NHL Grind Down: Thursday, December 10th - Page Two
Columbus Blue Jackets at Winnipeg Jets – 08:00 PM EST
| Columbus Blue Jackets | Winnipeg Jets | ||||||||
 | Sergei Bobrovsky |  | Ondrej Pavelec | ||||||
| Record | Record | ||||||||
| 11-16-2 | 13-13-2 | ||||||||
| Stats | GF/GP | GA/GP | PP% | PK% | Stats | GF/GP | GA/GP | PP% | PK% |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Team Stats | 2.34 | 2.86 | 18.10% | 82.20% | Team Stats | 2.71 | 3.00 | 15.70% | 79.40% |
Just when the Blue Jackets were starting to play some good hockey they lose their starting goaltender for at least three weeks. Sergei Bobrovsky has a lower body injury which will put the Columbus hockey team in the ‘less-than-capable’ hands of Curtis McElhinney. Both teams take a lot of penalties and with Winnipeg giving up 11 goals in the last 13 games on the short hand, the Columbus power play is a good place to start. John Tortorella switched up the lines in Wednesday’s practice as he put Brandon Saad back with Boone Jenner and Ryan Johansen. Johansen is the only one guaranteed to play top power-play minutes as the Blue Jackets have had Scott Hartnell and Nick Foligno on the top unit as well. Both Hartnell and Foligno have two goals and two assists each in their last two games.
Although The Winnipeg Jets have a 13-13-2 overall record, their 7-4-1 record at home should not be overlooked. As we said, Columbus takes a lot of penalties, 122 minor penalties to be exact, which is the second most in the league next to the team they are playing tonight. They have been very good at killing penalties in the past month as they have only surrendered four short-handed goals in their last 14 games, but this could all change without Sergei Bobrovsky. I have a feeling that the top power-play line of Bryan Little, Blake Wheeler and Andrew Ladd should be highly owned tonight. Blake Wheeler saw his six-game point streak snapped the other night against Chicago while Dustin Byfluglien has a goal and five assists in his last six games.
Elite Plays
CBJ: None
WPG: Blake Wheeler
Secondary Plays
CBJ: Ryan Johansen, Boone Jenner, Scott Hartnell, Nick Foligno, Alexander Wennberg, Ryan Murray, Brandon Saad
WPG: Bryan Little, Andrew Ladd, Dustin Byfuglien, Mathieu Perreault, Mark Scheifele
Buffalo Sabres at Calgary Flames – 09:00 PM EST
| Buffalo Sabres | Calgary Flames | ||||||||
 | Robin Lehner |  | Jonas Hiller | ||||||
| Record | Record | ||||||||
| 11-14-3 | 11-14-2 | ||||||||
| Stats | GF/GP | GA/GP | PP% | PK% | Stats | GF/GP | GA/GP | PP% | PK% |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Team Stats | 2.36 | 2.71 | 21.30% | 75.30% | Team Stats | 2.52 | 3.52 | 12.30% | 71.80% |
Although it may not be showing up in the standings, the Buffalo Sabres are slowly but surely becoming a better team. With one third of the season over, the Sabres have not only won five games on the road, they also have a minus 11 goal differential. The five road wins compares to the 9 they had all of last season but the biggest difference is seen in the goal differential department. They are on pace to finish somewhere around the minus 33 mark for the season and when you compare that to the minus 113 goal differential from last year, you can easily see that this is a team that is making progress. Calgary on the other hand is just 4 goals away from being the first team to give up 100 goals this season so it’s doubtful that they can stop any team’s top two lines from scoring, even if the opponent is the Buffalo Sabres. Calgary doesn’t necessarily take too many penalties, but when the do they can’t seem to kill them as efficiently as the rest of the league. The Flames rank dead last as opponents have a 28.2% success rate when they have the man advantage. This will point us to Ryan O’Reilly as he plays on both the top line and on the top power-play unit. O’Reilly has netted two goals to go with four assists in his last five games, making him an even more lucrative play albeit on the road. Jamie McGinn may be an even better play tonight as he skates second line with Jack Eichel and Brian Gionta but gets first line power-play minutes. McGinn has been on fire of late as he has a six-game point streak going that feeds off of the two goals and five assists he has over that span. With this being the late game I would expect some late hammers to come into play in this one.
When talking about the Calgary Flames scoring depth the conversation usually will start with Johnny Gaudreau, Sean Monahan and Jiri Hudler and basically end there. This season however, it is a bit worse as the Flames find themselves with 69 goals scored which is good for 13th in the 14 team Western conference. Only the Anaheim Ducks have scored less goals and a lot of things can be attributed to this. Hudler’s game has fallen off so far that he has not been on the top line nor is he found on the top power-play unit. Part of the reason is that he has netted only five goals a third of the way through the season, which is a far cry from the 31 goals he tallied in 78 games last season. Another reason is that although the Flames have been trying to come up with a decent second line by trying to put Hudler on the second line with Sam Bennett and Markus Granlund, this hasn’t worked out as yet. In defense of the second line, both Granlund and Bennett are young players and may need a bit more seasoning before they can get into ‘”(player-popup)Johnny Gaudreau”:/players/johnny-gaudreau-18493’ status. Monahan and Gaudureau are the choices here as Monahan has a four-game point streak going which should easily be extended to five games tonight. Dennis Wideman has been quietly putting up some numbers as he has four assists in the last three games. Sticking with the top line tonight would be the way to go, making David Jones a nice punt play.
Elite Plays
BUF: None
CGY: Johnny Gaudreau
Secondary Plays
BUF: Ryan O’Reilly, Jamie McGinn, Rasmus Ristolainen, Evander Kane, Jack Eichel
CGY: Sean Monahan, David Jones, Dennis Wideman, Mark Giordano