Blues play host to sliding Wild

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02/18/2012 - (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The St. Louis Blues will try to continue their home success when they host the sliding Minnesota Wild in today's matinee battle at Scottrade Center.

The Blues have been nearly unbeatable on home ice all season long, posting an amazing 25-3-4 mark in the Gateway City. St. Louis has also gone without a regulation loss as the host since Dec. 3 and is 17-0-3 in its last 20 games on friendly ice.

With a 10-12-3 record on the road this year, it's safe to say the Blues can thank their home play for their current standing in the Western Conference. St. Louis is seeded fourth in the West and is five points ahead of Nashville for that distinction. The Blues are also just five points in back of Detroit for first place in the Central Division.

Following today's game, the Blues will play seven of their next eight contests on the road.

The Blues turned in a dominating performance in Thursday's home test against the New York Islanders. T.J. Oshie had a goal and two assists and Brian Elliott made 26 saves to lift St. Louis to the 5-1 victory.

Jason Arnott, Kevin Shattenkirk, Andy McDonald and David Perron all scored for the Blues, who rebounded nicely after Tuesday's 2-1 loss at Columbus. St. Louis scored five unanswered goals on Thursday to win for the sixth time in eight games.

"We kind of kept it pretty simple," said Blues defenseman Alex Pietrangelo. "We scored four goals on just shots and tips, doing what we do best. That's putting pucks to the net, getting in front of the goalie's eyes and banging and crashing."

Blues defenseman Carlo Colaiacovo missed Thursday's game with a wrist injury and he may be able to return for today's tilt.

The Wild's struggles continued Thursday night, as Minnesota lost its sixth straight game with a shootout loss against visiting Winnipeg. The six-game slide is Minnesota's second-longest skid of the year after an 0-5-3 stretch from Dec. 13-28.

Minnesota, which was leading the NHL in points in early December, has gone 5-16-6 over its last 27 games to deliver a serious blow to its playoff hopes. The Wild enter tonight trailing Phoenix and Los Angeles by six points for the last postseason berths in the West.

The Wild were burned by Evander Kane in Thursday's loss, as Winnipeg's star forward scored twice in regulation and added the winner in the shootout to lift the Jets to the 4-3 decision at Xcel Energy Center.

Devin Setoguchi had two goals and an assist in the loss while Mikko Koivu added a goal and a helper for the Wild. Niklas Backstrom made 24 stops in the loss.

"It's not fun when you lose, so it wasn't fun," said Setoguchi. "We played a better game and scored, but our game isn't run and gun."

The Wild lost defenseman Mike Lundin to an undisclosed injury on Thursday and he is questionable for today's game.

Minnesota is 12-13-5 as the guest this year and has lost 13 of its last 15 road games.

The Wild were 2-0 against the Blues this year after the clubs met twice in St. Paul, but St. Louis recorded a 3-2 shootout victory on home ice when the teams battled on Jan. 14. Minnesota has taken six of eight overall in this series, but the Blues have won five of the last seven encounters at Scottrade Center.

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The NFL preseason is approaching. Time for players, coaches and teams to turn over a new leaf. General managers have hired some new coaches, while coaches have added some offensive and defensive assistants to try and improve things. Here’s a look at some changes to look for in the preseason.

New York Jets: The Jets were one of the surprise teams in the NFL last season, making the playoffs under hard-driving first-year coach Eric Mangini. Mangini rebuilt the offensive line with rookies D'Brickashaw Ferguson (the No. 4 pick in the 2007 Draft) and Ohio State center (the 29th pick in the first round). This season he upgraded the defense with rookie linebacker David Harris (Michigan) while the secondary picked up a much needed top-notch corner in Pitt CB Darrelle Revis (No. 14 overall).

The Jets have added balance to the offense for QB Chad Pennington with RB Thomas Jones, essentially stolen from the Bears. He will upgrade a New York ground game that was 20th in rushing with a weak 3.5 yards per carry. They have their first true feature back since Curtis Martin. Offensive coordinator Brian Schottenheimer prefers ball control, like his father Marty. In preseason, behind Pennington you’ll see second-year QB Kellen Clemens and mobile newcomer QB Marques Tuiasosopo.

Jacksonville Jaguars: The heat is on Jack Del Rio in Jacksonville as the Jaguars flopped last season despite a ton of talent. Keep in mind that under Del Rio the Jaguars have been outstanding in preseason with a 12-4 SU, 11-5 ATS August mark. online football betting Their defense is loaded, it’s the offense that has been stuck in first gear the last few years.

Enter a new offensive coordinator in Dirk Koetter, the former Boise State and Arizona State pass-happy coach. He will try and upgrade a passing game that ranked 24th last season. Del Rio has criticized wide receivers and Matt Jones this summer, both of whom have battled injuries. It will be interesting to watch the “new” Jaguars passing game in preseason.

Arizona Cardinals: Word out of Arizona is that the players like new coach Ken Whisenhunt, who was the Steelers offensive coordinator last year. We think of Arizona as all-passing because their running game has been awful of late because of a poor offensive line. However, keep an eye on the running game in preseason as they’ve made a lot of changes.

The new coach brings in Russ Grimm to coach the offensive line (Grimm did a marvelous job building the Steelers line). They took Penn State OT Levi Jones in the first round and signed two offensive linemen, Mike Gandy and Al Johnson, to provide depth. Reggie Wells was moved from right tackle to left guard and they want more speed out of the offensive line for pulling and traps, a Pittsburgh staple under Bill Cowher.

Atlanta Falcons: While all the attention has been focused on QB Mike Vick’s off-field problems, new coach Bobby Petrino is revamping the Falcons from an all-running team to a more balanced one. Petrino likes the experience of backup QB Joey Harrington and he has veteran backup Chris Redman, who used to play for Petrino at Louisville and knows his offenses better than anyone. Petrino wants Vick to be more of a pocket passer.

The addition of FB Ovie Mughelli is a sign Petrino wants a power rushing attack behind a physical fullback and newcomer WR Joe Horn should upgrade what was a below average wideout corps. Petrino is changing their old zone-blocking scheme to a more traditional in-line blocking scheme and the offensive line is bigger. Rookie DE Jamaal Anderson was grabbed in the first round and the secondary got younger with former Auburn cornerback David Irons, who the Falcons think was a steal as a sixth-round pick.

Cleveland Browns: The 2007 Browns look like a double-edged sword. There was the excitement of the offseason, trading for RB Jamel Lewis, upgrading the offensive line with Wisconsin’s Joe Thomas (the No. 2 pick in the draft) and free agent LG Eric Steinbach, then trading for Notre Dame QB Brady Quinn when he fell to No. 22. GM Phil Savage and head coach Romeo Crennel feel they have a talented, balanced offense with these new pieces, plus TE >Kellen Winslow and WR Braylon Edwards.

However, were these moves made in desperation? And were they foolish ones? The Browns gave up their 2008 first-round pick for Quinn and we all know QBs take time to develop. And even first-round QBs can be busts (Joey Harrington, Akili Smith). We also don’t know if the offensive line is that much improved (31st in rushing in 2007) and they did nothing to improve a defense that was awful against the run (142 yds pg allowed).

The Browns have a new offensive coordinator in Rob Chudzinski. This is a young offense and Quinn looked tentative, indecisive and inaccurate early in camp. Crennel will play Charlie Frye, Quinn and Derek Anderson in preseason. And there is a mixed bag for rookie QBs receiving significant starts: Tim Couch (14), Kerry Collins (13), Ben Roethlisberger (13), Vince Young (13), Joey Harrington (12), Matt Leinart (11) and Kyle Boller (nine). While all the focus will be on the Browns new-look offense, I’m more concerned with the defense.

Carolina Panthers: Coach Jon Fox loves the ground game, but Carolina has made some interesting changes for 2007. Fox fired offensive coordinator Dan Henning and brings in Jeff Davidson to run the offense. Davidson has brought in zone-blocking schemes to the Panther offense, a dramatic change for a system that's been built around a power-running style.

In zone-blocking, offensive linemen are responsible for blocking any defender who appears in their zone, instead of focusing on one defender. The Broncos and Falcons have had success with the system, which features smaller, more athletic offensive linemen and can create running lanes on the inside and outside. Keep an eye in preseason on how Carolina adjusts as it will take time to learn the system. Fox has been one of the top coaches in preseason, with a 15-5 SU, 12-7-1 ATS August record.

Dallas Cowboys: WR Terrell Owens is still here, but QB Drew Bledsoe and Bill Parcells are gone. New head coach Wade Phillips takes over, replacing Parcells. He ran the Chargers defense last season. Phillips was chosen by teary-eyed owner Jerry Jones partly because he is one of the best 3-4 coaches in football and the Cowboys have loaded up on players for that scheme.

Remember that Phillips was blitz-happy with the Chargers last season and early reports out of the Dallas camp have mentioned how the Cowboys have been blitzing a lot, a departure from Parcells. The theme of the 2007 Dallas defense appears to be one of attack.

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