NHL Grind Down: Thursday, December 17th - Page Two
New York Rangers at Minnesota Wild – 08:00 PM EST
| New York Rangers | Minnesota Wild | ||||||||
 | Henrik Lundqvist |  | Devan Dubnyk | ||||||
| Record | Record | ||||||||
| 19-9-4 | 16-7-6 | ||||||||
| Stats | GF/GP | GA/GP | PP% | PK% | Stats | GF/GP | GA/GP | PP% | PK% |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Team Stats | 2.91 | 2.25 | 21.60% | 84.00% | Team Stats | 2.72 | 2.34 | 19.40% | 77.10% |
The New York Rangers were able to return home from their horrendous three game western road trip just long enough to defeat the Edmonton Oilers before packing up again and heading to Minnesota. The win was only the Rangers third since the injury to Derek Stepan ten games ago and it goes without saying they look completely lost since then. It’s not for lack of scoring though as the power play has produced 9 goals in their last 14 games and that should match up well against Minnesota who has given up 7 goals in their last 11 games while being a man down. Rick Nash and Derick Brassard both have six points in their last five games while Mats Zuccarello has three goals and two assists in that same time frame. Dan Boyle has been placed on the top power play unit along with Ryan McDonagh and they along with fellow defenseman Keith Yandle all have four pints in their last five games. The real problem occurs when you realize that Minnesota has only given up five goals in their last seven games, making everyone a risk to take tonight.
Since the injury to Devan Dubnyk goaltender Darcy Kuemper has filled in admirably by only allowing four goals in the five games he’s started including two shut outs to boot. If you remember back in January of 2014, the 25 year old goaltender had a similar string of games but was never afforded the true starting job in either case. You can’t win games without scoring and that’s just what wild superstar Zach Parise has been doing of late as he has three goals and five assists in his last five games. This is really no surprise as we saw Parise’s shot totals go up after only three games after coming back from a knee injury. The streaky Thomas Vanek scored a goal and grabbed three asissts in the Wild’s 6-2 win against Vancouver on Tuesday. Those were his first points scored in the last six games. It doesn’t hurt skating next to a healthy Parise on the top power play unit as you can see. Jason Pominville has the same luxury as Vanek except for the fact that he skates on the top line as well which is evident as he has a five game point streak going into tonight’s contest. Defenseman Ryan Suter mans the point on the power play and scored a goal Tuesday for his only point in the last six games. Look for the Wild to use the home ice advantage and score a few in this one.
Elite Plays
NYR: Rick Nash
MIN: Zach Parise
Secondary Plays
NYR: Mats Zuccarello, Derick Brassard, Dan Boyle, Ryan McDonagh
MIN: Jason Pominville, Mikko Koivu, Mikael Granlund, Ryan Suter
Nashville Predators at St. Louis Blues – 08:00 PM EST
| Nashville Predators | St. Louis Blues | ||||||||
 | Pekka Rinne |  | |||||||
| Record | Record | ||||||||
| 15-10-6 | 18-10-4 | ||||||||
| Stats | GF/GP | GA/GP | PP% | PK% | Stats | GF/GP | GA/GP | PP% | PK% |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Team Stats | 2.55 | 2.58 | 20.20% | 76.50% | Team Stats | 2.53 | 2.41 | 20.20% | 88.00% |
This battle of two Central division teams can only be described as confusing. How can a team like Nashville lose to a team like Calgary and beat a team like Chicago while the Blues are losing to a team like Toronto while beating the Dallas Stars by a score of 3-0? To be fair, they both lost to an upstart Colorado team, but could still use a little tightening up. Saint Louis has only given up two power play goals in their last 14 games so maybe we look to Nashville’s second line tonight as there aren’t many players with scoring streaks as they have only scored three goals in their last two games. The play may be Craig Smith as he has accounted for two of the three goals scored in the last two games. Roman Josi leads the team in scoring and has two goals and two assists in his last five games but has come up empty over the last two games. Again, it’s tough to score when one guy has 67% of your goals in the last two games.
The Blues will try to exploit a team that has given up seven power play goals in their last eight games. The usual starting point is Vladimir Tarasenko who not only leads the team in goals with 19, he has also scored four goals to go with two assists in his last five games. The rest of the top unit is in play as well with maybe the exception of Paul Stastny, who has only two goals and three assists in the 11 games he’s played in since returning to the ice from a broken foot. Alexander Steen (5), David Backes (6) and Kevin Shattenkirk (7) all have equal or more points than him in their last five games, let alone their last eleven games and are all in play tonight.
Elite Plays
NSH: None
STL: Vladimir Tarasenko
Secondary Plays
NSH: Roman Josi, Craig Smith, James Neal, Shea Weber, Filip Forsberg
STL: David Backes, Alexander Steen, Kevin Shattenkirk
Edmonton Oilers at Chicago Blackhawks – 08:30 PM EST
| Edmonton Oilers | Chicago Blackhawks | ||||||||
 | Ben Scrivens |  | Corey Crawford | ||||||
| Record | Record | ||||||||
| 14-16-2 | 17-11-4 | ||||||||
| Stats | GF/GP | GA/GP | PP% | PK% | Stats | GF/GP | GA/GP | PP% | PK% |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Team Stats | 2.66 | 3.00 | 18.30% | 80.80% | Team Stats | 2.66 | 2.44 | 22.30% | 82.40% |
Edmonton saw their modest win streak of six games come to a grinding halt at the hands of the New York Rangers Tuesday night by a score of 4-2. Backed by a 7-2-1 record in the last ten games the Oilers have lifted themselves up over Anaheim and are now tied with Vancouver, Calgary, Arizona and Vancouver with 30 points in the Western conference. That really doesn’t mean much yet as all those teams have a little ways to go before we can put them into any playoff scenario conversations. The Oilers have had no problem scoring of late as their top line of Taylor Hall (5-4), Leon Draisaitl (1-7) and Teddy Purcell (2-5) have accounted for eight goals and 16 assists in the last five games. The second line is anchored by Ryan Nugent-Hopkins (2-4) and Jordan Eberle (4-3) and also are in play tonight as they have scored six goals to go with seven assists in their last 5 games.
It will be interesting to see how the Chicago Blackhawks rebound after a 3-0 home loss to Colorado Tuesday thus ending the 26 game point scoring streak of one Patrick Kane. Chicago has scored 10 power play goals in their last 14 games and although Edmonton is 4-1 in their last 5 games, they have still given up 16 goals. One would think that with all the scoring Kane has been doing of late that his linemates would get in on the action but both Artemi Panarin and Artem Anisimov have just one assist between them in the last four games with Anisimov’s scoreless streak now at six games. It’s only a matter of time before Marian Hossa breaks out of his slump as he continues to shoot the puck with not much success. He only has one point along with top linemate Jonathan Toews while Teuvo Teravainen has a goal and two assists in the last five games.
Elite plays
EDM: Taylor Hall
CHI: Patrick Kane
Secondary Plays
EDM: Teddy Purcell, Leon Draisaitl, Ryan Nugent-Hopkins, Jordan Eberle
CHI: Duncan Keith, Jonathan Toews, Marian Hossa
Calgary Flames at Dallas Stars – 08:30 PM EST
| Calgary Flames | Dallas Stars | ||||||||
 | Jonas Hiller |  | Kari Lehtonen | ||||||
| Record | Record | ||||||||
| 14-14-2 | 23-6-2 | ||||||||
| Stats | GF/GP | GA/GP | PP% | PK% | Stats | GF/GP | GA/GP | PP% | PK% |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Team Stats | 2.63 | 3.43 | 11.10% | 71.60% | Team Stats | 3.42 | 2.55 | 22.20% | 78.90% |
After a home stand that saw Calgary win all five games and score four goals or more in every game they hit the road to drop Nashville in 2-1 overtime fashion to start their four game Central division excursion. If the Flames have any thoughts of staying in this one Johnny Gaudreau had better have gotten a good night’s sleep. Gaudreau not only leads the team with 32 points in 30 games, he has tallied 6 goals to go with four assists in his last five games. Dennis Wideman and Mark Giordano each have four points in their last five games but it is fellow defenseman T.J. Brodie who is riding a seven game point streak by scoring two goals and adding six assists in those games. With Dallas playing a brand of wide open hockey the Flames could score a few tonight and most likely the guys named above will be doing it.
After a 3-1 loss to St Louis on Saturday night the Stars got off the deck to defeat the Columbus Blue jackets by a score of 5-1 on home ice Tuesday night. Dallas has a 12-3 record at home which is good for best in the league. Expect them to come out firing on all cylinders against the one line team of Calgary. The Flames may look good at home but their 4-9-2 road record should speak for itself. The Flames have also given up four goals in their last 13 tries when killing a penalty. This should bode well for Tyler Seguin and Jamie Benn who find themselves second and third in the NHL scoring race just below Patrick Kane. Defenseman John Klingberg is a point per game guy as his five goals and 26 assists in 31 games puts him squarely on that mark. For salary relief look to either Jason Spezza or Patrick Sharp as they round out the Dallas power play unit. Valeri Nichushkin is a good play as well as he has a goal and three assists in his last five games. Be sure to either pair him with Seguin or Benn as his production comes from them via skating on the top line.
Elite Plays
CGY: Johnny Gaudreau
DAL: Tyler Seguin, Jamie Benn, John Klingberg
Secondary Plays
CGY: Sean Monahan, T.J. Brodie
DAL: Patrick Sharp, Jason Spezza, Valeri Nichushkin
New York Islanders at Colorado Avalanche – 09:00 PM EST
| New York Islanders | Colorado Avalanche | ||||||||
 | Jaroslav Halak |  | Semyon Varlamov | ||||||
| Record | Record | ||||||||
| 18-9-5 | 15-16-1 | ||||||||
| Stats | GF/GP | GA/GP | PP% | PK% | Stats | GF/GP | GA/GP | PP% | PK% |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Team Stats | 2.72 | 2.34 | 19.50% | 86.30% | Team Stats | 2.75 | 2.75 | 17.00% | 81.30% |
Despite dropping a 5-1 decision to the Florida Panthers on home ice Tuesday night the New York Islanders are still 7-1-2 in their last ten games. That little run has positioned them just three points away from being tied for the best record in the Eastern conference. Tonight they play a Colorado team that has been playing scrappy over the last few weeks. Backed by goaltender Semyon Varlamov, who has only given up eight goals in his last six starts, the Avalanche have won six of their last eight games. Kyle Okposo has two goals and three assists in the last five games and has taken over the team lead in the scoring department. He surpasses captain John Tavares as all he could muster is one assist in the last five games. Besides Okposo, the Islanders have been getting their scoring form a lot of different players on different nights. One night its Frans Nielsen while the next it could be 38 year old defenseman Marek Zidlicky, who has two goals and an assist in his last two games. You get the idea.
Colorado comes into this win riding a three game winning streak and although they have gone 7-3 in their last ten games they have only made a little dent in the standings. It’s a long way back when a team starts out with a 4-9-1 record but this is the task at hand for the Avalanche. We can look for Colorado’s top line to do some some damage tonight as Matt Duchene, Gabriel Landeskog and Nathan MacKinnon each have four points in their last five games. Throw Tyson Barrie in there as well as he has a goal and two assists in his last five games. Remember that Colorado has won a lot of their games recently because of the stingy goaltending from Semyon Valramov, so don’t do too crazy with Avalanche players tonight.
Elite Plays
NYI: None
COL: None
Secondary Plays
NYI: John Tavares, Kyle Okposo, Frans Nielsen, Nick Leddy
COL: Gabriel Landeskog, Nathan MacKinnon, Tyson Barrie, Matt Duchene