Early Annihilation - Rickenbach NHL Rotation #82 Friday 8* Philadelphia Flyers Money Line -145 vs Vancouver Canucks @ 7:08 ET - The Flyers at home offer solid line value here. Canucks are off a shootout loss in Game One of their season. Vancouver had to rally to tie the game at 2 and then went on to lose in OT. The Canucks are a quality team but they are on the East Coast for this one and Philadelphia is going to be rocking for its season opener on home ice. Flyers are 37-18-8 on home ice the past two seasons combined. Vancouver is 24-35-3 in road games the past two seasons combined. With their loss to the Oilers, the Canucks have now lost 39 of last 63 road games and the Flyers are well worth the moderate price here. 8* PHILADELPHIA -145

ESPN Smash Pass - Rickenbach CFB Rotation #122 Friday 10* Top Play Oregon Ducks -13.5 vs California Golden Bears @ 10:30 ET - The Ducks off an OT loss preceding their bye week. Oregon will bounce back strong at home here. They are vastly superior to this Golden Bears team. Also, the Ducks lost at California last season so this is a revenge game for Oregon. The Golden Bears are off a 21-6 loss two weeks ago (also off a bye like the Ducks are) and Cal just does not have the offense to keep up in this one. The Golden Bears only scored well in 1 of their 4 games against FBS opponents this season. In the other 3 games California averaged only 16 points per game. Oregon is averaging 40 points a game in their home games this season and will pull away to win this one by a big margin as they are angry off a loss and have had extra time to think about the defeat too. This will be an angry Ducks team in front of their home fans on a Friday night and this is surely to be domination as a result against a Cal team that has only 1 win this season and it was against an FCS school. 10* OREGON -13.5

West Div Game of the Month - Rickenbach CFL Rotation #672 Friday 10* Top Play Edmonton Elks +12 vs Winnipeg Blue Bombers @ 9 ET - If you look at this game on paper, the Elks have no chance. But, as the long-time saying goes, the games are not played on paper! The fact is that Edmonton is a huge home dog here and offering substantial value as I expect them to step up big after last week's embarrassing loss at Winnipeg. The Elks did not just lose to the Blue Bombers last week, they got destroyed. Now, coming back home and with an immediate shot at revenge, Edmonton can get some redemption here. Of course this does not mean they win the game outright, but I do expect them to be ultra competitive here and lose this game by no more than a single score margin. Note that Winnipeg has been rolling teams but this looks like a tough spot as they won big at Edmonton a few weeks ago as well and have BC on deck. This is the final meeting between these teams this season and the Elks have a bye on deck and will go all out here with a week of rest on deck. They have had enough of being embarrassed by the Blue Bombers and will put up a strong fight in this one. I know the Elks have an ugly record this season but they are better than their record shows and will prove to be a tough home dog to put away in this spot. 10* EDMONTON

ACTION on pitchers. Total of the Month - Rickenbach MLB Rotation #901 Friday 10* Top Play OVER 8 runs in Houston Astros vs Boston Red Sox @ 8:07 ET - Would recommend playing this at a sports book that gives you action on totals wagers. I just do not care who the starting pitchers are in this one. This match-up features two very hot lineups. Boston has scored 6.3 runs per game last 7 games. Houston has scored 7.7 runs per game last 7 games. The posted total on this game is 8 runs and we are talking about American League baseball here so there are designated hitters too instead of the pitchers having to bat. It is simply a high value spot here no matter who the starting pitchers are but I will mention that it is expected to be Chris Sale for Boston and Framber Valdez for Houston. Sale has been enduring a horrible stretch and Valdez has allowed 4 earned runs in each of his last two starts. 10* OVER 8 runs in Houston

ACTION on pitchers. Afternoon Annihilation - Rickenbach MLB Rotation #903 Saturday 10* Top Play OVER 8.5 runs in Houston Astros vs Boston Red Sox @ 4:20 ET - Same thing as yesterday and though it took a 9th inning run to push that one over the total it should not have come down to that as both teams reached double digits in hits. As shown in yesterday's write-up: "Would recommend playing this at a sports book that gives you action on totals wagers. I just do not care who the starting pitchers are in this one. This match-up features two very hot lineups. Boston has scored 6.3 runs per game last 7 games. Houston has scored 7.7 runs per game last 7 games. The posted total on this game is 8 runs (8.5 today) and we are talking about American League baseball here so there are designated hitters too instead of the pitchers having to bat. It is simply a high value spot here no matter who the starting pitchers are..." but I will mention that it is expected to be Nathan Eovaldi for Boston and Luis Garcia for Houston. Eovaldi has been great but did get hit hard and rocked by Astros when he faced them this season. Garcia got hammered in his only post-season start thus far. More of the same here. 10* OVER 8.5 runs in Houston

Total of the Week - 10* OVER 2.5 in Brentford - Chelsea is a machine right now and sitting at the top of table. Chelsea is scoring an average of 2 goals per match. I know Brentford was known for lower-scoring matches earlier in the season but look at what they have been doing of late. Brentford, across all competitions, has scored 2 or more goals in 4 straight! In fact, thanks to a 7-0 win outside the league during this 4 match stretch (other 3 were league games), Brentford has scored an average of 3.5 goals in last 4 matches! Chelsea is 3-1 last 4 matches in league action and scored 3 goals in each of the 3 victories! I do not see either team being held off the scoresheet here and, as a result, am expecting nothing less than 2-1 final here as you know Brentford will be gunning hard for the upset but the scoring talent of these visitors can not be underestimated. It is why the travelers are favored by 1 goal on the spread (goal line) for this match. 10* OVER 2.5 in Brentford 

Earliest Cash - 8* OVER 2.5 in Leeds - Southampton is giving up an average of 2 goals per match when on the road this season. Leeds United has allowed an average of 2 goals per match on the season. You can see why I would not be surprised to see each club get to to 2 goals in this match and yet we are working with a low total of just 2.5 goals here. I'll take it! Two clubs that have combined for just one victory on the season so both clubs will be going hard for the victory here and unlikely to want to settle for a draw. In other words, this does not end 1-1. It gets to at least 2-1 in my estimation and that is why I am pulling the trigger on this one. 8* OVER 2.5 in Leeds United