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By Dave Consolazio, July 10, 2009 8:49 am

Since losing the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in the Super Bowl in the 2002 season, the Raiders have spiraled out of control, going six straight seasons without winning more than five games. Will this be the year that they do?

Bookmakers simply don’t know what to do with this team. They see the potential for them to turn the corner, and have set the lines accordingly over the last few years, last year setting the season win total at six or 6.5; only for Raider haters to prevail with fatter pockets as the team only finished with five wins.

This year, bookmakers have set the Raiders’ season win total at 5.5 (Over -140, Under +110), accepting the fact that even if they believe the Raiders will win six games, the betting public is going to pound the under regardless, so they might as well set the line accordingly. With an extra year of experience under the young offense’s belt and a head coach that they got to know last year still on board, a one win improvement seems pretty realistic to me.

The offense is led by the vastly underrated QB Jamarcus Russell, who managed a 13 to 8 TD to INT ratio last year despite having one of (if not the) worst WR cores in the league and playing in his first full season and going through a coaching change in the middle of it. How you get labeled a bust through all that is beyond me. Behind him he has an excellent RB core including Darren McFadden and Michael Bush, and TE Zach Miller and WR Johnny Lee Higgins emerged through the darkness last year as well. This raw young offense has had a year to play together and develop, and it should pay huge dividends, as they showed flashes of what they were capable of in late wins over Houston and Tampa Bay last season.

Hate the pick or not, Darrius Heyward-Bey does have the tools to be a weapon, even if he wasn’t the “right” pick. Fourth round pick WR Louis Murphy out of Florida can step in right away as well. Sixth round pick TE Brandon Myers will help with run blocking, and out of a two TE system allow for Zach Miller to run more routes.

The defense is a tough unit to figure out. Last year they did well against he pass but horribly against the run; a trend that will likely continue if the team doesn’t step up their efforts on the defensive line. There is plenty of talent in the linebacking core at with DeAngelo Hall (who was a terrible fit in Oakland) gone, the 1-2 CB punch of Nnamdi Asomugha and Chris Johnson should have another strong year. With even marginal improvement on the line, the Raiders should be more cohesive as a unit in 2009.

While the Kansas City Chiefs got stronger, the Denver Broncos got worse. Breaking in a new coach and losing the division’s best QB in Jay Cutler, it should be a tough season for the Broncos; and the Chiefs still have too many problems to magically transform into a great team overnight. Shawne Merriman should give the Chargers defense a much needed boost, and they will be the class of the division again this year; but they are getting older and Ladainian Tomlinson isn’t what he used to be. Darren Sproles will be able to shoulder the load if need be, but he’s no LT.

I can see the Raiders winning three of their six in-division games. Be it a sweep of either the Broncos/Chiefs and one win against the other, or grabbing an upset against San Diego, I don’t think the Raiders are substantially worse than the Chiefs/Broncos in 2009. So looking at the remaining ten games on the schedule, I have it broken down as follows;

Good chance to win: New York Jets, Cincinnati, @Cleveland
Good chance to lose: @Houston, Philadelphia, Washington
WILL lose: @New York Giants, @Pittsburgh, @Dallas, Baltimore

But remember, this is the NFL. Every week teams that aren’t supposed to win do win. There will also be a team or two with a key injury that isn’t what they look like on paper come their game against Oakland.

As such, I’ve got the Raiders winning three out of six against division rivals, two out of three in my “good chance to win” category, and one or two out of the seven remaining tough games. That puts the Raiders at 6-10 or 7-9 in 2009.

The Play: Oakland Raiders Season Win Total Over 5.5 (-140)

(http://sbrforum.com/Betting%20Articles/NFL/11517/oakland-raiders-over-5-5-wins-2009.aspx)

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By Dave Consolazio, July 4, 2009 9:10 am

Not much has changed on the Vancouver ice this offseason, and that’s a very good thing.  For the Canucks, keeping goaltender Roberto Luongo and the Sedin Twins has the team in position to not only return to the playoffs, but go deeper into the run for the Cup.  The 2010-11 postseason is also where the Chicago Blackhawks will be heading after signing Marian Hossa and John Madden.

While the offseason has only just begun, many of the big names are off the board and many players have new homes. Here is a look at the biggest winners of the offseason so far in my opinion. (All lines are by 5dimes)

Chicago Blackhawks (+960 to win Stanley Cup)
Last season the Chicago Blackhawks made it all the way to the Western Conference finals, and their excellent young core led by Patrick Kane and Jonathan Toews gained valuable playoff experience. While they were a virtual shoo-in to make the playoffs again this year with the young players a year older and further along in their development, they actually got better this offseason.

They lost Martin Havlat, the oft-injured but highly talented left winger, but in his place signed Marian Hossa, an upgrade in both talent and durability. They also lost defense specialist center Samuel Pahlsson, but once again arguably upgraded with replacement John Madden, who is just as defensively capable but actually has a bit more of a scoring touch.

The only major loss that wasn’t addressed was goaltender Nikolai Khabibulin; but with Cristobal Huet already in place, he was one the Blackhawks could afford to lose. This Chicago team looks better than last year’s that made it to the Western Conference finals. I’d grab them at +960 as they definitely have the look of a legitimate cup contender.

Vancouver Canucks (+1800 to win Stanley Cup)
Vancouver makes this list for the things that didn’t happen this offseason: Losing Roberto Luongo and the Sedin twins. Luongo appears to be close on a large contract extension that would officially put to rest the trade rumors that had been circulating.

As for the Sedins they looked 100% ready to test the free agent market, and it is awfully hard to replace two point per game players. Impressively enough, the Sedins were re-signed by the Canucks just 45 minutes before free agency began. Hearing that Luongo would be staying in town probably helped with negotiations.

Adding Mikael Sameulsson was a great move as well; he is a perfect fit on the 3rd line and can be used as a second liner when needed. A hard worker and a fundamentally sound player, he will help to bolster the Canucks’ depth.

Last season the Canucks were my sleeper team to do some serious damage in the playoffs; they just ran into an extremely tough Chicago team. But this year there is no reason to believe that they won’t return to the playoffs, and holding a +1800 ticket with the best goaltenders in the game on your side doesn’t hurt.

New York Rangers (+2800 to win Stanley Cup)
The league is still in disbelief over how badly the Rangers fleeced the Canadiens in the Scott Gomez trade. For comparison’s sake, lets take a look at the Ryan Smyth trade in Colorado.

The Avs were in cap trouble and needed to dump Smyth’s massive contract. They partnered up with the Kings to do so, and in return they got a good (but still unproven and coming off back surgery) defensemen in Kyle Quincey, a Vertigo-suffering defensemen in Tom Preissing and a fifth round pick. That’s what happens when you salary dump; you get the worse end of the deal.

Somehow not the Rangers. Don’t get me wrong; Scott Gomez is a great player, but he is a second line center getting paid franchise player dollars. Somehow the Rangers not only finagled a young consistent 20-goal scorer in Chris Higgins out of the Canadiens (I thought the deal was fair right here), they also received the Habs’ best prospect in defensemen Ryan McDonagh!

McDonagh projects out to be a top-pairing defensemen, has very few flaws in his game and is NHL-ready right now. The Rangers not only found a way to get out of a terrible contract, but also to win the trade.

With extra money now in hand, GM Glen Sather went out and signed another obscene contract, this time to winger Marian Gaborik. While the massive contract (5 years, $7.5 million per) was risky due to Gaborik’s past issues staying healthy, one thing is for sure: When Gaborik is healthy and on the ice, he is one of the most dynamic scorers in the game. The Rangers should be very good this season, and will not stay over +2000 for long.

(http://sbrforum.com/Betting+Articles/NHL/11464/blackhawks-canucks-among-offseason-winners.aspx)