At a press conference held Tuesday afternoon, elder brother Darryl also named Ryan McGill, Dave Lowry and Jamie McLennan assistant coaches. With Brent now on board, that brings five Sutter relative together on the Calgary Flames. Giddy up!

*****

Looking for the best jump on next season's NHL hockey futures? Go to Bodog. Right now the Calgary Flames are listed at 20/1 odds to win the 2010 Stanley Cup. (The New Jersey Devils are at 18/1 odds to win the 2010 Stanley Cup.)

Game 7 of their Eastern Conference first-round series will be played tonight at the Prudential Center.

Picking a winner in this one is very tough. The Devils dominated Game 1 in New Jersey. The Hurricanes dominated Game 6 in Raleigh. The other four games have been decided by a goal, with two in overtime and one in the final second of regulation. The home team is 10-3 in the last 13 meetings so that should give the edge to the Devils.

This will be the 11th time the teams have met this season, and little separates them. Carolina has outscored New Jersey 13-12 in a series in which Martin Brodeur and Cam Ward have been spectacular. Get your NHL odds with Bodog now.

The Hurricanes will be cautious about claiming their own momentum. They were clearly outplayed in the third period until Jussi Jokinen’s winning goal with 0.2 seconds remaining in regulation.

So there are no guarantees about who’ll hold the emotional edge going into Game 5.

If Carolina wants to win this series they have to get better at holding a lead. The Hurricanes hadn’t surrendered a three-goal lead at home since March 2001 in a 5-3 loss to Pittsburgh.

The home team is 8-3 in the last 11 meetings. Get all your NHL playoff hockey odds in the Bodog Sportsbook.

Now they have to try to keep the momentum going against the New Jersey Devils.

Cam Ward, who outdueled New Jersey's Martin Brodeur en route to a Stanley Cup in 2006, has also been hot, setting a franchise record with nine straight wins from Mar. 18 to April 7.

The Devils, who closed the season by winning four of five games after a late-season dip, are a team stacked with proven veterans that is led on attack by 45-goal scorer Zach Parise and a rejuvenated Patrick Elias.
On an interesting note, each time these teams have faced off in the playoffs, the winner has reached the Stanley Cup final. Bet on NHL hockey in the Bodog Sportsbook today.

Crosby's latest effort lifted the Penguins to their fifth win in six games, part of a 12-1-2 stretch since Feb. 25. They've moved into sixth place in the East, one point back of Carolina and two behind fourth-place Philadelphia for home-ice advantage in the first round of the playoffs.

The Devils have dropped five straight late in the season for a second consecutive year. The last time the Devils went winless in a six-game span was in November 2001, and they haven't lost six in a row since November 2000.

Martin Brodeur has been in net for all five losses, giving up 16 goals, after going 9-1-0 with a 1.75 goals-against average in 10 starts. Get all your NHL betting in the Bodog Sportsbook.

The Devils were slight –120 favorites to pot the first goal of the game on home ice, with Montreal at –110. Those odds were pretty close to the moneyline offer of New Jersey –130, but the Habs have scored first in 23 of their 45 games, while New Jersey went up 1-0 in 25 of 46 games. The Devils were arguably a better value with the first-goal prop.

My personal favorite props are the individual matchups, like the one between Montreal’s Alex Kovalev and New Jersey’s Patrick Elias. The Devils sniper was a –170 chalk to score more points than Kovalev.

The biggest hurdle for the Canadiens when they play the Devils has been Martin Brodeur. With Marty injured you would figure Montreal would be golden, but Scott Clemmensen has proven to be just as tough. In the first meeting this season he stopped 25 shots as the Devils posted a 2-1 overtime win.

Cashing in at home is vital for the Devils as the upcoming schedule looks tough. Three of their next four games are in Newark, but the only one of those that isn’t at home is part of a stretch of nine of the next 11 on the road. Get NHL odds with Bodog today.

New Jersey will try to snap out of an early offensive funk tonight when it continues its road trip against the Atlanta Thrashers, who were among the NHL's worst defensive teams last season. The Thrashers allowed 266 goals, tied with Tampa Bay for the most in the league, and the Devils took advantage, going 3-0-1 against Atlanta and scoring 14 goals in those games.

Kari Lehtonen has a 3.71 GAA through three games for the Thrashers after allowing three third-period goals on five shots in a 4-2 home loss to Minnesota on Tuesday. Get your NHL betting in the Bodog Sportsbook today.

Gordon’s training camp proved to be so physically demanding that many players were hurt, including D Chris Campoli. But the Isles already have an upgrade at that position with former Montreal blueliner Mark Streit in uniform Friday against the New Jersey Devils.

The Devils (18-1) have been carried by goaltender Martin Brodeur the last couple of seasons. They’ll be better up front this year with LW Brian Rolston coming over from Minnesota, and their no-name defense adds 10-year veteran Anssi Salmela from Finland.

Henrik Lundqvist was big for the Rangers as they defeated the Devils in a shootout. (AP Images)

If this was a playoff series preview, then hell, let's get the NHL postseason underway now.

In an exciting contest that belied the final score, the New York Rangers earned a big 2-1 shootout victory over divisional rivals New Jersey in the swamp on Wednesday night.

The win moved the Rangers to an impressive 6-0 record against the Devils this season and moved New York to within four-points of Eastern Conference leading New Jersey.

Chris Drury scored the equalizing goal with just over four minutes remaining in the third period to send the game to overtime. His goal erased the one-tally lead staked when New Jersey's Dainius Zubrus scored on the power play in the first period.

Despite the lack of goals, the game featured tons of end-to-end action and some stellar goaltending from Martin Brodeur and Henrik Lundqvist. In the shootout, Lundqvist was perfect while Brodeur only allowed a single goal – the game winner from rookie Nigel Dawes.

The Rangers were +110 underdogs heading into this contest, earning bettors a nice payday for a key win away from home. The game went under the five-goal total posted in the Bodog Sportsbook.

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