve Norrena down the stretch.

A hooking infraction against Michal Rozsival, which came with just 42 seconds remaining in the contest, let the Rangers short-handed and dampened any hopes of a game-tying tally.

Game Notes

It was Chimera's second unassisted short-handed goal of the season. The first one came December 18th against Detroit...The Blue Jackets have won five of their last six meetings with the Rangers overall, and are 1-1 with one tie all-time at Madison Square Garden, where they had not played since a 5-3 loss December 3, 2002...New York was 1-for-5 on the power play, while Columbus finished 0-for-2...The Rangers needed a win to move within four points of the top eight teams in the Eastern Conference.

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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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