Maple Leafs aim to stay hot versus Thrashers

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12/22/2008 - (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Toronto Maple Leafs will aim for their fifth win in six games when they head south to face the Atlanta Thrashers at Philips Arena.

The Maple Leafs picked up an impressive two points Saturday in Pittsburgh, as they pounded the Penguins, 7-3.

Nik Antropov had a goal and two assists to lead Toronto to the easy win at Mellon Arena. The Leafs led 3-1 after the first period and held a 5-1 advantage after 40 minutes of play.

Pavel Kubina and Alex Ponikarovsky each had a goal and an assist for the Maple Leafs.

Vesa Toskala made 20 saves in the win and improved to 13-9-5 this season.

The Finnish backstop has an excellent career mark against the Thrashers, going 5-0-1 with a 1.81 goals against average and ,926 save percentage in six games.

Toronto is capping a three-game road trip tonight and is 7-8-2 as the visiting team this season. The Leafs have lost three of their last five games away from the Air Canada Centre.

The Thrashers have won two of their last three games, but are just 3-7-2 in their last 12 games overall.

Atlanta earned a victory its last time out, defeating the visiting Tampa Bay Lightning by a 4-3 score on Saturday.

Kari Lehtonen was the star for the Thrashers as he made his first appearance in almost two months and stopped 36 shots. Lehtonen had been battling a back injury and hadn't played a game since October 30.

Joseph Crabb, Todd White, Eric Perrin and Slava Kozlov each had a goal for the Thrashers.

White has recorded a point in five straight games and has three goals and four helpers during the stretch.

The Thrashers, who have lost seven of their last eight home tests, are wrapping a three-game homestand tonight. Atlanta is just 6-8-2 as the host this year.

Atlanta has won five of the last eight meetings with the Maple Leafs, including a 6-3 victory in Toronto on November 25. However, Toronto has won two straight and seven of its last nine in Atlanta.

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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.

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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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