Flames try for rare road win versus Maple Leafs

Hockey Betting Lines

03/14/2009 - (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Calgary Flames will aim for their first victory in Toronto since 2000, as they visit the Maple Leafs tonight and Air Canada Centre.

The Flames haven't posted a victory in Toronto since December 16, 2000. They have lost three straight there since that win, including a 5-4 overtime setback at ACC on October 14, 2006. Calgary has lost 13 of its last 14 trips to Toronto as well.

However, the Flames notched a 4-3 home win over the Maple Leafs on November 11 of this year, their fourth win in the last six meetings in the series.

Calgary ends a seven-game road trip tonight and had lost three straight on the trek prior to Thursday's 6-5 shootout win over Detroit. Olli Jokinen scored twice in regulation to give him five goals in five games since coming over from Phoenix in a deadline-day deal, and then had the winner in the shootout.

Jamie Lundmark posted two goals and an assist for the Northwest Division- leading Flames, who improved to 3-3-0 on the trek and 18-14-2 overall as the guest this year. Daymond Langkow also scored in just his second game back from a hand injury that had sidelined him since February 17.

Miikka Kiprusoff made 40 saves to earn his league-leading 40th win of the season. He is 2-1-1 in his career versus the Maple Leafs with a 2.99 goals against average.

The Maple Leafs were last in action on Thursday and were handed a 4-1 loss by Tampa Bay. Martin Gerber saved 26-of-30 shots faced and has now split his four starts with Toronto since being claimed off waivers from Ottawa at the trade deadline.

Lee Stempniak scored the lone goal just 3:21 into the contest for Toronto, which is 11 points out of a playoff spot in the Eastern Conference.

Toronto plays the finale of a three-game homestand tonight and has lost six of its last eight as the host. The Maple Leafs are 12-13-9 as the home team this year.

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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.