NHL Grind Down: Saturday, December 26th - Page Two
Detroit Red Wings at Nashville Predators – 08:00 PM EST
| Detroit Red Wings | Nashville Predators | ||||||||
 | Jimmy Howard |  | Pekka Rinne | ||||||
| Record | Record | ||||||||
| 17-10-7 | 17-11-6 | ||||||||
| Stats | GF/GP | GA/GP | PP% | PK% | Stats | GF/GP | GA/GP | PP% | PK% |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Team Stats | 2.59 | 2.56 | 18.20% | 81.60% | Team Stats | 2.59 | 2.50 | 20.90% | 76.00% |
Thanks to an early December run, the Detroit Red Wings were able to climb back into the playoff race in the Eastern conference. Since then however the Red Wings have gone 1-2-2 in their last five including losses to Vancouver, Buffalo and New Jersey, twice. Going into Nashville and grabbing a win will be a tall order as their home record stands at 11-4-3. Logic would say that Nashville will try to shut down the top line of Dylan Larkin, Henrik Zetterberg and Justin Abdelkader and quite frankly they just may be able to do it on home ice with the last line change. Consider this line as a GPP play as Larkin has fired off 21 shots in his last five games while finding the net twice and Zetterberg has collected a goal and four there assists over that same time frame. Since we are talking GPP’s I wouldn’t be opposed to taking Pavel Datsyuk and Brad Richards as they skate on the second line and should see a little more room on the ice than the top line tonight. This duo has accumulated seven points between them over the last five games.
As indicated above the Nashville Predators play a tough brand of hockey at home. The problem occurs on the road as their 6-7-3 record combined with their home record has them sitting in 5th place in the Central division with just 40 points. The Central division is competitive however as those same 40 points would have the team just two points out of first place in the other division in the Western conference. Nashville has scored eight power play goals in their last eight games and since defensemen Shea Weber and Roman Josi have been on a tear of late, that’s a good place to start. Weber has a goal and five assists in his last three games while Josi has lit the lamp twice to go along with assisting on two others in his last two games. Selecting the forwards is a bit more tricky as there are a few combinations you can go with. Calle Jarnkrok and James Neal skate on the second line but skate on the top power play with Filip Forsberg. All three have at least a goal and assists in their last three games while Mike Ribeiro, who skates top line with Forsberg but is found on the second power play unit also has a goal and two assists in his last two games. If you take Ribeiro pair him with Forsberg while if you take Neal or Jarnkrok, pair them with anyone mentioned but Ribeiro. This way you get exposure to the top two lines as well as the team’s top power play unit.
Elite Plays
DET: None
NSH: Shea Weber, Roman Josi
Secondary Plays
DET: Pavel Datsyuk, Brad Richards, Henrik Zetterberg, Dylan Larkin, Justin Abdelkader, Niklas Kronwall, Gustav Nyquist
NSH: James Neal, Calle Jarnkrok, Filip Forsberg, Mike Ribeiro
Dallas Stars at St. Louis Blues – 08:00 PM EST
| Dallas Stars | St. Louis Blues | ||||||||
 | Kari Lehtonen |  | |||||||
| Record | Record | ||||||||
| 26-7-2 | 21-11-4 | ||||||||
| Stats | GF/GP | GA/GP | PP% | PK% | Stats | GF/GP | GA/GP | PP% | PK% |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Team Stats | 3.51 | 2.49 | 23.30% | 80.20% | Team Stats | 2.53 | 2.33 | 21.20% | 87.30% |
So far this season the Dallas Stars have taken the league by storm. Their 26-7-2 record has them atop of the NHL with 54 points and they lead the league in goals with 124 of them so far this season. Tyler Seguin and Jamie Benn trail Patrick Kane by only four points for the league lead while defenseman John Klingberg has been a bot cold of late by only tallying two assists in his last seven games. Nonetheless, Klingberg still remains in the top 20 in scoring as his five goals and 27 assists has him tied for 11th with 32 points. Dallas has scored a power play goal in each of their last three games and should be in play tonight even though they are on the road. The Christmas break should be enough for all teams to re-energize and get back into gear. Patrick Sharp and Jason Spezza round out the top power play as they each have five points in their last three games. If you want to be a bit contrarian you could pair Spezza with either Ales Hemsky or Mattias Janmark with Hemsky being my selection as he has had more opportunities since being reunited with Spezza on the second line.
The Blues power play has also been on the mark of late as they have netted eight goals in their past eight games with the man advantage. Vladimir Tarasenko is at the heart of the Blues as he has not only scored goals in six of his last seven games, he has added five assists in those games as well. Paul Stastny and Alexander Steen complete the top line for the Blues and all players are found on the top power play. Stastny has shown signs of bouncing back from his injury as he has a goal and three assists in his last five games. Defensively the choice here is Kevin Shattenkirk as his 21 points ranks 4th on the team in scoring albeit only appearing in 26 of the team’s 36 games. The Blues have a few lines that can score so if you wanted to go off the beaten you could pair David Backes with his second line winger in Troy Brouwer or go to the third line and take Jori Lehtera with Robby Fabbri, who has two goals in his last two games.
Elite plays
DAL: Jamie Benn, Tyler Seguin
STL: Vladimir Tarasenko
Secondary Plays
DAL: Patrick Sharp, Jason Spezza, John Klingberg
STL: Paul Stastny, Kevin Shattenkirk, David Backes, Alexander Steen
Los Angeles Kings at Arizona Coyotes – 09:00 PM EST
| Los Angeles Kings | Arizona Coyotes | ||||||||
 | Jonathan Quick |  | Mike Smith | ||||||
| Record | Record | ||||||||
| 20-11-2 | 16-15-2 | ||||||||
| Stats | GF/GP | GA/GP | PP% | PK% | Stats | GF/GP | GA/GP | PP% | PK% |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Team Stats | 2.48 | 2.27 | 17.00% | 83.80% | Team Stats | 2.73 | 3.15 | 14.40% | 81.30% |
After reeling off six straight wins the Pacific leading Los Angeles Kings dropped four of their next five games while losing one of them in overtime. After shutting out Montreal on December 17th the lost to Toronto to wrap up their six game road trip and then promptly dropped a game at home to the San Jose Sharks. They hit the road again tonight to start a four game road trip which starts in Arizona and ends in Calgary on New Year’s Eve. Look for the second line of the Kings to do some damage tonight as Tyler Toffoli is starting to heat up by virtue of his two goals to go with two assists in his last four games. Tanner Pearson and Jeff Carter, who leads the team in scoring, round out the second line and are very much in play tonight. The Kings haven’t had much luck on the power play of late as they have only scored one goal in the last eight games while having the man advantage. The doesn’t mean the top line of Anze Kopitar, Milan Lucic and Marian Gaborik aren’t in play as the Coyotes have given up 13 goals in their last four games. Drew Doughty is the selection on defense as he has a goal and an assist in his last three games while getting the top minutes on the power play.
Arizona finishes up their six game home stand tonight against one of their toughest opponents yet in the Los Angeles Kings. With losses to Carolina and Columbus and wins over Minnesota, Toronto and the New York Islanders it’s clear the Coyotes could be in for a rude awakening. It’s tough to rely on Arizona tonight as they are already and up and down team, but add an opponent that has only given up 76 goals in the first 33 games and you can see why you may not want them in your cash games tonight. The top line of Max Domi, Mikael Boedker and Antoine Vermette have been cold of late as they have scored only scored one goal to go along with four assists in their last four games. The second line however has been a bit more productive and could make a decent GPP play tonight. Tobias Rieder and Anthony Duclair have lit the lamp twice each in the last four games while they have a total of nine points with line mate Viktor Tikhonov over that same time period. Oliver Ekman-Larsson has tallied two assists in his last three games from the point as he is 4th on the team in points with 20 in the first 33 games. Again, I think that Arizona is in play but as a GPP play only as they just don’t have that point a game player to be consistent enough to use in cash games.
Elite Plays
LAK: Jeff Carter
ARZ: None
Secondary Plays
LAK: Tanner Pearson, Tyler Tiffoli, Anze Kopitar, Milan Lucic, Drew Doughty
ARZ: Mikkel Boedker, Max Domi, Tobias Rieder, Anthony Duclair, Oliver Ekman-Larsson
Edmonton Oilers at Vancouver Canucks – 10:00 PM EST
| Edmonton Oilers | Vancouver Canucks | ||||||||
 | Ben Scrivens |  | Ryan Miller | ||||||
| Record | Record | ||||||||
| 15-18-2 | 13-14-9 | ||||||||
| Stats | GF/GP | GA/GP | PP% | PK% | Stats | GF/GP | GA/GP | PP% | PK% |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Team Stats | 2.54 | 3.03 | 17.60% | 81.30% | Team Stats | 2.47 | 2.81 | 17.20% | 79.20% |
The Christmas break came just in time for the Edmonton Oilers. They started making their move out of the basement back on December 2nd as they started a six game winning streak by defeating Boston by a score of 3-2 in a shootout. They hit the road and dropped three of four games before coming back home to beat the Winnipeg Jets by a score of 3-1. The only constant through all of this has been the play of the top line that consists of Taylor Hall, Leon Draisaitl and Teddy Purcell. These three lead the team in scoring and make a decent play tonight as they have collected ten goals and 24 assists in the last eight games. This trio also comprises 60% of the Edmonton top power play unit and if Vancouver decides they want to hand out power plays like candy on Halloween, then the Oilers will surely capitalize. Vancouver has been a man short 26 times in the last five games including a whopping ten times against Tampa Bay last Tuesday. The second line of Jordan Eberle, Benoit Pouliot and Ryan Nugent-Hopkins has not scored in the last three games and can only be considered as a GPP play. You could conceivably put Nugent-Hopkins with anyone on the top line as he skates on the top power play unit with those three. On defense Justin Schultz scored his first goal of the season last game and although he plays on the top power play unit you may want to take a look at Andrej Sekera as he has four goals to go with nine assists so far this season. Neither play is really appealing so you just may want to pass on this mess.
Vancouver is another team that has been having their problems scoring of late. Yes they scored four regulation goals against Florida to go with another three against Detroit but outside of that they only scored over two goals just once in the other 11 games during that stretch. Daniel and Henrik Sedin lead the team in points and should almost always be considered when they play at home. Daniel has three goals in his last five games while Henrik has five assists in his last five games. Jannik Hansen plays on their wing on the top line and although he doesn’t see the ice during power plays, he has been able to tally two goals and two assists in his last five games just by skating with the dynamic duo. Alex Edler gets the ice time but he hasn’t found the scoresheet in the last six games so I would look elsewhere for your defensemen tonight.
Elite Plays
EDM: Taylor Hall
VAN: Daniel Sedin
Secondary Plays
EDM: Leon Draisaitl, Teddy Purcell, Ryan Nugent-Hopkins
VAN: Henrik Sedin, Jannik Hansen, Radim Vrbata