NHL Grind Down: Saturday, December 19th
The RotoGrinders NHL Grind Down article will give you an in-depth analysis into the NHL schedule. This article will break down the numbers for every single game and give you analysis on which trends you can exploit. While matchups are a major factor in daily fantasy hockey there are plenty of other factors to consider such as injuries, salaries, and more.
The analysis should point you in the right direction, but it is still up to you to decipher the information and make your own selections. Hockey is an extremely high variance sport. The best choice is not always the right choice but following the trends will win you money over time.
Remember, these writeups are done prior to lineups being released, so make sure to check our Starting Lineups page to ensure the recommended options are playing.
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Chicago Blackhawks at Buffalo Sabres – 01:00 PM EST
| Chicago Blackhawks | Buffalo Sabres | ||||||||
 | Corey Crawford |  | Robin Lehner | ||||||
| Record | Record | ||||||||
| 18-11-4 | 14-16-3 | ||||||||
| Stats | GF/GP | GA/GP | PP% | PK% | Stats | GF/GP | GA/GP | PP% | PK% |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Team Stats | 2.70 | 2.36 | 21.90% | 82.40% | Team Stats | 2.30 | 2.55 | 21.40% | 77.80% |
With the return of Tyler Ennis, the Buffalo Sabres will have their top six players on the ice together for only the twelfth time this season. The Sabres are slowly but surely becoming a better team as their goal differential sits at minus nine, which is a far cry from what it was last year. They are 5-4-1 in their last ten games and are just two games under the five hundred mark for the season. Coach Dan Bylsma has inserted Ennis on the second Line with Evander Kane and Jack Eichel but has indicated he will see some power play time as well. Ryan O’Reilly leads the team in scoring and should be considered the top play from this bunch tonight as he has scored two goals to go with three assists in his last five games. You may as well add Rasmus Ristolainen to your list of defenseman as he has three goals and three assists in his last five games to his credit. Buffalo should be able to score tonight as not only are the Chicago Blackhawks 5-7-3 on the road, they have given up 10 goals in their last three games away from home.
The Blackhawks defeated the Edmonton Oilers in fine fashion Thursday night just one night removed from not only seeing Patrick Kane’s point streak end, but getting shut out in the process. Corey Crawford stopped all 33 shots while the top line of Jonathan Toews, Teuvo Teravainen and Marian Hossa were in on the first three goals en route to Chicago’s 4-0 shutout win. All three players had registered just one point in their last four games so hopefully things are looking up for Chicago’s top line. Patrick Kane picked up right where he left off as he was credited with an assist on the team’s last goal of the game. Chicago has scored 3 power play goals in their last four games as Kane, Artem Anisimov, Artemi Panarin, Duncan Keith and Brent Seabrook all see the top power play minutes against a Buffalo team that has not let up a power play goal in their last four games.
Elite Plays
BUF: None
CHI: Patrick Kane
Secondary Plays
BUF: Ryan O’Reilly, Rasmus Ristolainen, Tyler Ennis, Jamie McGinn, Evander Kane, Sam Reinhart
CHI: Jonathan Toews, Marian Hossa, Teuvo Teravainen, Duncan Keith, Brent Seabrook
Calgary Flames at St. Louis Blues – 03:00 PM EST
| Calgary Flames | St. Louis Blues | ||||||||
 | Jonas Hiller |  | |||||||
| Record | Record | ||||||||
| 15-14-2 | 19-10-4 | ||||||||
| Stats | GF/GP | GA/GP | PP% | PK% | Stats | GF/GP | GA/GP | PP% | PK% |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Team Stats | 2.65 | 3.35 | 10.80% | 72.60% | Team Stats | 2.52 | 2.36 | 20.80% | 87.40% |
Don’t look now but the Calgary Flames are officially the hottest team in the league. They have won their last seven games in a row while only tallying just once in 26 times on the power play. That my friends is hard to do. Thursday night saw the Flames take down the Dallas Stars for the second time in the last three weeks by a score of 3-1. I wouldn’t look on the power play for many goals tonight as the Blues are very good at killing penalties. In their last fourteen games they have only let in three goals while a man short but it doesn’t matter as there only a few Flames we can trust in cash games anyway. Johnny Gaudreau continues to lead the team in points and should be a consideration today as he has three goals and four assists in his last five games while Sean Monahan has four goals and three assists over that same time frame. T.J. Brodie is tied with defenseman Dennis Wideman with 14 points as they are the Flames highest scoring players from the point. It’s tough to take any players from a team that is just 5-9-2 on the road but the Flames are hot and anything can happen
The Blues come into this one scoring six power play goals in their last 11 opportunities. Vladimir Tarasenko is the man you want here as he not only leads the team in scoring with 33 points in 32 games, he also has four goals and two assists in his last four games. The only question you have to ask yourself is whether you want to pay up for him or not. Alexander Steen should be a strong consideration as well as he has a goal and five assists in his last five games and is just three points away from tying Tarasenko for the team lead in scoring. Defenseman Kevin Shattenkirk has returned with a vengeance as he has a point in 15 of the 20 games he has been in since his injury and that includes having a point in 15 of the last 17 as well. Much Like Minnesota’s Zach Parise and Paul Stastny, it takes a few games to get back up to speed coming off an injury and this is indeed the case with Shattenkirk. Speaking of Stastny, he was able to pick up an assist the other night making that two straight games in which he has found the scoresheet. Things may finally be starting to get into gear for the Blues 29 year old center. David Backes rounds out the top power play unit as we find him in the midst of a six game point streak which includes four goals and three assists in those games. Calgary is playing a bit over their heads so look for the Blues to snap their seven game win streak tonight.
Elite Plays
CGY: Johnny Gaudreau
STL: Vladimir Tarasenko
Secondary Plays
CGY: Sean Monahan, T.J. Brodie
STL: David Backes, Kevin Shattenkirk, Paul Stastny, Alexander Steen
Philadelphia Flyers at Columbus Blue Jackets – 07:00 PM EST
| Philadelphia Flyers | Columbus Blue Jackets | ||||||||
 | Steve Mason |  | Sergei Bobrovsky | ||||||
| Record | Record | ||||||||
| 14-12-6 | 12-19-3 | ||||||||
| Stats | GF/GP | GA/GP | PP% | PK% | Stats | GF/GP | GA/GP | PP% | PK% |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Team Stats | 2.09 | 2.63 | 16.10% | 80.50% | Team Stats | 2.44 | 3.06 | 18.40% | 81.70% |
Coach Dave Hakstol has turned this Flyers team around as they have won seven games over their last ten. They were able to jump over Pittsburgh into fourth place in the Metropolitan division standings and now have their sights set on New Jersey, who is just two points ahead of them. The Flyers have only scored one power play goal in their last six games so maybe we look to the second line of Jakub Voracek, Wayne Simmons and Sean Couturier as this unit was able to provide the late third period insurance goal in their 2-0 win over Vancouver on Thursday night. To get more bang for your buck just use Simmonds and Voracek as the skate on the top power play line as well. Claude Giroux has been picking up the pace of late but being saddled with Michael Raffl and Brayden Schenn doesn’t help his position much but he does skate on the top power play unit, which helps a bit. Shayne Gostisbehere is the pick for the blue line as he is enjoying a fine rookie campaign as he has two goals and an assist in his last three games. Micheal del Zotto has slipped into some power play time last game but I would wait another game to make sure that wasn’t an aberration.
Just when you thought head coach John Tortorella was crazy for benching superstar Ryan Johansen the Blue Jackets not only go out and snap a five game losing streak, they do it by scoring seven goals. It’s amazing what guys do when they realize that the coach will do anything to win, including benching anyone he wants to. With the Blue Jackets not practicing on Friday it will be tough to tell if and where Johansen will draw back in. Scott Hartnell has produced since his benching on December fourth as he has responded with four goals and five assists in his seven games since the incident. Brandon Saad was able to score a goal and assist on two others in the 7-5 win against Arizona on Thursday night. Last but not least is Alexander Wennberg as he was centering Hartnell and Saad and can be considered to be a very streaky player at the tender age of 21. In his last 19 games he has only scored in four of them, but in those games he has multi pointed three times while accumulating just nine points, so if you’re feeling lucky, Wennberg is your guy. At last check defenseman Ryan Murray has been seeing time at the point on the power play and while he hasn’t done much with it, the opportunity is still there.
Elite Plays
PHL: Claude Giroux
CBJ: None
Secondary Plays
PHL: Shayne Gostisbehere, Jakub Voracek, Wayne Simmonds
CBJ: Scott Hartnell, Brandon Saad, Cam Atkinson
Anaheim Ducks at New Jersey Devils – 07:00 PM EST
| Anaheim Ducks | New Jersey Devils | ||||||||
 | Frederik Andersen |  | Cory Schneider | ||||||
| Record | Record | ||||||||
| 11-14-5 | 16-12-4 | ||||||||
| Stats | GF/GP | GA/GP | PP% | PK% | Stats | GF/GP | GA/GP | PP% | PK% |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Team Stats | 1.83 | 2.50 | 16.70% | 87.50% | Team Stats | 2.34 | 2.41 | 20.90% | 82.70% |
The Ducks have the dubious distinction of being the only NHL team that hasn’t score 60 goals so far this season. The number is 56 and had it not been for some good goaltending in recent weeks, this team could be far worse, record wise anyway. They also have only three road wins this season which is also an NHL low. Anaheim comes into this one just scoring five goals in their last five games and by some miracle have been able to win two of those games. The house of cards has been a bit shaky of late as they lost to Buffalo and Carolina by a composite score of 8-1 in their last two games. With all this lack of scoring it is tough to play the Ducks in anything but a GPP. Corey Perry, Ryan Getzlaf and Sami Vatanen should be the ones you look at, especially Vatanen who has been able to muster two assists on those five goals they have recently scored.
The Devils seem to doing their best Jeckyl and Hyde imitation of late as they just can’t seem to string anything together. In their last ten games they have neither won two nor lost two games in a row and certainly do not want that trend to continue tonight. The Florida Panthers ambushed them in their own building Thursday night by a score of 5-1 as the Devils were outplayed from the drop of the puck. The most concerning thing to me is the fact that the Devils only had 16 shots make it to the net. I know what you are saying, some teams just have bad nights and I agree, but when you consider they also had two games this month where they have had only 18 shots, it is a bit worrisome. The top line of Michael Cammalleri, Adam Henrique and Lee Stempniak has just one goal to go with three assists in their last five games. Kyle Palmieri could be the play here as he has found the score sheet in six of his last seven games and could make for an easy one-off tonight.
Elite Plays
ANA: None
NJ: None
Secondary Plays
ANA: Corey Perry, Ryan Getzlaf, Sami Vatanen
NJ: Mike Cammalleri, Lee Stempniak, Kyle Palmieri
Carolina Hurricanes at Pittsburgh Penguins – 07:00 PM EST
| Carolina Hurricanes | Pittsburgh Penguins | ||||||||
 | Cam Ward |  | Marc-Andre Fleury | ||||||
| Record | Record | ||||||||
| 12-15-5 | 15-13-3 | ||||||||
| Stats | GF/GP | GA/GP | PP% | PK% | Stats | GF/GP | GA/GP | PP% | PK% |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Team Stats | 2.41 | 3.03 | 17.10% | 76.90% | Team Stats | 2.23 | 2.52 | 14.20% | 83.20% |
Going into last night’s 2-0 shutout loss to the Florida Panthers, the Hurricanes were one of the hottest teams in terms of scoring over the last few weeks. They had put up 23 goals in just five games and were able to connect on the power play seven times out of 17 chances during that stretch. It is crazy to think that Carolina can keep up this scoring pace as they have only scored 54 goals in their first 25 games before this sudden offensive outburst. This is not to say that they don’t have a chance to score a few tonight against the slumping Pittsburgh Penguins. The Hurricanes second line of Jeff Skinner, Victor Rask and Phil Di Giuseppe have been doing a lot of the damage with Skinner leading the way with nine goals and an assist in his last seven games. Rask has six points in as many games while Di Giuseppe has netted two goals to go along with three assists in his last five games. Now before you get all technical on me, I know that this line is ‘listed’ as the third line but let’s stay in the real world shall we. There’s no way any coach would view the line of Jordan Staal, Joakim Nordstrom and Andrej Nestrasil as the second line. In fact, the Skinner line is the one I’d probably want to shut down as the ‘top’ line of Carolina has only accounted for one goal and eight assists in their last six games. As the team leader in points, defenseman Justin Faulk is also in play tonight with his three goals and four assists in the last six games.
You would think that with the addition of Phil Kessel and a few others like Patric Hornqvist and David Perron over the past year or so that the Penguins could find a capable line mate for Sidney Crosby. This has not happened as yet and the injury and then subsequent retirement of Pascal Dupuis certainly doesn’t help matters any. Dupuis was Crosby’s right hand man a few years back and ever since his first injury, the Penguins haven’t been able to settle on any type of set wingers to go along with ‘Sid the Kid’. Enter Conor Sheary, a 175 pound 23 year old out of the University of Massachusetts Amherst. Sheary spent his last two years in the AHL where he netted 26 goals to go with 44 assists and I can assure none of line mates were named Crosby. Sheary scored his first goal and assist last against the Boston Bruins in a 6-2 loss, so it will be interesting to see what he can do moving forward. It looks like they have moved Chris Kunitz to the left wing as he and Sheary are both left-handed and what this will effectively do is give him more of the net to shoot at from coming down the left side. Evgeni Malkin leads the team in scoring with 14 goals and 13 assists but like most Penguins, has only found the scoresheet twice in the last six games. Defenseman David Warsofsky continues to log the top power play minutes on the point but I wouldn’t be surprised if new comer trevor Daley takes over that position in the next few weeks in the absence of Kris Letang. Daley netted his first goal as a Penguin in the loss to Boston last night.
Elite Plays
CAR: None
PIT: Evgeni Malkin
Secondary Plays
CAR: Jeff Skinner, Justin Faulk, Victor Rask
PIT: Sidney Crosby, Chris Kunitz, Trevor Daley, Conor Sheary, Phil Kessel