NHL Grind Down: Tuesday, February 14th - Page Two
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Anaheim Ducks at Minnesota Wild
| Anaheim Ducks | Minnesota Wild | ||||||||
 | John Gibson |  | Devan Dubnyk | ||||||
| Record | Record | ||||||||
| 29-18-10 | 37-12-6 | ||||||||
| Stats | GF/GP | GA/GP | PP% | PK% | Stats | GF/GP | GA/GP | PP% | PK% |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Team Stats | 2.61 | 2.54 | 20.60% | 83.80% | Team Stats | 3.35 | 2.31 | 22.00% | 82.40% |
After dropping a 6-4 decision in Washington on Saturday the Ducks travel to Minnesota to take on yet another tough defensive team. Anaheim is a comfortable nine points up on the ninth team in the conference and should be able to sustain a pot in the playoffs. Ryan Getzlaf was centering Antoine Vermette and Jakob Silfverberg while Rickard Rakell centers Corey Perry and Nick Ritchie. This is the Ducks way of shuffling things up while the team leader in points gets bumped to the third line. Ryan Kesler makes for a decent one-off play as he will get to see the top minutes when the Ducks go on the power play. As far as the rest of this mess goes they did score four goals on Washington so maybe it will work out. For now though I’d stick with Perry and Getzlaf as one-offs as well although you could put Rakell with Perry or Silfverberg with Getzlaf for GPP play. Silfverberg has recorded seven of his 36 points over the last six games. Cam Fowler is the play on the back line as his 30 points is good enough for sixth on the team. He gets the lion’s share of the power play time as well which should be the deciding factor for you to put him on your roster tonight.
Minnesota continues to roll on in the Western Conference as their 80 points has them above the next team by a healthy five points. Bruce Boudreau has put together three scoring lines and that was only possible with the emergence of Mikael Granlund and Jason Zucker. If this was last year one would think that the line of Zach Parise, Jason Pominville and Charlie Coyle would be the first line and on any given night they can score like it. They are actually the third line as Eric Staal centers Nino Niederreiter and Alex Tuch while Mikko Koivu has Granlund and Zucker as his wingers. Niederreiter leads the team in goals while Granlund has the points lead with 16 goals and 24 assists. Meanwhile Pominville has found the score sheet 10 times in the last seven games. As with any team that gets their scoring going you can almost roster anyone, just make sure that if you are paring them up in tournament play to keep them together. Defenseman Ryan Suter is the clear cut play on the back line but now we have another alternative as Jared Spurgeon has joined him on the top power play unit. Suter has grabbed 30 points so far this season while Spurgeon will have a chance to improve on the 26 points he has racked up so far this season.
Elite Plays
ANA: Ryan Getzlaf
MIN: Mikael Granlund
Secondary Plays
ANA: Ryan Kesler, Corey Perry, Jakob Silfverberg, Rickard Rakell
MIN: Nino Niederreiter, Eric Staal, Jason Zucker, Jason Pominville, Ryan Suter
Arizona Coyotes at Edmonton Oilers
| Arizona Coyotes | Edmonton Oilers | ||||||||
 | Louis Domingue |  | Cam Talbot | ||||||
| Record | Record | ||||||||
| 19-28-7 | 29-19-8 | ||||||||
| Stats | GF/GP | GA/GP | PP% | PK% | Stats | GF/GP | GA/GP | PP% | PK% |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Team Stats | 2.25 | 3.17 | 16.00% | 77.90% | Team Stats | 2.73 | 2.54 | 19.80% | 81.10% |
Arizona is one of the worst teams in the league but it looks like they are starting to not only get healthy, but wisen up as well. Max Domi has been placed on the top line with Martin Hanzal and Radim Vrbata which probably gives the team their best chance of scoring a goal. The 19 goals over the last five games have been the most Arizona has scored over any other five game stretch so far this season. Vrbata leads the team with 26 assists and 37 points while Hanzal has 13 goals which is tops on the team. If you look at the last six games you will find that seven players have registered four points of more which would indicate that this team is all over the place. Christian Dvorak leads the way with seven while his linemate Shane Doan also has four points over that same time frame. Oliver Ekman-Larsson is the choice on the back line as he has registered 16 of his 31 on the power play. Arizona has scored some goals on some good teams lately and very well may be able to keep up the pace here in Edmonton. The only fear is that did play last night and could come in a bit tired for the game tonight.
Edmonton seems to be in good shape as far as the playoffs are concerned as their 66 points has them in third place in the Pacific Division. They are also seven points up on the ninth place Calgary Flames in the conference and it’s unlikely that they can catch them at this point, especially after losing 5-0 to Arizona at home last night. Edmonton has switched it up a bit as Connor McDavid will retain Patrick Maroon on his left side but they have moved Leon Draisaitl down to center the second line with Milan Lucic and Anton Slepyshev. Jordan Eberle hits the jackpot here as he had the golden ticket and moves up to the top line at even strength. McDavid leads the league with 61 points which makes me believe that this line will be highly owned in cash game play tonight. Ryan Nugent-Hopkins has been exiled to the third line to center Drake Caggiula and Zack Kassian. The reason for the major shake-up is that the team has scored just five goals in their last five games and that is not enough if they want to stay in the playoff race. Oscar Klefbom looks to get his umpteenth chance quarterbacking the top power play unit which features McDavid, Lucic, Draisaitl and Mark Letestu. This makes Letestu a one-off punt play here as getting exposure to McDavid in any capacity is always a good thing. Hopefully the shuffling of lines will help the Oilers scoring woes because if it doesn’t, it’s back to the drawing board.
Elite Plays
ARZ: None
EDM: Connor McDavid
Secondary Plays
ARZ: Radim Vrbata, Oliver Ekman-Larsson, Martin Hanzal, Max Domi
EDM: Jordan Eberle, Leon Draisaitl, Jordan Eberle, Oscar Klefbom