NHL Grind Down: Friday, December 16th - Page Two
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Florida Panthers at Colorado Avalanche
| Florida Panthers | Colorado Avalanche | ||||||||
 | James Reimer |  | Calvin Pickard | ||||||
| Record | Record | ||||||||
| 13-13-5 | 11-16-1 | ||||||||
| Stats | GF/GP | GA/GP | PP% | PK% | Stats | GF/GP | GA/GP | PP% | PK% |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Team Stats | 2.32 | 2.68 | 15.10% | 85.10% | Team Stats | 2.25 | 3.18 | 17.00% | 79.80% |
The Panthers cannot get a break where their team leader in goals is concerned. After coming back from a lower-body injury on Tuesday night Jonathan Marchessault was out of the lineup for last night’s 4-3 loss in Winnipeg. Even if he does feel well enough to play tonight it would be a stretch to roster him here. Jaromir Jagr, Aleksander Barkov and Seth Griffith are the team’s top line and could be used in tournament play tonight. Barkov is getting back to form as he has grabbed three goals and two assists over the last five games while Jagr has chipped in with three points of his own. Florida has only scored 11 goals over the last five games so taking anyone in cash may be too risky tonight. Reilly Smith and Vincent Trocheck hold down the fort on the second line and should only be considered as a deeper GPP play tonight. Reilly has grabbed four of his 13 points over the last five games while Trocheck has 16 points in 31 games. Aaron Ekblad and Keith Yandle are the choices on the back line with Yandle having more points with 14 compared to Ekblad’s seven goals and three assists. Ekblad gets the nod here however as he has six more goals and 33 more shots on goal than the aforementioned Yandle. Florida has just one win in their last eight road games while scoring a total of 14 goals in those games. It now becomes very clear as to why you need to steer clear of these guys in cash games.
The Avalanche will look to do something that they haven’t been able to do in the last six tries and that’s win on home ice. Their 4-9-1 home record is the worst in the league so it only makes sense that the 23 points they have earned is last in the league. They did show some signs of life by coming back after the 10-1 drubbing Montreal put on them by winning the next game by a score of 3-1. They even battled hard last game against a hot Philadelphia team but lost 4-3 when it was all said and done. Maybe they can catch the Panthers a little tired tonight after losing to Winnipeg in a shootout last night. Nathan MacKinnon, Gabriel Landeskog and Rene Bourque look to be the line to target here for tournament play as they should have the luxury of matching up against the Panthers weaker lines. MacKinnon has lit the lamp three times while adding two assist over the last five games while Bourque and Landeskog need to step up their game. If you aren’t going to use MacKinnon as a one-off then Matt Duchene and Mikko Rantanen might make a better play here as they both get the top minutes on the power play and have been producing on a more consistent basis over the last five games. Duchene has a total of 20 points in 24 games while five of Rantanen’s 13 points have come with the man advantage. With defenseman Erik Johnson out of the lineup it appears that Tyson Barrie is the only option on the back line. Although he does quarterback the team’s top power play unit his production is still a bit low as he has 13 points so far this season. With a team playing this badly your only hope is that they have one good game here to help you take down that GPP.
h3. Elite Plays
FLA: Aleksander Barkov
COL: Matt Duchene
Secondary Plays
FLA: Aaron Ekblad, Jaromir Jagr, Vincent Trocheck, Keith Yandle
COL: Nathan MacKinnon, Mikko Rantanen, Tyson Barrie
Tampa Bay Lightning at Vancouver Canucks
| Tampa Bay Lightning | Vancouver Canucks | ||||||||
 | Ben Bishop |  | Ryan Miller | ||||||
| Record | Record | ||||||||
| 15-13-2 | 12-16-2 | ||||||||
| Stats | GF/GP | GA/GP | PP% | PK% | Stats | GF/GP | GA/GP | PP% | PK% |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Team Stats | 2.83 | 2.77 | 22.20% | 79.40% | Team Stats | 2.33 | 3.10 | 13.50% | 82.90% |
The Lightning won their third game over the last 11 with a resounding 6-3 defeat of the Calgary Flames on Wednesday night. Tonight they play a much less talented team in the Vancouver Canucks but now seem to have even more problems than last game when were without the services of Nikita Kucherov. Ondrej Palat is now questionable along with Kucherov for tonight’s game so nothing will be solid until the Lightning take to the ice for the morning skate in Vancouver. Cory Conacher played in Kucherov’s spot with Palat and Tyler Johnson on the top line while Jonathan Drouin, Valtteri Filppula and Alex Killorn got the call to skate on the second line. Erik Condra was called up in case either Palat or Kucherov cannot play tonight. With all of these injuries Brian Boyle and Brayden Point were able to play on the team’s top power play unit with Johnson and defenseman Victor Hedman. Boyle and Point appear to be a decent GPP play just based on opportunity but sticking with the Drouin line makes more sense as they have collected six of the Lightning’s last ten goals they have scored. Hedman is always a decent play on the point as he is a model of consistency as evidence of his 22 points in the first 30 games. Funny things happen when the lineup gets shuffled around a bit so I wouldn’t be surprised if the Lightning make a game out of this one.
UPDATE
Ok, so here are the updated Tampa lines from 2:45EST
Bryan Burns @BBurnsNHL 43m43 minutes ago
#Bolts morning skate lines:
Conacher/Vermin-Johnson-Condra
Boyle-Filppula-Point
Killorn-Namestnikov-Callahan
Drouin-Paquette-Brown
Based on this one would think that the Filppula line will be the one that Vancouver tries to shut down as neither Kucherov nor Palat participated in the moring skate. This would indicate to me that either Drouin makes for a decent one-off play or the Vladislav Namestnikov line may be worth taking in deeper GPP’s.
One would think that if the Vancouver Canucks would score six goals in a game they should be able to win it. Unfortunately they saw a 5-2 lead disappear in a matter of minutes on Tuesday night in Carolina. The third line of Sven Baertschi, Alexandre Burrows and Bo Horvat scored three goals in the loss as it looks like Baertschi has now been promoted to the top power play unit. Henrik Sedin, Jannik Hansen and Daniel Sedin skate on the team’s top line an should be the one to target here as both Henrik and Daniel get the extra ice time when the Canucks draw a penalty. Brandon Sutter makes for a decent one-off here as he centers the second line with Loui Eriksson and Markus Granlund but has seen four of his 16 points come with the man advantage. Troy Stecher is the play on the blue line as he afforded the first shot when the team has the man advantage. Although Stecher has just seven points in 21 games but has pulled into third place on the team with 63 shots. Some may look at Erik Gudbranson as an alternative but his three points in the last five games is more of a fluke than anything as he has never been one to score from the point. Taking the top line here is about the safest play tonight.
Elite Plays
TB: None
VAN: None
Secondary Plays
TB: Victor Hedman, Valtteri Filppula, Tyler Johnson, Jonathan Drouin
VAN: Daniel Sedin, Henrik Sedin, Troy Stecher, Brandon Sutter