NHL comes to the rescue!!

Well in the end it wasnt such a bad weekend though the profits came from the most unexpected source. When I last left you I said I was considering whether to puruse the NHL ice hockey match betting as it hadnt exactly gone to plan so far, in fact Friday's loss for San Jose at Flordia meant I'd only picked four out of sixteen winning bets.
However decided to throw the dice once more on Saturday and managed to pick six out of eight matches correctly which puts me close to being level again so no panic for now.
Hopefully Edmonton will improve the record at home to Boston tonight, they've won both of their games in their own rink so far this year while the visitors struggled to overcome lowly Atlanta in their last game.
Noticed that none of the books have priced up the local derby between the two New York teams Rangers and Islanders so far so presume there is some kind of injury news that they are waiting for there though cant find any reference to it myself at the moment!
My two outright picks Dallas and Philadelphia both had rickety starts, leaking far too many goals but while Philly show signs of picking up with a couple of straight wins, the Stars are still letting in far too many at present, hopefully they can work on it and they're only eight games in to an eighty-two game season.
On the snooker front, outright pick Mark Selby proved a big flop in Warsaw's World Series leg with a couple of very poor performances in beating the local wildcard unconvincingly and then losing 5-3 to Ken Doherty. In fact the local players were about on a par with my standard, so maybe I should change my name to something more exotic and I would have a chance of appearing live on TV!
As I pointed out beforehand it looked a straight battle between Selby and Ding for the trophy but unfortunately I picked the wrong one on this occasion, the Chinese player defeated Steve Davis 5-1 before disposing of Doherty 6-4 in the final thanks largely to a 64 clearance in the decisive frame when he had trailed 0-63. At least did take some of the 4/9 on offer there to ease my losses but from a punting point of view this World Series competition has been hard to work out with the likes of Dott winning the last leg in Berlin despite coming into the event totally out of form.
Ken will be buoyed by a return to the limelight here after strutting his stuff unsuccessfully in Prestatyn mostly this year, though he still missed alot of easy balls which he cannot afford to do if he is ever to start climbing the ladder again.
Elsewhere Ryan Day continued his good recent form by beating Jamie Cope 6-4 in the final of the Austrian Open and Mike Hallett is in line for a return to the pro circuit at the age of 49, having reached the final of the latest PIOS event (the secondary tour) which puts him into the qualifying places, though there is still a way to go yet.
In today's Bahrain Championship qualifiers, had a couple of dabbles this morning on Rodney Goggins at 8/11 and Robert Stephen 15/8. Goggins currently leads Michael Georgiou 3-1 while Stephen is 2-2 with David Grace.
This evening have gone with Stephen Craigie 6/4 against Simon Bedford and Wayne Cooper 15/8 against Li Hang. Noticed Craigie had a good run in a recent pro am, reaching the quarter final and beating Stuart Bingham en route before losing narrowly to Leo Fernandez. Bedford has done well since his return to the pro ranks this year but put in a poor showing in the Grand Prix after qualifying to meet Peter Ebdon, losing 5-1.
Cooper has been a regular captain of the England amateur team and is not that young for a new pro but he has battling qualities and chanced him at the odds against the probably more talented Chinese youngster.
Our own team hit the baize again tonight hoping to improve our record of two wins in the first three matches, had a few frames last night against the new signing I brought in pre season and he beat me for the first time 4-3 so at least he is improving or maybe its me deteriorating, heaven forbid!! Time will tell no doubt...
Had a few flutters on the nags at the weekend with the Breeders Cup taking prominence, though had limited time to study on Saturday due to going to watch the Rams play at Coventry in the footie.
Backed a couple of winners on Friday including my nap Stardom Bound at 15/8 who won well from my other each way pick Dream Empress, just wish I'd done the exacta!! Also picked Ventura at 7/2 so finished off a fair bit in front. The Saturday undid the good work somewhat though when in Australia's big race the Cox Plate I only managed one each way success out of three bets with Zipping finishing in second place at 9/1, just finding the pace of the race against him and getting going all too late. Also Street Boss got a bit of a troubled run in the big sprint at Santa Anita later on though would have been hard pushed to live with the powerful finish of Midnight Lute anyway who defied a layoff to win here for the second year running.
Looking forward to the Greyhound St Leger final now tomorrow night anyhow, will report back on Friday.
See you soon,
Rick