NHL: All-Star Game Betting Odds
On Sunday evening, the NHL's best will get together for the league's annual All-Star game in Montreal and Sportsbook.com has all your NHL All-Star game betting odds.
It's East vs. West in an entertaining showdown that typically resembles an indoor-soccer game in terms of scoring, as evidenced by the 8-7 final in the 2008 game.
This year's contest will be without one big star however, Pittsburgh's Sidney Crosby, who will be forced to miss it with a knee injury.
The game is at 6 pm ET on Versus and Sportsbook.com will of course have all the betting action. Stay tuned to the Live Odds Page for the latest.
Minus Crosby, Tampa Bay scoring leader Martin St. Louis was named Thursday to join the Eastern Conference roster. Montreal right wing Alex Kovalev (East) and San Jose center Joe Thornton (West) were selected as captains for the game.
The loss of Crosby is big to the notoriety of the game, not only for his popularity, but because he is second in the NHL scoring race with 60 points on 17 goals and 43 assists in 47 games.
He played in the Penguins' final two games before the break, and then was examined by doctors on Wednesday and Thursday. With the Penguins out of playoff position in the Eastern Conference, they don't want to take a chance the injury might worsen if Crosby plays in a game that doesn't count in the standings.
One of the biggest prizes on the line for the game is MVP. Kovalev and Thornton both have to be given serious consideration for this honor, betting odds on which will be available on Sunday. Eric Staal of Carolina took home the trophy a year ago.
Montreal's passionate fan base afforded Mike Komisarek, Andrei Markov, Alex Kovalev and Carey Price more than 5.675 million votes combined in the XM/NHL All-Star Fan Balloting presented by 2K Sports. All four players will be Eastern Conference starters in Sunday's game.
Other notable roster tidbits include showing three first-place teams with just one All-Star each. Washington's Alexander Ovechkin is one of those. West leaders San Jose and Detroit boast two each, Joe Thornton and Dan Boyle for the Sharks, Pavel Datsyuk and Nicklas Lidstrom for the defending champs. In the East, points leader Boston boasts three stars, Marc Savard, Zdeno Chara and Tim Thomas.
The starters in net will be Anaheim's Jean Sebastian Giguere, and hometown netminder Carey Price of Montreal. Nikolas Backstrom of Minnesota and Robert Luongo of Vancouver will be the backups for the West, while Henrik Lundqvist and Tim Thomas serve secondary roles for the East.
While noted earlier that last year's game was won by the Eastern Conference 8-7, the 2007 event went to the West, 12-9.The two seasons prior to that were non-All Star years, in 2006 due to the Olympics, and in 2005 thanks to the lockout. In 2004, the East won 6-4, and the prior season, the West took home a 5-4 shootout victory.
Those four games mark the ledger since the format switched back to East versus West after going North America versus the World for the prior five seasons.
Carrie Stroup, Gambling911.com Senior Reporter
