Lombardi, Boyd help Flames burn Habs

Hockey Betting Lines

02/09/2009 - Calgary, AB (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Matthew Lombardi and Dustin Boyd scored short- handed goals during the pivotal second period, as the Calgary Flames beat the Canadiens, 6-2, sending Montreal to its eighth loss in 10 games.

Dion Phaneuf scored the go-ahead goal just 32 seconds after Lombardi tied it, as the Flames snapped a season-high four-game skid. Rene Bourque, Mike Cammalleri and David Moss also lit the lamp, while Miikka Kiprusoff stopped 22 shots. Lombardi finished with a goal and two assists.

Matt D'Agostini and Tomas Plekanec had first-period goals for the Canadiens, who have lost their last three contests, having been outscored 14-6 during that span. Jaroslav Halak had 35 saves for Montreal in the opener of a six- game road trip.

Down 2-1 to start the second period, the Flames were energized thanks to spectacular short-handed play and 20 shots in the middle period. Bourque was called for interference for banging into Halak, but Lombardi scored at 11:36 on a breakaway, tucking a backhander past the netminder.

A short time later, Phaneuf scored on a shot from the slot through a screen, and Kiprusoff kept the game tied with two minutes left in the second when he made a great sprawling pad stop on Andrei Kostitsyn.

Boyd made it 4-2 with another short-handed goal, this one with 1:17 remaining in the period, another breakaway, for his first goal in 16 games. The goal came with Robyn Regehr in the penalty box for kneeing.

It became 5-2 at 6:57 of the third. Lombardi sent the puck from the left corner toward the slot, where it bounced off Cammalleri before Bourque mopped up with the rebound for his 18th goal of the season.

Moss accounted for the final margin with a power play score at 11:51 of the third.

D'Agostini scored on a snap shot from the right circle 10:17 into the opening period, but the Flames tied it less than three minutes later on Cammalleri's 28th goal of the season when he redirected a dribbling puck in front of the net.

Plekanec's goal, with 1:19 remaining in the first, came off a 2-on-1 break. Alex Kovalev sent a pass from the left circle to below the right one for the goal as Kiprusoff was out of position.

Game Notes

The Canadiens will visit Edmonton on Wednesday, while Calgary's next contest is the same night at Anaheim...Montreal has lost six in a row on the road...The Canadiens were 0-for-4 on the power play, while Calgary was 1-for-5...Roman Hamrlik had two assists for Montreal.

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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.