Operation Slap Shot Busted

Preview of Blues vs Canucks, Gretzky faces some tough times ahead. Let's roll...

Weight-less Blues in Town

The St. Louis Blues are in town to face the Canucks tomorrow night at GM Place. But the Blues are a different team than the one that beat Vancouver just a few short weeks ago. Since that game, the Blues have been on a fire sale dumping the salaries of Doug Weight and Mike Sillinger in return for more youth and draft picks. Clearly the Blues have dropped out of the playoff race and are in the rebuilding phase, something that is completely foreign for the Blues who have never missed a post-season in decades. Still, with youth comes energy and the Blues are a team now that plays with plenty of it. The Canucks are looking to put together a string of wins before the Olympic break before making that big push for the playoffs. Should be a no-brainer here, Canucks at home have been lights out, I like the Canucks in a 5-2 win.

Rough Seas Ahead

Mr. Gretzky has a lot on his mind lately. As Team Canada heads into the 2006 Olympics, suddenly their chances are starting to look shaky to repeat for the Gold. A couple of big injuries on defense has Gretzky scrambling to find replacements. But the biggest bombshell was dropped today as Phoenix Coyotes Assistant Coach Rick Tocchet has been officially charged by Authorities in Pennsylvannia for his involvment an illegal sports gambling operation. To make matter worse, Gretzky's wife Janet Jones has been named as one of the alleged sports bettors. With the "Gretzky" name linked with all this mess it takes this story from the footnote to the headliner of every major network and news media outlet. The investigators are still gathering more evidence, but if they find that NHL players bet on NHL games, there will be some serious consequences. The one cardinal sin in all of sports is gambling on your own sport, on your own games. The integrity of the game could be on the line here, should it come out that games were fixed and thrown, it could send the NHL into a tailspin. Makes you wonder about all those nights Todd Bertuzzi and the rest of his teammates took off.

What's on TV
NCAAB, Syracuse vs Conneticut, 6:30pm PST on the Score
NBA, San Antonio vs Toronto, 4:00pm PST on the Score
NBA, Chicago vs Denver, 6:30pm PST on Sportsnet Pacific
NHL, Ottawa vs NY Rangers, 4:00pm PST on TSN

Picks of the Day
San Antonio Spurs -6.5 over Toronto Raptors
Chicago/San Jose U6.5 (-115)
Record YTD (37-41, -1353)