NHL Betting News at LinesMaker

Sutton: Suspension Process Flawed

EDMONTON — Andy Sut­ton con­cedes the game has changed since he first broke into the NHL 13 years ago. And as the league con­tin­ues to hand out sus­pen­sions like beads at Mardi Gras, the Edmon­ton Oil­ers defence­man believes the dis­ci­pli­nary process should evolve as well. Cur­rently serv­ing his sec­ond sus­pen­sion this sea­son, Sut­ton is at the total­i­tar­ian mercy of the league when it comes to how hard he’s hit both on the ice and in the pocketbook. “Obvi­ously I wasn’t very happy about it. They make the deci­sions and unfor­tu­nately we have to... 

Laraque Mad Over Bloody Trading Cards

For­mer NHL tough guy Georges Laraque is squar­ing off against an Ontario com­pany that’s behind a blood-spattered Enforcers series of trad­ing cards cel­e­brat­ing leg­endary hockey brawlers. Laraque says he signed off on the image rights ear­lier this year but was shocked when jour­nal­ists approached him with the fin­ished product. Blood-themed graph­ics frame the pho­tos of sev­eral clas­sic enforcers includ­ing Laraque, Chris Nilan, Tie Domi and Bob Probert. There’s also a card fea­tur­ing Wade Belak, one of three for­mer NHL tough guys who have died this year. Laraque... 

Power Rankings: Panthers Are Back in Business

It’s been quite some time since the Florida Pan­thers were men­tioned in the same con­ver­sa­tion with the best teams in the League. That’s because the Pan­thers have been his­tor­i­cally one of, if not the worst, teams in the NHL for the past decade. They haven’t reached the play­offs since 2000, when they were swept by the New Jer­sey Dev­ils. The Pan­thers haven’t won a play­off game since 1997 and haven’t fin­ished higher than third in the South­east Divi­sion since the 2000-01 season. But thanks to a dras­tic over­haul by GM Dale Tal­lon, the Pan­thers have quickly... 

An Unlikely Group Has Wild Atop NHL

GLENDALE, Ariz. — While the rest of the hockey world waits for the Min­nesota Wild to start act­ing like the team pre­dicted to miss the Stan­ley Cup Play­offs by a coun­try mile, the best team in the NHL is wait­ing to see just how good it can be. Con­ven­tional wis­dom would sug­gest that on a team with offen­sive stars like Dany Heat­ley, Devin Setoguchi and Mikko Koivu, grind­ing cen­ter Kyle Brodziak would have about as much of a chance of lead­ing Min­nesota in goals as the Wild would have of win­ning 17 out of 21 games. But after 30 games, both parts of that equa­tion... 

Fantasy Mailbag: Toews Holds More Value Than Ovi

NHL.com fan­tasy insider Pete Jensen has you cov­ered all sea­son long with the weekly Fan­tasy Hockey Mail­bag. The most com­pelling ques­tions posed each week will be answered in an effort to pro­vide you with the best chance to suc­ceed in your par­tic­u­lar league. Sub­mit your best ques­tions for the NHL.com Fan­tasy Mail­bag by con­tact­ing [email protected]. ELI FROM TORONTO was offered a trade where he would receive Alex Ovechkin in exchange for Jonathan Toews. Ovechkin may have sported the second-highest aver­age draft posi­tion in Yahoo! fan­tasy drafts this year, but... 

Habs Hope Fresh Start Revives Kaberle, Their Power Play

NEWARK, N.J. — Call­ing it an excit­ing new chal­lenge for him, new Cana­di­ens defense­man Tomas Kaberle fig­ures he knows exactly what he’s up against in Montreal. After all, the Habs are Kaberle’s third Orig­i­nal Six team, and his sec­ond in Canada. “It’s a Cana­dian city and every­body loves hockey,” Kaberle said Sat­ur­day morn­ing, roughly 90 min­utes before he made his Habs debut a suc­cess with two assists in a 2–1 win against the New Jer­sey Dev­ils. “At the same time, there’s going to be lots of pres­sure on me. But, I like the chal­lenge and hope­fully... 

Panthers Enjoy Change of Pace With Outdoor Practice

It was a per­fect day for out­door hockey as the Florida Pan­thers took to the ice Sat­ur­day after­noon at Cen­tral Park’s Lasker Rink for a lit­tle bit of clas­sic pond hockey. “It was unbe­liev­able,” rookie Erik Gud­bran­son told NHL.com, “Some­times (out­doors), this is where you have the most fun play­ing hockey so it was awesome.” The Southeast-Division lead­ing Pan­thers, who play Sun­day evening against the New York Rangers at Madi­son Square Gar­den, opted to hold their prac­tice at Cen­tral Park as a treat for the play­ers after play­ing in back-to-back... 

Tkachuk Left Indelible Mark on Coyotes’ Doan

When you play hockey for as long as Keith Tkachuk, you’re going to have an influ­ence on a lot of peo­ple. But per­haps Tkachuk, who will be inducted into the U.S. Hockey Hall of Fame on Mon­day in Chicago, made his biggest impact on Shane Doan. Tkachuk spent 10 sea­sons play­ing for the Winnipeg/Phoenix fran­chise, the final eight as the team’s cap­tain and the final six along­side Doan, who is the cur­rent cap­tain of the Coyotes. Doan broke into the NHL in 1995 as an 18-year-old bud­ding power for­ward. The 6-foot-1, 223-pound Doan couldn’t have found a bet­ter role model... 

Tkachuk Left Indelible Mark on Coyotes’ Doan

When you play hockey for as long as Keith Tkachuk, you’re going to have an influ­ence on a lot of peo­ple. But per­haps Tkachuk, who will be inducted into the U.S. Hockey Hall of Fame on Mon­day in Chicago, made his biggest impact on Shane Doan. Tkachuk spent 10 sea­sons play­ing for the Winnipeg/Phoenix fran­chise, the final eight as the team’s cap­tain and the final six along­side Doan, who is the cur­rent cap­tain of the Coyotes. Doan broke into the NHL in 1995 as an 18-year-old bud­ding power for­ward. The 6-foot-1, 223-pound Doan couldn’t have found a bet­ter role model... 

Flames’ Stempniak Steps Up

Lee Stempniak’s pro­duc­tion is no sur­prise to Brent Sutter. The Cal­gary Flames head coach knew what they were get­ting when GM Jay Feaster sent Day­mond Langkow to the Phoenix Coy­otes in return for Stemp­niak — and he’s been putting him in a posi­tion to suc­ceed with the Flames. “I knew the type of player we were get­ting. A guy that has put up num­bers in the past, has scored in the past, but brings a pretty com­plete game,” Sut­ter said of the speedy winger who has eight goals and 14 points in 28 games with the Flames. “It’s not sur­pris­ing to see what he’s...