Wild nights are calling! Last night was no exception in Phiadelphia as the Philadelphia Flyers and Vancouver Canucks combined for nine goals and a lot of owners of the goalies shaking their heads violently. Roberto Luongo’s cold October continued as he gave up five goals and at least two of them were of the awful variety. Though, Ilya Bryzgalov got the win for Philadelphia, he did not look much better. He did make some saves but gave up four goals and really it could have been more. By all rights, the Sedin Twins made enough difference to win this game but the defense and particularly Luongo lost it.
In other action, the Boston Bruins again lost, this time to the Carolina Hurricanes 3-2 in Carolina dropping them to 1-3. Tim Thomas was actually a little bit shaky in the loss, giving up three goals and at times just looked far from last year’s form. He still ended up with 31 saves but people forget that before Tuukka Rask took the job from Thomas two years ago, he had a .915 save percentage at the time. Cam Ward made 26 saves for the Hurricanes who hit the W column for the first time. Jiri Tlusty netted the game winner in that one.
Then there was the Columbus Blue Jackets and Colorado Avalanche. Columbus played again at a nearly half empty Nationwide Arena. Yet Colombus was leading 2-1 late in the third when disaster struck. Gabriel Landeskog scored his first NHL goal to tie and then Matt Duchene scored the clincher in the shootout. Columbus is looking good but finding ways to lose again much like they did in the second half of last season. That has to be corrected first and foremost.
On that note, it is time to quickly look back at the best from last night in the NHL fantasy style.
A LOOK BACK:
1. Semyon Varlamov, G, Colorado Avalanche — Like we said, this guy is really good when healthy. Right now he is healthy and helped keep Colorado in it long enough by stopping 31 of 33 shots in a 3-2 SO win over Columbus. His ability to stay square with great lateral movement keeps him in the play a lot more than most NHL goaltenders. Colorado absolutely needs him to stay healthy to have any shot at a playoff berth.
2. Rick Nash, F, Columbus Blue Jackets — Columbus probably should have a win by now but that is not Nash’s fault who chalked up two more points last night and along with Vinny Prospal is forming a nice first line with Jeff Carter. One has to like the things that are going on and if they ever get clutch goaltending late or something close, the W’s will start coming. Nash already has 5 points on the season and I think a lot more are on the way.
3. Claude Giroux, F, Philadelphia Flyers — Giroux may just really get 90 points and all by himself it seems. Giroux had a three point night to give him 5 on the season. All the points were scored in the first period however as he seemed to at times vanish from the game in the final twenty. However, that does not domish what he did in the first twenty. This is an uber-talented forward who clearly is one of the top players in the NHL. That is why the expectations were so high and so far he is meeting them every step of the way.
SCHEDULE TIME:
Thursday, October 13, 2011 |
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| Teams | Notes | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Los Angeles | at | New Jersey | 7:00 PM | Gameday | ||
| Tampa Bay | at | NY Islanders | 7:00 PM | Gameday | ||
| Washington | at | Pittsburgh | 7:00 PM | Gameday | ||
| Calgary | at | Montreal | 7:30 PM | Gameday | ||
| Colorado | at | Ottawa | 7:30 PM | Gameday | ||
| Vancouver | at | Detroit | 8:00 PM | Gameday | ||
| Phoenix | at | Nashville | 8:00 PM | Gameday | ||
| Edmonton | at | Minnesota | 8:00 PM | Gameday | ||
| Winnipeg | at | Chicago | 8:30 PM | Gameday | ||
| St. Louis | at | Dallas | 8:30 PM | Gameday | ||
TEN GAMES! Talked about a packed Thursday in the NHL. In the meantime, we wanted to thank our friends from TSN Research for their awesome number crunching as seen HERE.
BY THE NUMBERS:
LAK’s have gone 0/14 on the PP over their past 5 road games
LAK were 8-3-0 last Oct going 43/48 on the PK (89.6%)
Kopitar (3G) has scored in both games this season, he scored in 3 straight games, twice last season
Ovechkin has 0G, he has never gone 2 games to start a season before with 0G, he had 1G vs PIT last season
Kiprusoff(262) is tied with Vernon for the all-time club lead in wins
Glencross (2) has scored in both games
COL has gone 2/26 on the PP over their past 10 games, dating back to last season
COL has gone 0/10 on the PP and 10/10 on the PK
Duchene has 0G over his past 10 games, with 21 shots (none in last game vs CBJ)
Back to last season, Schenider has gone 11-2-1 over his past 14 road starts with a .940sv%
Daniel (2G, 3A) and Henrik (1G, 4A) both have PTS in all 3 games
Antropov has 4G, 4A over his past 9 games
Pavelec has gone 5-13-4 over his past 24 starts with a .891sv%, he has never beat CHI (0-0-2)
STL has allowed only 33 shots (16.5avg) through 2 games
STL has allowed 6G, PK has gone (4/7) through 2 games T-29th
Arnott (2G, 1A) has a PT in both games this season
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THREE TO WATCH:
1. Martin Brodeur, G, New Jersey Devils — The Kings game last year marked the beginning of the end for New Jersey, though they made a meteoric comeback and got close. The loss of Zach Parise and the later chirps that came from that game serve as a welcome motivation for New Jersey to get a little revenge (Kovalchuk style). Simply Brodeur has to play 60 minutes and not fold up the tent in the third like he did against Phialdelphia.
2. Dustin Byfuglien, D, Winnipeg Jets — Simply Byfuglien comes to Chicago tonight and the place should be electric to see this. More importantly, Byfuglien will be at the scene of the crime which means he might get his season started finally. The Jets will actually be a bit of a test for the Blackhawks and Byfuglien may be in front of Corey Crawford. This should be fun.
3. Jimmy Howard, G, Detroit Red Wings — Simply he must play better or Ty Conklin may steal his job away. He has to come up big against a Vancouver team that just played last night. It really is that simple and it comes down to that. All eyes will be on Howard as well as the fans of Detroit and fantasy hockey fans alike.
Good luck fantasy hockey fans and see you tomorrow for the TGIF edition…..
