NHL Grind Down: Thursday, March 3rd - Page Three
San Jose Sharks at Vancouver Canucks – 10:00 PM EST
| San Jose Sharks | Vancouver Canucks | ||||||||
 |  | Martin Jones | |||||||
| Record | Record | ||||||||
| 34-22-6 | 24-26-12 | ||||||||
| Stats | GF/GP | GA/GP | PP% | PK% | Stats | GF/GP | GA/GP | PP% | PK% |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Team Stats | 2.98 | 2.65 | 22.30% | 79.80% | Team Stats | 2.35 | 2.82 | 17.80% | 81.50% |
San Jose is not only 6-2-2 in their last ten games their 22-9-3 record on the road is one of the best in the league. Vancouver on the other hand has been struggling all year and actually have a better road record than at home. This does not bode well for the home team Canucks tonight, especially when the Sharks have scored ten goals in the last two games, including four against them in this same building four days ago. Joe Thornton and Joe Pavelski lead the attack from the top line and also get the majority of the team’s power play minutes. Each is a good play by themselves or pair them up together as they are sure to find the scoresheet just have they have 16 before over the last five games. Tomas Hertl skates on the top line with the dynamic duo and has added three goals to go along with an assists in the last five games he has played. It appears that the Sharks have put Patrick Marleau and Logan Couture back together on the second line along with Joonas Donskoi. This line would make a decent GPP play as Donskoi should allow you enough salary to grab another line to match them up with for tournament play. Brent Burns gets the top power play minutes from the point and he has done well of late by virtue of registering five points in the last five games. If you are looking for some salary relief at the point both Marc-Edouard Vlasic and Justin Braun could fit the bill here as they have tallied five and three points respectively over the last five games.
Vancouver wraps up their five game home stand tonight against the San Jose Sharks and for all intents and purposes the Sharks should win the game. That doesn’t necessarily mean that the Canucks won’t score because it’s more than likely they will. Henrik and Daniel Sedin will probably be the ones doing the scoring as the twins have racked up a cumulative 11 points over the last four games. Heck, they even have NHL journeyman Emersen Etem on their line with a goal and two assists over the last four games. Look for Linden Vey to get the top power play minutes along with the Sedin’s as he has registered three points in the last three games he has played in. Ben Hutton takes the point on the power play and has assisted on three goals in the last four games. Sven Baertschi rounds out the top power play unit and could always get in the way of a deflection or the like to find the scoresheet, but I wouldn’t count on it. He does however have the opportunity so that has to be worth something. Look for the same old same old from a one line team on home ice tonight.
Elite Plays
SJ: Joe Thornton, Joe Pavelski
VAN: None
Secondary Plays
SJ: Brent Burns, Patrick Marleau, Logan Couture
VAN Daniel Sedin, Henrik Sedin, Linden Vey, Ben Hutton
Montreal Canadiens at Los Angeles Kings – 10:30 PM EST
| Montreal Canadiens | Los Angeles Kings | ||||||||
 |  | ||||||||
| Record | Record | ||||||||
| 37-21-4 | |||||||||
| Stats | GF/GP | GA/GP | PP% | PK% | Stats | GF/GP | GA/GP | PP% | PK% |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Team Stats | 2.67 | 2.75 | 17.90% | 84.00% | Team Stats | 2.63 | 2.27 | 22.00% | 81.30% |
The Canadiens have their work cut out for them tonight as they get set to play their third game in four nights on the west coast. With 65 points through 63 games Montreal is in real danger of not making the playoffs for the second time in nine years. The top line of Max Pacioretty, Tomas Plekanec and Brendan Gallagher may have some trouble tonight against the best defensive team in the league. Pacioretty leads the team in goals while Plekanec and defenseman P.K. Subban are just a tick ahead of him for the team lad in total points. The one-off play here looks to be second liner Alex Galchenyuk as he has three goals in the last four games. Andrei Markov is another choice on defense along with Subban but again Montreal could be a bit tired tonight after coming in from Anaheim early this morning.
The Kings continue to stay atop of the Pacific division by doing what they always do, play good defense. They have managed to go 4-3-1 in the last eight games by only scoring a total of 12 goals. The peculiar thing about all of this is that Tanner Pearson has four goals and an assist in his last five games which means he has had a hand in half of the ten goals the Kings have scored. Montreal comes to town tonight and that should help the Kings break out of their scoring slump as they are in the middle of their four game west coast road swing. Anze Kopitar, Milan Lucic and Dustin Brown skate as the team’s top line with only Kopitar playing on the team’s top power play unit. The second line is the one most will be targeting tonight as it not only features Jeff Carter and Tyler Toffoli, who each have two points over the last five games, but has Dwight King on it as well who has grabbed three points in his last five games. At defense it’s always a toss-up between Drew Doughty and Jake Muzzin and quite frankly, either will be fine tonight. Los Angeles should be able to shut down the top line of the Canadiens, making whoever gets the call between the pipes a safe play.
Editor’s Note
The Kings have switched up their lines with the addition of Kris Versteeg. Tyler Toffoli will move up with Milan Lucic and Anze Kopitar while Versteeg will skate with Jeff Carter and Tanner Pearson. Either line is fine to use tonight
Elite Plays
MTL: none
LAK: Anze Kopitar
Secondary Plays
MTL: Max Pacioretty, Brendan Gallagher, P.K. Subban, Alex Galchenyuk, Tomas Plekanec
LAK: Jeff Carter, Tyler Toffoli, Drew Doughty, Jake Muzzin