Elliott returns to Ottawa as Blues visit Sens

Hockey Betting Lines

02/07/2012 - (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Ottawa Senators decided last season that they wanted to upgrade their goaltending position. Now the man that they dealt away reappears in town as an All-Star.

Brian Elliott makes his return to Scotiabank Place this evening as a member of the St. Louis Blues almost a year after the Sens shipped him out of town for their current goaltender.

Elliott was a ninth-round pick by Ottawa in 2003 and appeared in 130 games with the club. He went 59-45-15 in that span with a 2.81 goals-against average and .903 save percentage, winning a career-high 29 games in 2009-10 with five shutouts. Elliott also went 1-2 in four playoff games that season.

Ottawa dealt the 26-year-old to Colorado on Feb. 18 of last year for Craig Anderson and Elliott went 2-8-1 in 12 games before signing with the Blues this offseason to back up Jaroslav Halak.

Elliott, though, has made 22 starts to Halak's 29 and was a participant in this season's All-Star Game. Both Elliott and Halak are among the league leaders with five shutouts each, while the former leads the NHL with a 1.69 GAA and is second with a .938 save percentage.

St. Louis head coach Ken Hitchcock is expected to give Elliott his first career start versus his former team tonight after going with Halak in the first two games following the All-Star break. Halak notched a 22-save shutout versus the Kings on Friday and was then dented for two goals on 36 shots in a 3-1 loss to Pekka Rinne and the Predators the following night.

Rinne made 41 saves for Nashville and allowed just a goal by St. Louis' Chris Porter. For the Blues, it was the third loss in four games and dropped them a point behind the Preds for second place in the Central Division.

"Obviously, Rinne played extremely well and made some big saves, but I think the thing we seemed to do in stretches was to get away from our game and try to find some cute way of passing it around him and that's exactly what they want," Blues forward Jamie Langenbrunner said.

Halak fell to 12-2-3 in his past 17 starts, posting a 1.56 GAA and .940 save percentage in that span, and has four shutouts in his last eight starts.

St. Louis, which is 9-0-2 versus the Eastern Conference this year, played without Jason Arnott due to a shoulder injury and lost the opener of a three- game swing. The Blues have lost seven of their past nine on the road and will look to win in Ottawa for the first time since Jan. 26, 2000. St. Louis has lost five straight as the guest in this series and snapped a five-game overall losing streak to Ottawa with a 5-2 home win last season.

Elliott started that game for the Senators and allowed five goals on 33 shots.

Anderson and the Sens will try to snap their season-high six-game slide this evening. The skid is the club's longest since an 0-9-2 drought from Jan. 14- Feb. 9 of last year and has dropped it seven points behind Boston for first place in the Northeast Division. The Sens are also sitting eighth overall in the East, now one point back of the Maple Leafs and three ahead of the ninth- place Capitals.

Ottawa lost ground to Toronto on Saturday with a 5-0 setback to the club. Anderson made 35 saves in his 17th straight start as the Senators were held to one goal or less for the fourth time on their skid.

"This is definitely the worst loss. It's against a big rival for us, a team we're battling with," Senators center Jason Spezza said. "You hope this is the end of it."

Ottawa plays the third of a season-high five-game homestand tonight.

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Barry Bonds is a 50-1 long shot to be this year's home run champ odds.  The favorite to be this year's home run champ is none other than Albert Pujols, however.

Now that Barry Bonds is signed and in Giants camp, it is on to his pursuit of all of sports most prestigious records: the all-time home run mark. Bonds sits just 21 homers shy of tying Hank Aaron for the career mark at 755. Word out of Giants’ camp is that Bonds is the healthiest he has been in a few years. Bonds is just two seasons removed from his injury riddled 2005 campaign where he played in only 14 games and hit only 5 home runs. He did come back last year and had a solid season hitting .270 with 26 bombs. All eyes will be on Bonds this spring and summer not only because of his home run chase but his highly publicized steroid abuse allegations. If and when Bonds breaks the record, he surely will not get the positive attention one should for breaking a record that was once thought of as “unbreakable”. Despite Bonds decent season last year, he is just 50-1 at MySportsbook.com to lead the MLB in long balls this season.

Not surprisingly, the favorites to go deep the most times this season are Albert Pujols 5-1, Ryan Howard 6-1, David Ortiz 8-1 and Alex Rodriguez 12-1. With 49 homers, Pujols finished second in the National League behind Howard (58). Pujols is considered the favorite due to the consistent power numbers that he has posted since breaking into the league in 2001. Also one must consider the fact that he played in 16 fewer games then Howard did due to an injury. Howard smashed 58 homers in his first complete season of big league play en route to the National League MVP odds award. He silenced his critics by successfully hitting left-handed pitching. Howard also displayed the ability to use his power to the opposite field. Two attributes which should keep Howard amongst the league leaders in long balls for years to come. From the American League representatives, David Ortiz leads the field. Ortiz was second in the majors last year with 54 home runs. Except for 1999 when he only played in 10 games, Ortiz has improved on his home run numbers each year he has been in the majors (1997).

Be sure to log onto online sports betting site MySportsbook.com to check out the odds for who will lead the MLB in home runs this season. Below is just a sample of the players listed. With the highest credit card rates in the industry, MySportsbook.com is the place to bet on baseball this summer.

World Series odds

Adam Dunn 15-1

Albert Pujols 5-1

Alex Rodriguez 12-1

Alfonso Soriano 15-1

Andruw Jones 25-1

Barry Bonds 50-1

Carlos Delgado 40-1

David Ortiz 8-1

Jermaine Dye 40-1

Ken Griffey Jr. 100-1

Lance Berkman 40-1

Manny Ramirez 20-1

Richie Sexson 40-1

Ryan Howard 6-1

Travis Hafner 20-1

Vladimir Guerrero 40-1

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