Malkin scores twice, Pens double up Lightning

Hockey Betting Lines

02/12/2012 - Pittsburgh, PA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Evgeni Malkin lit the lamp twice and the Pittsburgh Penguins scored four unanswered goals Sunday night to beat the Tampa Bay Lightning, 4-2.

The Penguins bounced back from the two quickest goals by one player in Tampa Bay history to improve to 2-0 on a three-game homestand.

Chris Kunitz and Kris Letang had one goal and two assists apiece in the win and Brent Johnson made 21 saves. James Neal had three assists.

Malkin shot on an empty net as time expired and missed a hat trick by inches as the puck hit off the post.

Steve Downie scored two goals 11 seconds apart in the first period to set a franchise record and give the Lightning a 2-0 lead, but they never found the back of the net again in their fourth loss in six games.

Mathieu Garon gave up four goals on 41 shots and Teddy Purcell had two assists for Tampa Bay.

Johnson got a piece of Downie's first goal, on a slap shot from above the left circle, but it knuckled through him for a 1-0 Lightning lead 9:58 into the game.

Seconds later, Purcell slid the puck through the crease at the end of a 3-on-2 rush and Downie was there to hammer it in.

Malkin scored his first goal on a power play 6:06 later on a one-timer to get the Penguins on the board. They tied it just 56 seconds into the middle period when Kunitz split four defenders and beat Garon five-hole after carrying the puck into the zone himself.

Letang had the eventual game-winner at 4:28 of the second, beating Garon from the slot, and Malkin made it 4-2 midway through the period when he hustled to the left side of the net for a seeing-eye pass from Kunitz that set him up perfectly.

Game Notes

Jason Wiemer held the previous Tampa Bay record for fastest two goals at 16 seconds in a game against New Jersey on October 3, 1997. The team record for time between goals is nine seconds, also against New Jersey on January 9, 2004...The teams split two prior meetings this season in Tampa Bay. They will meet again on February 25 in Pittsburgh...The Lightning have lost three in a row at Pittsburgh.

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FOOTBALL BETTING : Crabtree's base deal: six years, $32 million

Football Betting

In the wake of the news that the 49ers have signed receiver Michael Crabtree after an extended holdout, there has been not a hint of the dollars to be paid to Crabtree.

And since this means that his agent hasn't leaked the numbers, it means that his agent feels no specific motivation to do so.

Possibly because his agent isn't all that thrilled to have his name on the deal.

So the numbers will come from sources other than Crabtree's agent. And we've gotten our mitts into them.

Per a league source, Crabtree has signed a six-year, $32 million contract. (The total includes guaranteed money, base salaries, and the one-time incentive based on achieving minimum playing time.)

The deal also includes $17 million in guaranteed money.

As reported elsewhere, the deal can void to five years based on performance triggers, wiping out a final year base salary of $4 million. But they won't be easily reached.

The source tells us that, in his first four seasons (including 2009), Crabtree must either qualify for two Pro Bowls, or he must qualify for one Pro Bowl in one year and he must participate in 80 percent of the offensive snaps in a separate year in which the team makes the playoffs.

In other words, if in 2010 he qualifies for the Pro Bowl and the team makes the playoffs and he participates in 80 percent of the snaps, he'll still need to make it to the Pro Bowl or achieve the 80-percent/playoffs in another season.

Since the chances of Crabtree making the Pro Bowl or participating in 80 percent of the offensive snaps this year is roughly zero percent, he'll have three years to get it done.

And it won't be easy. Frankly, he'll be hard pressed to make it to one Pro Bowl in three years with the likes of Larry Fitzgerald, Calvin Johnson, Anquan Boldin, Steve Smith, the other Steve Smith, Hakeem Nicks, DeSean Jackson, Johnny Knox, Percy Harvin, Greg Jennings, Roddy White, T.J. Houshmandzadeh in the same conference for sportsbook betting.

So, by all appearances, it's a six-year deal. And at $17 million in guaranteed money, the per-year guarantee is a tepid $2.83 million per year.

There's another problem with the deal -- it has no mid-tier incentive package. Instead, the additional $8 million that Crabtree can earn (pushing the max value to six years, $40 million) requires the kind of unrealistic, mega-star performances that no rookie is likely to ever achieve.

So while the contract paid to Packers defensive tackle B.J. Raji covers five years and pays $22.5 million, he has the ability (if he's a solid player) to make up the difference between his base deal and Crabtree's five-year, $28 million haul via the mid-tier incentive package in Raji's deal.

And unless Crabtree meets the performance thresholds necessary to void the sixth year, he'll be stuck under contract for another year at a base salary of only $4 million.

There's one other area of concern with the deal. Crabtree, per the source, received no option bonus. Instead, he has significant money tied to a fairly new device known as a "discretionary salary advance," which unlike an opition bonus is subject to forfeiture if Crabtree decides in a year or two that he wants to hold out for a better deal. (We're also told that the 49ers have included language that would make certain escalators subject to forfeiture, too.)

Meanwhile, the deal falls well short of the mark for which Crabtree and agent Eugene Parker were aiming -- the five-year, $38.25 million contract paid by the Raiders to receiver Darrius Heyward-Bey, the seventh overall pick in the draft.

Even if Crabtree successfully voids the final year, he'll make more than $2 million per year less on average than Heyward-Bey.

Thus, as we explained earlier in the day, this is a deal that Crabtree could have done in July, which would have given him a much better chance of making a contribution to the 49ers during his rookie year.

So while the final outcome can be described as win-win, the broader view suggests that it's really a lose-lose situation.

NFL Betting Lines

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