While your March Madness betting picks may be taking up your time, don’t forget about the action in the NHL as teams are scrambling to make the playoffs. Here are some picks for next week.

Penguins Red Wings Betting (Monday, 7:30 PM ET)

The Red Wings should be favored at home in this one, and they’ve won four of their last five at Joe Louis Arena against the Penguins, who are doing surprisingly well in the face of all their injuries. But we think the Detroit veterans will step up to the plate in this game as they look to build momentum for their next game, so take the Red Wings.

Canucks Red Wings Betting (Wednesday, 7:30 PM ET)

The Red Wings will again be favored at home in a meeting of the top two teams in the West, and the Canucks are 2-3 in their last five trips to Detroit. The Canucks did very well in a trip through the Southwestern United States, but we think Detroit will be motivated to show that the road to the Stanley Cup will have to go through them, so bet on Detroit once again.

Canadiens Bruins Betting (Thursday, 7:00 PM ET)

The Bruins will be favored at home in this emotional game as the two meet for the first time since Zdeno Chara’s hit on Max Pacioretty, but the Canadiens have won four of their last five in Boston and they’re just a tough matchup for the Bruins. We think they’ll want to win this for their fallen teammate, so bet on Montreal on the road in your sports betting picks.

The NHL trade deadline is on the horizon, but teams aren’t waiting until February 28^th, and Toronto has been at the heart of it, wheeling and dealing with two Eastern contenders.

First, the Maple Leafs dealt with Philadelphia on Valentine’s Day, moving Kris Versteeg to Philadelphia for first and third-round picks. This gives the Flyers a goal-scoring winger who they are very familiar with; Versteeg was a member of the Chicago team that beat them in last season’s Stanley Cup finals, so he also brings some title-winning experience that the Flyers will hope puts them over the top, although we expect the Flyers to deal some more before the deadline.

Then on Friday, the Maple Leafs finally traded defenseman Tomas Kaberle in a move that has been for years in the making, sending him to Boston for promising prospect Joe Colborne, Boston’s first-round pick in this year’s draft and a conditional second-round pick as well. Kaberle was a free agent at the end of the season anyway, but it remains to be seen if Toronto general manager Brian Burke plans on keeping these picks, or if he will flip them for a playmaking center, Toronto’s most pressing need.

All told, it’s going to be an exciting time heading up to the deadline. The gap between the top and bottom of the playoff races in both conferences seems to be closer than ever before, so expect teams to work the phones in order to improve their sports betting odds.

Those betting on Super Bowl odds will warm up with the Pro Bowl this weekend, while NHL betting players will focus on their All-Star game, which takes place on Saturday night in Raleigh, North Carolina. There are no odds or totals for the game yet, as we don’t know the teams due to the draft taking place on Friday night between Team Lidstrom (captained by Detroit’s Nicklas Lidstrom) and Team Staal (led by Carolina captain Eric Staal). Here is a look at the last few All-Star games in the NHL.

NHL All-Star Betting – Sunday, 4:00 PM ET

Despite not knowing who is on what team, one thing we can say for sure, is that it will be a shootout. Like the Pro Bowl, the NHL All-Star game is little more than an exhibition with no hitting, but the game will get competitive in the second half as no one wants to lose. There have been an average of 16.1 goals scored in the last 10 All-Star games, which have been under both the East/West and North America/World concepts. Two of the last 10 have gone to a shootout, including 2009′s 12-11 win for the East, and defense is definitely not the name of the game as the goaltenders are often left hung out to dry on breakaways.

There hasn’t been a goalie named as the All-Star MVP since 1994, when New York’s Mike Richter snatched the award, and hometown players also have a good chance to win the award if they have a great game (see Richter in New York, Alexei Kovalev in Montreal two years ago). Staal was the All-Star Game MVP in 2008, and he would be worth a sports betting wager again this year in North Carolina.

By now sports betting enthusiasts who initially took the Buffalo Sabres as the 2010-11 NHL Stanley Cup Champion, have been able to change their wager. However, if you were unable to do so and still believe that the recent turn around by the Sabres is for real, your betting online dreams of a Sabres championship were put to bed on Friday.

On Christmas Eve, former Kitchener Ranger and current Buffalo Sabre Derek Roy received the worst present of all as he found out that his season in effect is over due to a quadriceps injury. In the Sabres most recent game a four to three loss against the New York Rangers, Roy tore part of quadriceps at the seven minute mark of the first period during a collision with a Rangers player.

Surgery on the injury will sideline Roy for the next four to six months. The injury comes as a costly blow to a Sabres team that has had numerous injuries to battle through this season. As a result of all of the injuries, the Sabres got out of the gate slow and occupied the 14^th of 15 seeds in the NHL’s Eastern Conference. But after a win over the Toronto Maple Leafs in early November, the Sabres appeared to be getting their legs back as they slowly climbed up the rankings.

But with Roy’s most recent injury, the final nail appears to have been placed in the Sabres coffin. Aside from Roy, some other integral players to the Sabres success that have gotten injured, include, all world goaltender Ryan Miller, and fellow forward Jason Pomminville. Of the three players, Pomminville has missed the most time, as he has suffered from two concussions this season.

Before succumbing to season ending injury, Roy led the team with 10 goals and 25 assists in 35 games this season. With the next player on the team only at 27 points in 35 games, the Sabres will have their work cut out for them the rest of the way.

Hard to believe sportsbook betting on the Winter Olympics is so close…close enough that we’ll start seeing major nations announce their rosters in the coming weeks.

I had a funny thought today — one that contradicts my earlier opinions. As much as were used to seeing half a dozen teams battle hard for the gold — Canada, Russia, USA, Sweden, Finland, the Czech Republic and Slovakia — I’m suddenly wondering if two teams are head and shoulders above the competition.

Naturally, the two main contenders are Canada and Russia. I’ll save a comparison or discussion about them for another day. Instead, I want to focus on why the other teams’ sports betting prospects suddenly seem slimmer.

For whatever reason, it seems the Czechs, Slovaks and Finns haven’t produced as many top-flight NHL prospects of late. In fact, in the last two drafts combined, none of those nations has produced a first-round pick. That’s a far cry from the days when Teemu Selanne and Marian Gaborik topped draft boards.

For the Americans and Swedes, the problem is purely temporary. They’re producing boatloads of elite youngsters — Erik Johnson, Victor Hedman, Erik Karlsson, Peter Mueller, and so on — but many of their top players will be a bit young to compete with the big boys. Sure, the Americans have Patrick Kane and Zach and the Swedes have Henrik Zetterberg and the Sedins, but those elite players wouldn’t even be first liners on Canada or Russia, who can ice Crosby, Iginla, Malkin, Ovechkin and so on.

It’s also worth noting that many key contributors from the 2002 and 2006 Swedish and American Olympic teams — Markus Naslund, Mats Sundin, Mike Modano, Keith Tkachuk — are either retired or well past their prime.

As NFL betting teams will eventually do with the Green Bay Packers, Canada and Russia will have major competition on their hands for 2014 and beyond once the Swedish and American youngsters grow up a bit. In 2010, though, hockey odds suggest the gold will go to Canada or Russia.