NHL Grind Down: Friday, December 23rd - Page Three
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Toronto Maple Leafs at Arizona Coyotes
| Toronto Maple Leafs | Arizona Coyotes | ||||||||
 | Frederik Andersen |  | Mike Smith | ||||||
| Record | Record | ||||||||
| 13-12-7 | 11-17-5 | ||||||||
| Stats | GF/GP | GA/GP | PP% | PK% | Stats | GF/GP | GA/GP | PP% | PK% |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Team Stats | 2.81 | 2.87 | 18.80% | 83.00% | Team Stats | 2.15 | 3.12 | 15.20% | 78.40% |
No Bozak, no problem. The Maple Leafs seemed to do just fine without their top line center as they boat raced the Avalanche by a score of 6-0 in Colorado last night. Nazem Kadri moved up to center James van Riemsdyk and Mitchell Marner as Tyler Bozak was forced to sit this one out with a lower-body injury. This line is in line to be a decent GPP play tonight as the Arizona Coyotes have given up 104 goals so far this season. Judging from last night’s performance Toronto may give Bozak another night off before the league takes their holiday break. This makes sense as it will give him a few more days to heal up. Auston Matthews looks to be a decent one-off here as he has scored four goals and an assist over the last five games. He is tied for the team lead with Marner in points with 25 of them. Frederik Gauthier tallied his first NHL goal last night while skating next to Leo Komarov and William Nylander on the team’s third line. This is just another example of how much depth there seems to be in the Maple Leafs system. Jake Gardiner and Morgan Rielly are the choices from the back line with Gardiner having the slight edge as he has scored five of his 16 points over the last six games.
Toronto rolls in from playing the Avalanche in Colorado last night and should be ripe for the picking even if they are playing the Arizona Coyotes. This is Arizona’s third home game of a five game set at the Gila River Center and could be primed to get their seventh win in front of the home crowd. Radim Vrbata is a good start if you are looking at using some Coyote players as he leads the team in both goals and assists while accumulating four of his 22 points over the last five games. Vrbata is joined by Martin Hanzal on the top line and could be used as a GPP duo tonight. Just because a team may win a game does not automatically mean that they are good for cash game plays. Defenseman Oliver Ekman-Larsson seems to be back on track as he has two goals and two assists over the last five games from the point. Ten of his 17 points this season have come with the man advantage. Alex Goligoski skates next to him when the team goes on the power play as he has just 13 points so far this season. Speaking of 13 points, both Tobias Rieder and Jordan Martinook skate on the team’s third line and that’s the point total that each of them have through 33 games. Jamie McGinn, Peter Holland and Anthony Duclair are listed at the second line but none of them have reached double digits in points as yet. If Arizona is going to win this game they will need some good goaltending out of Mike Smith as this team just does not score enough to be competitive on a nightly basis.
Elite Plays
TOR: Auston Matthews
ARZ: None
Secondary Plays
TOR: Nazem Kadri, James van Riemsdyk, Mitchell Marner, Jake Gardiner
ARZ: Radim Vrbata, Martin Hanzal, Oliver Ekman-Larsson
Edmonton Oilers at San Jose Sharks
| Edmonton Oilers | San Jose Sharks | ||||||||
 |  | ||||||||
| Record | Record | ||||||||
| 18-12-5 | 20-12-1 | ||||||||
| Stats | GF/GP | GA/GP | PP% | PK% | Stats | GF/GP | GA/GP | PP% | PK% |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Team Stats | 2.89 | 2.63 | 22.30% | 82.20% | Team Stats | 2.48 | 2.21 | 16.70% | 82.30% |
Edmonton is back on the winning trail as their 4-1 record over the last five games has them tied for first place in the Pacific Division with tonight’s opponent, the San Jose Sharks. Connor McDavid centers the top line with Milan Lucic and Jordan Eberle as his wingmen. McDavid is always a good play if you can afford him but getting other players at a cheaper price may be the way to go here. Leon Draisaitl makes for a great one-off play here as he has grabbed five of his 31 points over the last five games. Draisaitl gets the extra ice time with McDavid on the power play while he centers Ryan Nugent-Hopkins and Patrick Maroon on the Oilers second line. Mark Letestu comes up from the fourth line to join McDavid, Lucic and Draisaitl when the Oilers draw a penalty. This has been working out well for 31 year old center as he has registered five of his 17 points on the power play. Defenseman Andrej Sekera is the final piece to a power play that has scored nine times over the last eight games. Fellow defenseman Oscar Klefbom continues to shoot the puck with no success as he has just 12 points on 85 shots. Anytime the division lead is on the line you should see a good game and tonight I’d expect nothing less.
The more that things change the more they stay the same. The Sharks have gone 7-3 in their last ten games to tie the Oilers for the divisional lead. It’s the same usual suspects doing the scoring as Joe Pavelski and defenseman Brent Burns lead the team with five points each in the last five games and are tied for the team lead in scoring with 30 points apiece. Pavelski centers the top line along with Patrick Marleau and Joe Thornton which also double as the team’s top power play unit. Marleau has picked it up a bit as he has two goals to go along with an assist over the last five games while Thornton leads the team with 20 assists so far this season. Normally I would say that second line center Logan Couture would make a good one-off play, which he does, but now Joonas Donskoi may be worth a look here. The 24 year-old Finnish winger has lit the lamp twice while assisting on two other goals over the last five games from the teams third line. Considering that he only has 12 points all season, do we dare say that the Sharks may have another scorer on their hands? San Jose has been looking for secondary scoring in what seems to be an eternity so getting some points from other than the top five is a welcome surprise. Look for the Sharks to be one of the higher owned teams in cash games tonight.
Elite Plays
EDM: Connor McDavid
SJ: Brent Burns, Joe Pavelski
Secondary Plays
EDM: Milan Lucic, Leon Draisaitl, Mark Letestu, Andrej Sekera, Jordan Eberle
SJ: Joe Thornton, Logan Couture, Patrick Marleau