NHL Grind Down: Saturday, February 11th - Page Three
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Anaheim Ducks at Washington Capitals
| Anaheim Ducks | Washington Capitals | ||||||||
 | John Gibson |  | Braden Holtby | ||||||
| Record | Record | ||||||||
| 29-17-10 | 38-11-6 | ||||||||
| Stats | GF/GP | GA/GP | PP% | PK% | Stats | GF/GP | GA/GP | PP% | PK% |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Team Stats | 2.59 | 2.48 | 20.80% | 84.00% | Team Stats | 3.36 | 2.05 | 21.90% | 84.40% |
Anaheim shuffled up their lines last game and it paid off in spades as they beat the Buffalo Sabres by a score of 5-2 in front of their home crowd. Antoine Vermette and Jakob Silfverberg was moved between Ryan Getzlaf while Corey Perry stayed with Rickard Rakell but has Nick Ritchie as their new line mate. Ryan Kesler centered the third line with Andrew Cogliano and Logan Shaw and while all three lines scored against Buffalo you can surely bet that won’t happen tonight as the team travels to Washington. It’s tough to decipher how this is all going to shake out as Rakell leads the team with 22 goals, Getzlaf leads with 31 assists and Kesler leads the team with 43 points. The line changes has put all of those guys on separate lines but will likely stay on the team’s top power play line. Kesler looks to be the one-off here and maybe the next option would be a pairing of Getzlaf and Rakell which would leave Perry as a secondary one-off tournament play. With Sami Vatanen still not ready to go Cam Fowler is the clear cut choice on the back line as he has grabbed 11 of his 28 points with the man advantage. The Capitals are very tough at home so maybe using caution here is the order of the day.
With the injury to Andre Burakovsky there is no reason to look out of the top six for your cash game or tournament plays tonight where the Capitals are concerned. I have a feeling that Alexander Ovechkin, Nicklas Backstrom and T.J. Oshie will get a lot of run on the late slate tonight. While Ovechkin leads the team with 25 goals it is Backstrom who leads the team with 41 assists and 57 points. All three players have combined for 35 points over the last 11 games with Oshie having the lowest total but scoring seven goals of the 10 points he has racked up. Evgeny Kuznetsov makes for a decent one-off play here as he centers Justin Williams and Marcus Johansson. Kuznetsov also has seven goals in the last 11 games and has seen 14 of his 44 points come over that same time frame. Johansson gets the exposure to the top line as he skates with them when Washington has the man advantage. Defenseman Matt Niskanen seems to have taken over the point on the top power play unit but that doesn’t mean you can just discard John Carlson in tonight’s game. Niskanen does lead the veteran in points by a tally of 31-28 but either should be fine tonight.
Elite Plays
ANA: Ryan Kesler
WSH: Nicklas Backstrom, Alexander Ovechkin
Secondary Plays
ANA: Corey Perry, Ryan Getzlaf, Rickard Rakell, Cam Fowler
WSH: Evgeny Kuznetsov, T.J. Oshie, Matt Niskanen, Marcus Johansson
Pittsburgh Penguins at Arizona Coyotes
| Pittsburgh Penguins | Arizona Coyotes | ||||||||
 | Matt Murray |  | Mike Smith | ||||||
| Record | Record | ||||||||
| 34-13-6 | 17-28-7 | ||||||||
| Stats | GF/GP | GA/GP | PP% | PK% | Stats | GF/GP | GA/GP | PP% | PK% |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Team Stats | 3.55 | 2.81 | 22.60% | 79.10% | Team Stats | 2.21 | 3.17 | 15.90% | 76.70% |
Pittsburgh has survived yet another major injury as they racked up four wins and nine points in the six games that Evgeni Malkin was on the shelf. Those points have put the team in second place in the Metropolitan Division with 74 points. The Penguins should see a lot of exposure tonight but with the new lines there will be a lot of ways to go tonight. Sidney Crosby will center Chris Kunitz and Jake Guentzel while Nick Bonino will center what looks to be the third line along with Phil Kessel and Matt Cullen. Malkin returns to center Patric Hornqvist and Scott Wilson. As you can see there are plenty of punt plays here to help you fit all of the studs into your line up tonight whether it be cash or GPP plays. Crosby leads the league with 60 points while Phil Kessel leads the team with 24 of his 52 points with the man advantage. Malkin and Hornqvist join Crosby and Kessel to form the team’s top power play unit that’s gets more than 65% of the ice time when the Penguins draw a penalty. Justin Schultz continues to flourish as he quarterbacks the team’s top power play unit. His nine points in the last nine games has contributed to the 39 points he has collected this season. Kris Letang cannot be forgotten either as he has found the score sheet 27 times in 35 games.
Arizona’s 41 points basically gives them no shot to make the playoffs this season so I would expect a lot of line changes as the Coyote brass will want to see what players want to play and which ones don’t. When a team is this bad it’s almost like the players are fighting for a position spot just as they would in pre-season. Martin Hanzal looks to be out of this one so that means that Peter Holland will now center the top line along with Radim Vrbata and Tobias Rieder. If the Coyotes are going to score it will probably be from this line as Vrbata leads the team with 11 goals, 24 assists and 157 shots on goal. Max domi skates on the second line with Alexander Burmistrov and Jamie McGinn while Brendan Perlini and Shane Doan skate on the team’s third line. To put this into perspective doan has played in the league for 20 years while Perlini is, you guessed it, 20 years old. Besides Vrbata, defenseman Oliver Ekman-Larsson has the second best chance of finding the score sheet tonight as he is second on the team with 28 points. Alex Goligoski is an intriguing play here as he has collected six of his 19 points over the last nine games.
Elite Plays
PIT: Sidney Crosby, Evgeni Malkin
ARZ: None
Secondary Plays
PIT: Phil Kessel, Justin Schultz, Patric Hornqvist, Kris Letang
ARZ: Radim Vrbata, Oliver Ekman-Larsson, Tobias Rieder
Chicago Blackhawks at Edmonton Oilers
| Chicago Blackhawks | Edmonton Oilers | ||||||||
 | Scott Darling |  | Cam Talbot | ||||||
| Record | Record | ||||||||
| 34-17-5 | 29-18-8 | ||||||||
| Stats | GF/GP | GA/GP | PP% | PK% | Stats | GF/GP | GA/GP | PP% | PK% |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Team Stats | 2.80 | 2.60 | 18.70% | 76.50% | Team Stats | 2.76 | 2.49 | 20.00% | 82.20% |
The Blackhawks get to play their third game in four nights while the Oilers are coming off a nice six day break. Chicago took care of business last night in Winnipeg last night and look to wrap up this six game road trip with their fifth win in a row. The Blackhawks 73 points have them safely in second place in the Central Division as the St Louis Blues are third with just 61 points. Jonathan Toews has had the hot hand of late as he has tallied 11 of his 33 points in the last nine games. Richard Panik and Nick Schmaltz skate with the superstar at even strength and could provide some salary relief tonight if needed. There is no doubt that the top line of Patrick Kane, Artemi Panarin and Artem Anisimov will be targeted by many tonight in both cash and tournament formats. Kane leads the team with 55 points while Panarin is just four points off the pace for the team lead. Marian Hossa makes for a decent one-off here as he tallied his 20th goal of the season last night which is tops on the team. Duncan Keith and Brent Seabrook keep things calm from the back line while the Kane line works its magic with the man advantage. Keith is the safest play however as he has notched nine of his 40 points over the last nine games.
The Oilers had a nice week off and now it’s time to get back to the business. They are in third place in the Pacific Division with 66 points and are just four points away from taking the division crown. Connor McDavid was quoted as saying that this is the first time in a long time that Edmonton has played meaningful hockey in February and he’s right. McDavid is tied for the league league in scoring with 60 points while Leon Draisaitl and Patrick Maroon fill out the Oilers top line. Before the break we saw Milan Lucic promoted to the second line to skate with Ryan Nugent-Hopkins and Jordan Eberle. This move in my opinion now has the top six players on the top two lines which I believe is still optimal in a league that has seen most teams try to squeeze three lines out of six talented players. Draisaitl and McDavid should be joined by Lucic, Mark Letestu and defenseman Andrej Sekera when the team goes on the power play. I’m not sure why Letestu is still up there as there are clearly better offensive choices to fill that void. To his credit, he does have 23 points with 17 coming in the 31 games the Oilers have played since December 1st.
Elite Plays
CHI: Patrick Kane, Artemi Panarin
EDM: Connor McDavid
Secondary Plays
CHI: Jonathan Toews, Artem Anisimov, Duncan Keith, Marian Hossa
EDM: Leon Draisaitl, Ryan Nugent-Hopkins, Jordan Eberle, Andrej Sekera