NHL Grind Down: Saturday, March 19th - Page Two
Detroit Red Wings at Florida Panthers – 07:00 PM EDT
| Detroit Red Wings | Florida Panthers | ||||||||
 | Petr Mrazek |  | Roberto Luongo | ||||||
| Record | Record | ||||||||
| 35-25-11 | 40-22-9 | ||||||||
| Stats | GF/GP | GA/GP | PP% | PK% | Stats | GF/GP | GA/GP | PP% | PK% |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Team Stats | 2.49 | 2.56 | 16.60% | 81.00% | Team Stats | 2.75 | 2.38 | 17.20% | 81.80% |
The Detroit Red Wings find themselves embroiled in a battle for the last playoff spot in the Eastern conference so it would be ridiculous to say that they have to win. Their 3-1 road win at Columbus on Thursday night was just a stepping stone to their final goal. Tonight the Florida Panthers present another one but one has to think this game will be much tougher than facing the Columbus Blue Jackets. Pavel Datsyuk and Tomas Tatar make nice plays tonight as they skate on the team’s second line and have each grabbed four points over the last six games. The top line of Henrik Zetterberg, Justin Abdelkader and Dylan Larkin have been a bit sluggish of late as it has been Abdelkader leading the way with two goals and three assists over the last six games. There are reports that Niklas Kronwall has been skating and may join the team for tonight’s game, if this does come to fruition he would be the choice on the back line. Be careful here however as Detroit may not be able to score many goals on the road against a tough Florida team
Florida continues to fend off the Boston Bruins and the Tampa Bay Lightning for the top spot in the Atlantic division. The top line of Jaromir Jagr, Jonathan Huberdeau and Aleksander Barkov all have contributed at least two goals and four points over their last five games. Jagr leads the trio that also doubles as the team’s top power play unit with three goals and three assists over those five games. The second line hasn’t been shabby either as Vincent Trocheck has tallied two goals and seven points while line mate Reilly Smith has two goals and two assists in their last five games. Aaron Ekblad is the choice on defense as he has three points in the last five games but don’t count out Dmitry Kulikov as he gets the top power play minutes from the point next to Ekblad. Look for the Panthers to pull another one out of the hat by using timely scoring and good goaltending tonight.
Elite Plays
DET: None
FLA: Jaromir Jagr, Aleksander Barkov
Secondary Plays
DET: Pavel Datsyuk, Tomas Tatar, Henrik Zetterberg, Justin Abdelkader, Dylan Larkin
FLA: Jonathan Huberdeau, Aaron Ekblad, Vincent Trocheck, Reilly Smith
New Jersey Devils at Columbus Blue Jackets – 07:00 PM EDT
| New Jersey Devils | Columbus Blue Jackets | ||||||||
 |  | Sergei Bobrovsky | |||||||
| Record | Record | ||||||||
| 34-30-7 | 28-34-8 | ||||||||
| Stats | GF/GP | GA/GP | PP% | PK% | Stats | GF/GP | GA/GP | PP% | PK% |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Team Stats | 2.24 | 2.48 | 20.40% | 81.80% | Team Stats | 2.51 | 3.06 | 17.80% | 81.40% |
The Devils are in the same boat that the Carolina Hurricanes are in, they are only six points from a playoff spot but have to jump over a few teams to get there. The 7-4 thrashing of the Minnesota wild on Thursday night will no doubt have the devils numbers a bit inflated over the past few games, so take them with a grain of salt. Tyler Kennedy and Devante Smith-Pelly continue to lead the team over the last few weeks with Kennedy snagging five points while Smith-Pelly has found the net four times and has added two helpers over the last four games. They skate on the Devils top line and will no doubt draw the Blue Jackets top shut down forward in Brandon Dubinsky in tonight’s game. The second line has Kyle Palmieri and Travis Zajac who could be used as GPP plays tonight. Joseph Blandisi is your one-off play as he skates on the third line but has collected three assist in the last four games while seeing the extra time on the top power play unit. John Moore is the choice over fellow defenseman David Schlemko as he not only shoots the puck more, he gets better results. I wouldn’t expect another seven goals tonight but scoring a few against one of the weaker teams is not out of the question tonight.
The Blue Jackets are dead last in the Metropolitan division as they enter this home and home with the New Jersey Devils. What’s worse is the fact that they have only scored eight goals in their last five games which includes a 5-3 win over the Detroit Red Wings back on March eighth. Boone Jenner and Cam Atkinson anchor not only the first line but the team’s top power play unit as well. Jenner has three points while Atkinson has led the way with three goals and two assists over the last four games. Alexander Wennberg could be a one-off play here as he has a goal and two assists in the last four games but with Columbus being at home, this could be a risky play. Seth Jones and Ryan Murray are the choices at the point with Jones being the more safer pick but with the Blue Jackets not scoring much of late it may be best just to avoid this mess altogether.
Elite Plays
NJ: None
CBJ: None
Secondary Plays
NJ: Devante Smith-Pelly, Tyler Kennedy, Travis Zajac, John Moore
CBJ: Boone Jenner, Cam Atkinson, Seth Jones, Alexander Wennberg, Ryan Murray
New York Islanders at Dallas Stars – 08:00 PM EDT
| New York Islanders | Dallas Stars | ||||||||
 | Thomas Greiss |  | Kari Lehtonen | ||||||
| Record | Record | ||||||||
| 38-22-9 | 42-21-9 | ||||||||
| Stats | GF/GP | GA/GP | PP% | PK% | Stats | GF/GP | GA/GP | PP% | PK% |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Team Stats | 2.78 | 2.45 | 19.50% | 84.80% | Team Stats | 3.21 | 2.90 | 22.50% | 80.50% |
Even though the Islanders lost against the Nashville Predators on Thursday night, they still tried to do the right thing by inserting Anders Lee on the second line with Frans Nielsen and Nikolay Kulemin. Usually the top power play line is comprised of players over three of New York’s lines, which makes it tough to get some chemistry going at best. Nielsen is the one off play here as he skates on the second line and has grabbed four assists over the last six games. The Islanders find themselves on the road at Dallas tonight but I still like the top line that features John Tavares and Kyle Okposo. Tavares has five points while Okposo only has three over the last six games but both skate on the top power play line and should get plenty of opportunities tonight as Dallas head coach will once again have to switch up his lines with the injury news to Tyler Seguin. Nick Leddy gets the majority of the power play minutes from the point and makes a good choice tonight as he has a goal to go along with three assists in his last six games.
Tyler Seguin will miss three to four weeks of action thanks to an errant skate from Anton Stralman that just happened to nick him on the back of the foot in Thursday’s 4-3 win against Tampa Bay. The guess here is that Patrick Sharp may not only draw back into the top six but more than likely will get to see the top power play minutes along with Jamie Benn, Jason Spezza and defenseman Kris Russell. I would however keep a check on fellow defenseman John Klingberg as of last report he was very close to returning to action. Until we see some actual lines without Seguin the safest bets are Benn and Spezza who have been hotter than most over the last few weeks. Benn has nine points in the last six games while Spezza has nine points in the last eight games while scoring a goal in seven of those games. You will always have guys like Cody Eakin, Valeri Nichuskin and Patrick Eaves that will fill out the top six but unless we know who they are skating with it is awfully hard to pair them up. Check Mike Stepneski for all the updated news after today’s morning skate.
Elite Plays
NYI: John Tavares
DAL: Jason Spezza, Jamie Benn
Secondary Plays
NYI: Kyle Okposo, Frans Nielsen, Nick Leddy, Anders Lee
DAL: Patrick Sharp, Kris Russell
St. Louis Blues at Vancouver Canucks – 10:00 PM EDT
| St. Louis Blues | Vancouver Canucks | ||||||||
 |  | Jacob Markstrom | |||||||
| Record | Record | ||||||||
| 41-22-9 | 27-30-12 | ||||||||
| Stats | GF/GP | GA/GP | PP% | PK% | Stats | GF/GP | GA/GP | PP% | PK% |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Team Stats | 2.58 | 2.51 | 21.80% | 84.40% | Team Stats | 2.36 | 2.86 | 17.10% | 81.60% |
The Blues continue their five game road trip with a stop in Vancouver to face the Canucks. St Louis has been hampered most of the year with injuries but that is still no excuse to lose games against both Calgary and Edmonton while giving up 13 goals in the process. Luckily for the Blues they are one of just a few teams in the league that have 90 points or more and look to easily slide into a playoff spot one way or another. Although the Blues have been giving up goals they have also been scoring them as well. Vladimir Tarasenko finally got back on track over the last five games by scoring three goals to go with four assists while line mate Jaden Schwartz has collected six points over that same time period. Defenseman Kevin Shattenkirk has been productive as well by skating on the top power play unit and collecting four points over the last five games. If you are looking for a GPP play both Paul Stastny and Troy Brouwer make sense in this spot as they both skate on the team’s second line and have registered at least four points in the last five games with Stastny netting three goals to go along with four assists. St Louis should put a few up on the board tonight, it’s keeping them out of their own net has been more of the problem lately.
With losses to Colorado and Winnipeg and now a 2-0 loss at Edmonton last night it is very hard to recommend anyone from this putrid Canuck team. Vancouver is a team that basically makes no sense as they have only three wins in the last ten games with two of them coming against playoff bound teams in the Nashville Predators and the San Jose Sharks. The top line that features Daniel and Henrik Sedin can only be used in GPP plays with Daniel possibly being the one-off play here as he not only leads the team in scoring with 58 points he also leads the team in shots with 227 of them in the 70 games the Canucks have played. The second line of Sven Baertschi, Bo Horvat and Radim Vrbata should only be used in GPP plays and if you are making say about 50 line ups and even then I wouldn’t use them more than once as its Horvat who leads this motley crew with 31 points in 70 games. Ben Hutton makes a cheap play at the point as he has tallied six assists over the last ten games but like the selections above it is definitely buyer beware.
Elite plays
STL: Vladimir Tarasenko
VAN: None
Secondary Plays
STL: Jaden Schwartz, Kevin Shattenkirk, Paul Stastny, David Backes, Jori Lehtera
VAN: Daniel Sedin, Henrik Sedin
Tampa Bay Lightning at Arizona Coyotes – 10:00 PM EDT
| Tampa Bay Lightning | Arizona Coyotes | ||||||||
 |  | Louis Domingue | |||||||
| Record | Record | ||||||||
| 40-26-5 | 31-32-7 | ||||||||
| Stats | GF/GP | GA/GP | PP% | PK% | Stats | GF/GP | GA/GP | PP% | PK% |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Team Stats | 2.69 | 2.37 | 16.60% | 83.60% | Team Stats | 2.67 | 3.01 | 19.10% | 78.60% |
The Lightning may have picked a bad time to go stone cold as they have been able to win only one game in their last six games and that was a 4-0 shutout against the hapless Columbus Blue Jackets. They have only scored 12 goals over the last six games and there have been some line changes in the past two weeks to try to bolster the offense. Nikita Kucherov has been moved up to the top line with Steven Stamkos for the time being as each has been producing over the last six games with four and five points respectively. This leaves yet another opportunity for Ryan Callahan to take Kucherov’s spot on the second line with Ondrej Palat and Tyler Johnson. With this being an away game this should be the line to target tonight. With that said however all the lines could change and probably will once today’s morning skate is done and over with. Anton Stralman has registered three assists in the last five games and receives the top minutes on the power play from the point. Look for the Lightning to break out tonight against an Arizona team that has won their last three games but are still on the outside looking in where the playoff positions are concerned.
Arizona turned in a superb game on home ice Thursday night as they defeated the San Jose Sharks by a score of 3-1. The top line of Alex Tanguay and Antoine Vermette are the plays in this one as each have at least four points in the last four games but it has been Vermette who has led the way with four goals to go along with two assists over that same time frame. The second line of Anthony Duclair, Tobias Rieder and Martin Hanzal have two goals and two assists between them in the last four games and should only be considered for tournament play tonight. It is unclear as to whether Oliver Ekman-Larsson will return to the lineup tonight so maybe just looking at Michael Stone on defense is the way to go here. Stone was on the power play before Ekman-Larsson was injured so there’s no reason to think he will be pulled off the top unit especially in light of his five points over the last four games. This game has some appeal to it but I wouldn’t go crazy as there are a few other games that can be targeted to use in your cash games tonight.
Elite Plays
TB: Steven Stamkos
ARZ: None
Secondary Plays
TB: Nikita Kucherov, Anton Stralman, Ondrej Palat, Tyler Johnson
ARZ: Alex Tanguay, Antoine Vermette, Shane Doan, Michael Stone, Max Domi