NHL Grind Down: Tuesday, December 6th - Page Two

by Tom Woollam (elctrceye) Last Updated 2016-12-06 23:44:37

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Detroit Red Wings at Winnipeg Jets

Detroit Red Wings					Winnipeg Jets
			Petr Mrazek
			Record					Record
			12-11-3					13-13-2
Stats	GF/GP	GA/GP	PP%	PK%	Stats	GF/GP	GA/GP	PP%	PK%
Team Stats	2.38	2.65	14.90%	83.50%	Team Stats	2.61	2.89	15.90%	79.60%

Detroit will need a win here tonight to make the end of their three-game road trip a pleasant one. They lost in Pittsburgh on Saturday night but came right back to beat the Islanders in overtime by a score of 4-3 on Sunday night. This will be their third game in four days but that shouldn’t be a problem as Winnipeg has had the exact same distraction. Henrik Zetterberg continues to flourish with Anthony Mantha and Tomas Tatar as the 36 year old Swedish veteran leads the team in points while grabbing three goals and two assists over the last five games. Thomas Vanek, Dylan Larkin and Gustav Nyquist are the components for the team’s second line and could be a nice GPP play here as Zetterberg line will probably be have the target on their backs where the Winnipeg Jets are concerned. Vanek is usually known as a streaky sniper but has learned to pass the puck in his old age as evidence of his eight assists to go along with four goals he has complied in the 15 games he has played so far this year. Frans Nielsen gets the one-off call here from the third line as he has a team leading six points while the red Wings have the man advantage. Don’t look too much into the Detroit power play as both lines get almost equal time on the ice providing a goal isn’t scored in the first minute. Danny Dekeyser has seen some power play time but not enough to make a difference while fellow defenseman Mike Green is the play here as he has two goals and two assists over the last four games. Besides giving up six goals to the Oilers three games ago, the Jets have given up just five goals in the four games surrounding the Edmonton debacle.

The Jets are coming off a nice little two-game road trip that saw them defeat both the Chicago Blackhawks and Saint Louis Blues away from the home crowd. The four points has kept them in a third place tie with the Minnesota Wild with 28 points in the Central division. As like every other team in the league, the Jets are no different and have switched their lines up as well. This is almost out of necessity as Mark Scheifele will miss tonight’s game along with center Nicolas Petan. This makes the line of Mark Bryan Little, Nikolaj Ehlers and Patrik Laine the one to target tonight as Laine leads the team with 16 while Little has lit the lamp three times and has assisted on two other goals in the last five games since his return. Blake Wheeler, Mathieu Perreault and Drew Stafford man the second line and could make for a nice GPP play here tonight. Dustin Byfuglien and Jacob Trouba get the first shot from the point when the jets have the man advantage. Each have over ten shots on goal over the last five games and have a combined seven assists to their credit. Look for a tough game tonight with the Jets prevailing, possibly in overtime.

Elite Plays

DET: Henrik Zetterberg
WIN: Patrik Laine

Secondary Plays

DET: Anthony Mantha, Dylan Larkin, Thomas Vanek, Mike Green Frans Nielsen
WIN: Nikolaj Ehlers, Bryan Little, Blake Wheeler, Dustin Byfuglien

Colorado Avalanche at Nashville Predators

Colorado Avalanche					Nashville Predators
			Record					Record
			9-13-1					11-9-4
Stats	GF/GP	GA/GP	PP%	PK%	Stats	GF/GP	GA/GP	PP%	PK%
Team Stats	2.13	2.96	15.30%	79.10%	Team Stats	2.96	2.67	22.10%	82.90%

And you thought the Colorado Avalanche would be a better team after getting rid of head coach Patrick Roy. The good news is that Gabriel Landeskog has returned to full contact practice but will not participate in tonight’s game. The bad news is that defenseman Erik Johnson will be out 6-8 weeks from an injury he sustained last Saturday night against the Dallas Stars. Nathan McKinnon leads the team in scoring with 15 points from the team’s top line while Matt Duchene leads the team in goals with seven of them from the second line. Those numbers should have given you a clue of how lackluster the Avalanche offense has been as they have lit the lamp just 49 times so far this season. They were tied with Buffalo in that department before last night’s game which makes taking anyone from Colorado in cash games tonight a daunting task. Tournament play is a different story however but you have to be careful about it. I’d stick with MacKinnon and Mikko Rantanen from the top line as Rantanen has four of his ten points over the last five games while MacKinnon leads the team with 84 shots on goal. Matt Duchene is your one-off here from the second line as he has racked up seven goals and seven assists in the 19 games he has played in so far. With the injury to Johnson we should see an uptick in ownership where Tyson Barrie is concerned. He is their best offensive defenseman but has seemed a bit sluggish so far this year. A lot of that may have to do with the fact that he has been bumped from the top power play unit a few times in favor of the injured Johnson. Like I said, there’s not much to see here where cash games are concerned so it’s off to tournament play if you like the Avalanche tonight.

COLORADO UPDATE

Now it seems that Colorado is switching their line up as well. MacKinnon and Bourque now skate with Blake Comeau while Duchene hooks up with Rantanen and John Mitchell. I would take Duchene and Rantanen here on home ice tonight while the third line of Grigorenko, Soderberg and Iginla is probably unplayable.

The Predators have dropped their first two games on this abbreviated three game home stand and look to at least salvage another two points tonight. James Neal remains injured so the line of Craig Smith, Viktor Arvidsson and Ryan Johansen may be the one you want to target tonight. Johansen and ex-line mate Filip Forsberg each have 16 points each while Johansen has the hotter hand by lighting the lamp three times and assisting on two other goals over the last five games. I wouldn’t worry too much about the power play as the Predators use both units equally while splitting the lines up in the process. Peter Laviolette goes to the blender once again as Forsberg will now skate with Kevin Fiala and Mike Ribeiro while Mike Fisher gets to center Colin Wilson and Craig Smith. Any time a coach starts shaking up the lines I usually tend to stick with the more skilled players for my cash game play. Roman Josi has been productive of late from the blue line as he has tallied a goal and four assists over the last five games. P.K. Subban isn’t in a bad spot either as he continues to shoot the puck while having a piece of the team scoring lead with 16 points of his own. Look for the Predators to rebound tonight against the listless Avalanche.

UPDATE NASHVILLE

The Predators will get James Neal back tonight as he will skate with Mike Fisher and Colin Wilson makes for a great one-off play here while Forsberg skates with Fiala and Ribeoro. Johansen and Arvidsson still make for a nice cash game duo while Craig Smith joins them on the top line.

Elite Plays

COL: None
NSH: James Neal

Secondary Plays

COL: Nathan MacKinnon, Matt Duchene, Tyson Barrie
NSH: Filip Forsberg, Viktor Arvidsson, Ryan Johansen, P.K. Subban, Roman Josi

Calgary Flames at Dallas Stars

Calgary Flames					Dallas Stars
			Record					Record
			13-13-2					10-10-6
Stats	GF/GP	GA/GP	PP%	PK%	Stats	GF/GP	GA/GP	PP%	PK%
Team Stats	2.46	2.89	12.60%	77.90%	Team Stats	2.54	3.27	18.40%	78.30%

To say that the return of Johnny Gaudreau the other night was smashing sucess would be an understatement as the Flames went on to boat race the Anaheim Ducks by a score of 8-3 on Sunday night. Gaudreau notched two points in the win while skating alongside Sam Bennett and Alex Chiasson as the Flames are now trying to make three decent scoring lines. While Gaudreau makes for a great one-off play here it’s the line of Kris Versteeg, Sean Monahan and Troy Brouwer that should be looked at for cash games as Dallas will try to shut Gaudreau down leaving this line a bit more room on the ice tonight. Both Monahan and Versteeg have lit the lamp twice while registering three assists over the last five games. It also doesn’t hurt that Gaudreau and T.J. Brodie are the ones that skate with the Monahan line when the teams goes on the power play. The third line sees Matthew Tkachuk and Michael Frolik on the wings while Mikael Backlund fills up the center. While Brodie gets the power play minutes he may not be the best play from the Calgary blue line. Dougie Hamilton leads the team with 77 shots and has found the score sheet three times over the last five games which isn’t bad considering he had just ten points in the first 23 games he has played in this season.

Until the Dallas Stars get back to being 100% healthy they will have to rely on Jamie Benn and Tyler Seguin to carry the load as they have all season along with line mate Patrick Eaves. Seguin and Benn have 26 and 21 points respectively while Eaves has been flipped on and off the stars top line but has been able to grab ten goals and eight assists in 25 games. No other Dallas player has more than 13 points this season. Patrick Sharp and Ales Hemsky both tried to come back from injury with no success while Jiri Hudler remains sidelined with a virus that they can’t seem to control. The second line of Antione Roussel, Radke Faksa and Jason Spezza is not even worth the price of admission unless you wanted to take Spezza as a one-off. Defenseman John Klingberg joins Spezza and the top line to form a struggling power play that has notched just one goal over the last five games. Klingberg has been in disciplinary trouble over the past few weeks which had opened the door for Julius Honka. Head coach Lindy Ruff is notorious for switching things up during the game so don’t be surprised to see Honka get some more opportunities if things start out bad tonight. His three assists and 17 shots has at least earned him that much.

Elite Plays

CGY: Johnny Gaudreau
DAL: Tyler Seguin, Jamie Benn

Secondary Plays

CGY: Sam Bennett Sean Monahan, Troy Brouwer, T.J. Brodie, Mark Giordano, Matthew Tkachuk
DAL: Patrick Eaves, John Klingberg, Jason Spezza

Arizona Coyotes at Chicago Blackhawks

Arizona Coyotes					Chicago Blackhawks
			Record					Record
			8-12-4					16-8-3
Stats	GF/GP	GA/GP	PP%	PK%	Stats	GF/GP	GA/GP	PP%	PK%
Team Stats	2.35	3.09	15.30%	80.80%	Team Stats	2.67	2.48	15.70%	70.70%

Kudos goes out to head coach Dave Tippett here as it looks like he he sat Anthony Duclair in last night’s game in favor of rookie Brendan Perlini. Tippett realizes that the Coyotes need something to give them a spark as they sit at the bottom of the Pacific division. Perlini had eleven goals and five assists in 16 games so far for the Tuscon Roadrunners and is about to take a major step on the Coyotes third line tonight. The top line has been reconfigured as Tobias Rieder gets the promotion by skating next to Martin Hanzal and Radim Vrbata. Unfortunately the shake-up did not pay early dividends as Rieder notched the only goal for Arizona last night in their 4-1 loss in Columbus. In fact, they managed a season low 18 shots on goal, so instead of getting better, they actually got a bit worse. The second line consists on Max Domi, Shane Doan and Christian Dvorak. Arizona has not scored more than three goals in any of their last 11 games so it’s no wonder Tippett is looking for some offense. Vrbata is the choice as a one-off here as he leads the team in shots with 69 while lighting the lamp two times and assisting on two other goals in the last five games. Oliver Ekman-Larsson and Micheal Stone are the choices on the back line with Stone being the one that is heating up as he has three of his six points in the last four games he has played. Stone got hot at the end of last year as he racked up 17 of his 36 points in February and March and was off to a hot start this year before getting injured. Upon his return on November 12th it took him nine games before he found the score sheet and my guess is that he is now healthy and ready to resume his progress in the NHL.

There is no reason not to stick with the top line of Patrick Kane, Artemi Panarin, Artem Anisimov especially since Jonathan Toews will sit out yet another game as his injury isn’t improving. All three of them have at least 22 points so far this season with Kane leading the way with 26 points and 83 shots on goal. The Chicago top line also gets a good amount of power play time when the Hawks draw a penalty with defenseman Duncan Keith and Brent Seabrook. We always talk about how close the defenders are in the scoring department but Keith gets the nod as he shoots a bit more as his 60 shots are good for fourth on the team. Marian Hossa is your one-off play here but pairing him with Vincent Hinostroza and Ryan Hartman may prove to be fatal. Six of Hossa’s 18 points have come while playing with the man advantage but for his line mates, the numbers just don’t pan out. Hartman has six points in 22 games while Hinostroza has recorded three points in 18 games. I wouldn’t be surprised if you see Chicago’s top five in a lot of cash game line ups tonight.

Elite Plays

Arz: None
CHI: Patrick Kane, Artemi Panarin

Secondary Plays

ARZ: Tobias Rieder, Max Domi, Oliver Ekman-Larsson
CHI: Artem Anisimov, Duncan Keith, Brent Seabrook, Marian Hossa

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