Every game is important for the Flames if they want to make a playoff push, and they made that fact known in yesterday’s Game of the Day, beating Vancouver 5-2 in the Saddledome.

Calgary didn’t wait long, 1:41 to be exact, before scoring their first goal, as Joe Colborne’s snap shot found the back of the net, assisted by Mikael Backlund (his 19th helper of the season) and TJ Brodie.  Vancouver leveled the score at the 10:41 mark with a wrister from Adam Cracknell, assisted by Jannik Hansen and Daniel Sedin (his 27th helper of the season), and followed that 5:06 later with a wrister from Jake Virtanen (his fourth of the season) to take a 2-1 lead that held into the intermission.

A three-goal second is what sealed the game for the Flames.  Their first of the period came only 2:07 after resuming play, courtesy of a Backlund wrister, assisted by Colborne and Michael Frolik.  The game-winner found the back of the net 3:27 later, courtesy of Frolik, who was assisted by Brodie (his 31st helper of the season) and Matt Stajan.  Calgary set the score at 4-2 with only 25 seconds remaining in the second period, compliments of a Mark Giordano slap shot, assisted by Brodie and Johnny Gaudreau (his 34th helper of the season).

Calgary scored the lone goal of the third relatively early, as Josh Jooris’ deflection (his fourth goal of the season) found the back of the net at the 3:01 mark, assisted by Lance Bouma and Jakub Nakladal.

Jonas Hiller earns the win after saving 26 of 28 (92.9%), while Jacob Markstrom takes the loss after saving 28 of 33 (84.8%).

After that, the DtFR Game of the Day series stands at 57-29-12, favoring the home squad by 34 points over the roadies.

It’s a busy day in the NHL, just like we like it!  There’s nine games on the schedule, and the first one, Tampa Bay at Pittsburgh, starts at 12:30 p.m. eastern.  Four games drop the puck at the usual starting time of 7 p.m. eastern (Philadelphia at Toronto, Detroit at Ottawa, Winnipeg at Florida and New Jersey at Washington), followed an hour later by two more (Los Angeles at Nashville and Boston at Dallas [NHLN]).  The St. Louis at Arizona game gets started at 9 p.m. eastern, followed an hour later by this evening’s nightcap, Coloradoat Edmonton.

Only two of tonight’s games are between division rivals (Detroit at Ottawa and New Jersey at Washington) and three are between teams currently qualifying for the playoffs (Tampa Bay at Pittsburgh, Los Angeles at Nashville and Boston at Dallas).

Since the Lightning and Penguins are currently tied at 66 points for the two wildcard positions, it is impossible to not keep an eye on this game!

This will be Tampa Bay‘s 11th time being featured in our Game of the Day series, where they currently own a 6-3-1 record.  Their most recent game under our observation was a February 12 4-3 overtime victory over the Predators.  Pittsburgh has been featured nine times before today, and own a 3-5-1 record in such games, with their most recent being a 3-0 shutout loss on home ice to the Rangers on February 10.

The 31-22-4 Tampa Bay Lightning currently sit in fourth in the Atlantic Division and eighth in the Eastern Conference, good enough to qualify them for the second wildcard position (they’re tied with Pittsburgh for the other wildcard, but the Pens have played one less game).  To get to that position, they’ve played the eighth-best offense in the league, paired with the 13th-best scoring offense.

Thanks in part to Victor Hedman’s team-leading 97 blocks, the Boltshave allowed only 1606 shots to reach 22-17-3 Ben Bishop and co., of which they’ve collectively saved 91.8% for 144 goals against, eighth-fewest in the league.  That success has continued with the penalty kill, which holds 82.08% of extra-man opportunities scoreless for only 31 power play goals against, making Tampa Bay the 11th-best penalty kill.

The offense in Tampa is above average.  Even with Steven Stamkos’ 162 shots, they’ve only fired the puck 1665 times, but 9.1% have found the back of the net for 155 goals (led by Nikita Kucherov’s 24 tallies), 13th-most in the league.   Unlike the penalty kill, this special team does not follow suit with the full unit.  The Bolts have only been successful on 17.95% of attempts for 35 power play goals (led by Stamkos’ 11), 10th-worst in the league.

Tampa Bay last played Thursday night, when they needed a shootout to beat the Jets 6-5.  In addition to breaking their tie with the Pens, a win today also has the potential to move the Bolts all the way into second in the division should both Boston and Detroit lose this evening.  Should Tampa lose, they do run the chance of falling out of the playoffs should New Jersey beat Washington.

The 29-19-8 Pittsburgh Penguins currently occupy fourth in the Metropolitan Division and seventh in the Eastern Conference, leading the Bolts by a games played tiebreaker for the top wildcard position.  They play a top-10 defense, but the offense ranks near the bottom 10, so the Penguins have had struggles this year.

Even with Ben Lovejoy’s 84 blocks, the Pens have allowed 1729 shots to reach 23-13-6 Marc-Andre Fleury and co., of which they’ve collectively saved 92.3% for only 144 goals against, eighth-best in the league.  The defense has especially stepped up their efforts on the penalty kill, where they are killing 84.27% of opposing power plays for only 28 extra man goals against, fourth-best in the league.

On the other hand, the offense has been anything but exemplary.  The Pens may have fired 1827 shots, but only 8% have found the back of the net for 148 tallies (led by Sidney Crosby’s 25 goals), 11th fewest in the NHL.  Those numbers improve with the man advantage though, as Pittsburgh has scored on 19.34% of their opportunities for 35 power play goals (led by Evgeni Malkin’s 10 extra man tallies).

Pittsburgh‘s most recent game was a 6-3 victory over the Red Wingson Thursday.  Just like Tampa, a win this afternoon officially breaks their tie with this afternoon’s opposition for the wild card, but Pittsburgh is unable to improve past their current position.  A loss by the Pens would, just like the Bolts, open them up for being replaced in the playoffs by the Devils should they win tonight.

So far this season, Tampa Bay leads the season series 2-0-0.  These teams last met February 5 in Tampa, where the Bolts won 6-3.  The better of the two games for Pittsburgh was the first meeting on January 15, where the Pens took the Lightning to overtime before falling 5-4.

Some players to keep an eye on in this matinee are Pittsburgh‘s Crosby (55 points [eighth-most in the league] and 25 goals [tied for eighth-most in the league]), Fleury (four shutouts [tied for fourth-most in the league] and 23 wins [ninth-most in the league]), Chris Kunitz (+22 [fifth-best in the league]) and Olli Maatta (+21 [tied for sixth-best in the league]) & Tampa Bay‘s Bishop (2.14 GAA [fifth-best in the league]) and Kucherov (24 goals [10th-most in the league]).

This is a tough game to predict.  Tampa‘s offense, overall, has played better than Pittsburgh‘s, but the Penguins have been surging of late, and will be encouraged by a home crowd.  I predict a tight game, but a Penguins winner.

Washington‘s 3-2 victory over the Islanders was the second this week in the Game of the Day series that required overtime to determine the recipient of the two points.

It was actually New York who scored the first and only goal of the first period, courtesy of John Tavares’ wrister at the 15:41 mark, assisted by Nick Leddy (his 23rd helper of the season).

Washington leveled the score only 1:25 after returning from the intermission with a goal from Alex Ovechkin.  His wrister was assisted by Evggeny Kuzetsov (his 42nd helper of the season) and Justin Williams.  They took the lead only 1:37 later with another goal from Ovechkin, this time a snap shot on the power play.  This goal was assisted by Nicklas Backstrom (his 37th helper of the season) and T. J. Oshie.  The Capitals held the 2-1 lead into the second intermission.

New York leveled the game with only 1:44 remaining of the game.  Frans Nielsen takes credit, assisted by Kyle Okposo (his 30th helper of the season) and Travis Hamonic.

Washington had no interest in going to a shootout, so Williams made sure his slap shot with only 46 seconds remaining in overtime was pure, as he was assisted by John Carlson (his 25th helper of the season) and Matt Niskanen.

Braden Holtby earns the win after saving 20 of 22 (90.9%), while Thomas Greiss takes the loss after saving 32 of 35 (91.4%).

The Game of the Day series now stands at 56-29-12, favoring the home squads by 32 points over the roadies.

It’s not a very busy schedule this evening, as there’s only five games on the docket.  As usual, the action gets started at 7 p.m. eastern with three games (the New York Islanders at New Jersey, San Joseat Carolina and Buffalo at Columbus), while Philadelphia at Montréal (NHLN) dropping the puck half an hour later.  The final game of the night drops the puck at 9 p.m. eastern, when Vancouver visits Calgary.

There are only two divisional rivalries being played this evening (New York at New Jersey and Vancouver at Calgary), and none of the games are between teams currently qualifying for the playoffs.

Since Vancouver and Calgary met in the playoffs last season, let’s take a trip down memory lane and watch that game.

Tonight’s game will be Vancouver‘s fifth in the Game of the Day series, where they currently own a 2-2-0 record.  Their most recent time featured was January 15 when they beat the Hurricanes 3-2 in overtime in Raleigh.  Calgary has been featured much more recently, as we focused on their game against the Ducks on Monday, which they lost 6-4.  That game was their second in the series, and they have yet to earn even a point when featured.

The 22-23-12 Vancouver Canucks currently sit in fifth place in the Pacific Division and 11th in the Western Conference, eight points out of a playoff position.  They play the 12th worst defense in the league, which is made even worse by being backed by the second-worst offense.

Even with Chris Tanev’s team-leading 124 blocks, Vancouver has still allowed 1759 shots to reach 12-17-9 Ryan Miller and co., of which they’ve saved 91.8% for 157 goals against, 12th-most in the league.  Although the defense has not played as well, the penalty kill has been slightly above average, killing 81.11% for 34 power play goals against, 14th-best in the league.

That being said, the Canucks‘ offense makes their defense look best in the league.  Even with Daniel Sedin’s 190 shots, Vancouver has only fired the puck 1607 times, with 8% finding the back of the net for 133 goals (led by Sedin’s 22 tallies), second-worst in the NHL.  Much of Vancouver‘s issues can be found by the lack of success on the power play, which ranks fifth-worst in the league by connecting on only 16.96% of extra-man opportunities for 29 power play goals (led by Sedin’s six).  To add insult to injury, Vancouver has allowed five short-handed goals, one more than the league average.

Vancouver is currently riding a three-game losing skid, with their most recent being a 5-2 loss to the Ducks last night in Rogers Arena.  A win this evening would pull the Canucks within two points of the Coyotes for fourth in the division and only six points out of a playoff position.

The 25-28-3 Calgary Flames currently sit in sixth in the Pacific Division and 13th in the Western Conference.  They play the 13th best offense in the league, paired with the fourth-worst defense.  A more in-depth analysis of Calgary‘s game can be found within Monday’s post.

Calgary is also riding a three-game win streak, with their most recent being a 5-3 loss to the Wild on Wednesday.  Should the Flamesend their losing skid, they would move past Winnipeg into 13th position in the conference.

Calgary currently leads the season series against the Canucks 2-1-0, with their most recent meeting on February 6 in Vancouver, where the Flames won 4-1.

These teams also met in last season’s Western Conference Quarterfinal playoffs, where the Flames won the series 4-2 with a deciding 7-4 victory.

Some players to keep an eye on in tonight’s game include Calgary‘s Johnny Gaudreau (55 points [tied for seventh-most in the league]) and Vancouver‘s Sedin (46 points, with 22 goals, 16 of which were at even-strength and six were on the power play, with another six being game-winners, all on 190 shots [all lead the team]).

Neither team’s defense has played well at all this season, but Calgaryseems to be the only team of these two prone to take advantage of that fact.  Expect the Flames to get two points.

Yesterday’s Game of the Day between the St. Louis Blues and the Colorado Avalanche needed a shootout to determine the home team as the winner.

The Blues scored the first goal of the night with only 2:03 remaining in the second period, as Troy Brouwer assisted Alexander Steen to his 15th goal of the season, this one a wrister to give St. Louis a 1-0 lead heading into the second intermission.

The Avalanche waited until only 54 seconds remained in regulation to level the score at one-all.  Third Star of the Game Nathan MacKinnon fired a wrister of his own after assists from Matt Duchene and Tyson Barrie (his 23rd helper of the season).  The one-all score not only held to the completion of regulation, but also throughout the three-on-three overtime period, forcing the game to the shootout.

Only one goal was scored in the shootout, courtesy of Gabriel Landeskog, to secure the bonus point for Colorado.

First Star Semyon Varlamov saved 34 of 35 (97.1%) to improve his record to 18-12-3, while Second Star Brian Elliott’s falls to 10-5-5 after saving 41 of 42 (97.6%).

The DtFR Game of the Day series now stands at 46-20-9, favoring the home squad by 36 points over the roadies.

It’s a busy, exciting Saturday schedule, with 22 teams in action!  The festivities get started at 12:30 p.m. eastern when Vancouver visits Pittsburgh (SN), with the other matinee starting at 4 p.m. eastern when Minnesota visits San Jose.  Five games get started at the usual 7 p.m. eastern starting time (Columbus at Boston, Montréal at Toronto [CBC/NHLN/TVAS], Anaheim at Detroit, Tampa Bay at Florida and New Jersey at Winnipeg [SN]), followed by Philadelphia at the New York Islanders half an hour later nothing, since Philly–NYIwas postponed due to weather.  8 p.m. eastern brings with it the beginning of Colorado at Dallas, followed an hour later by Los Angelesat Arizona.  Finally, this evening’s nightcap, Nashville at Edmonton(CBC/SN), gets started at 10 p.m. eastern.

Almost half of tonight’s games are between divisional rivals (Montréal at Toronto, Tampa Bay at Florida, Philadelphia at New York,Colorado at Dallas and Los Angeles at Arizona), and three are between teams currently qualifying for the playoffs (Minnesota at San Jose, Tampa Bay at Florida and Colorado at Dallas).

For the first season in a long time (arguably the 1995-’96 season), the Governor’s Cup has been an important rivalry in the Atlantic Division.  We’ve already missed three of the games this season, so we’d better catch this one!

Tonight’s game is Tampa Bay‘s seventh appearance in the Game of the Day series, where they own a 3-2-1 record.  Their most recent showing in the series was Thursday, when they beat the Blackhawks2-1.  Florida has been featured four times before tonight’s game, and own a 3-1-0 record in such games.  Their most recent appearance was January 3, when they defeated the Wild.

The 26-17-4 Tampa Bay Lightning currently occupy second place in the Atlantic Division and third in the Eastern Conference.  To get them to that position, they’ve played a top-10 defense, paired with an offense that falls just short of that ranking (as measured by goals against/scored).  A more in-depth explanation of their game can be found on Thursday’s post.

The Bolts are currently riding a seven-game win streak, with their most recent being Thursday’s victory over the Hawks.  A win tonight by the Lightning pulls them within a point of the division-leading Panthers.

The 27-15-5 Florida Panthers currently sit in first place in the Atlantic and second in the Eastern Conference.  Although they have only an average offense, they’ve been able to climb to the top of the table with one of the best defenses in the league (as measured by goals against).

Thanks in part to Willie Mitchell’s team-leading 70 blocks, the Panthers have allowed only 1351 shots to reach 20-13-4 Roberto Luongo and co., of which they’ve collectively saved a solid 92.7% for only 105 goals against, third-least in the league.  One reason for that success has been how Florida has reacted to the power play, killing 82.76% for only 25 power play goals against.

The offense continues their interesting play, as they focus more on the quality of shot versus quantity.  Led by Jonathan Huberdeau’s 110 attempts, Florida has fired 1264 shots, of which 9.2% have found the back of the net for 116 goals (led by Jaromir Jagr’s 15 tallies).  The biggest hole in Florida‘s offense has been their power play.  Successful on only 15.48% of attempts, they have 24 extra-man goals, led by Aleksander Barkov’s four tallies.

The Panthers‘ last game was last night, a 4-0 win against the Blackhawks, ending their four-game losing skid.  If Florida pulls out the win, they will extend their division lead over Tampa Bay to five points.

As hinted at before, these squads have already played three of the five games in this season’s series, with the Panthers leading the series 2-1-0.  Although Florida has the lead, it is actually the Bolts who have the most recent success, winning 3-1 only six days ago in Tampa.

Some players to watch in tonight’s game includes Florida‘s Aaron Ekblad (+17 [tied for eighth-best in the league]) and Luongo (19 wins [tied for seventh-best in the league], three shutouts [tied for eighth-best in the league] and .927 save percentage [tied for ninth-best in the league]) & Tampa Bay‘s Ben Bishop (1.94 GAA [second-best in the league], 19 wins [tied for seventh-best in the league] and .928 save percentage [tied for seventh-best in the league]).

Now that Ekblad is back and the Panthers have the monkey off their back of the losing streak, I think they will begin to return to form.  I pick Florida to make a statement win for their division this evening.

It was another tight game between last season’s Conference Champions, but it was Tampa Bay who won 2-1 in yesterday’s Game of the Day.

Chicago scored the first goal of the game before even a full minute had expired.  Artem Anisimov gave the Blackhawks their first and only goal of the game after only 43 seconds, assisted by Patrick Kane (his 42nd helper of the season).  6:31 later, Tampa Bay leveled the score with a goal from Anton Stralman, assisted by First Star of the Game Victor Hedman and Valtteri Filppula (his 17th helper of the season).  The one-all score held into the intermission.

The Bolts scored the final goal with 23:21 remaining in the game when Nikita Kucherov scored a power play tally, assisted by Hedman (his 24th helper of the season) and Alex Killorn.

Ben Bishop improves his record to 19-13-3 after saving 17 of 18 (94.4%), while Third Star Corey Crawford’s fell to 27-11-2 after saving 31 of 33 (93.9%).

The DtFR Game of the Day series now stands at 45-20-9, favoring the home squads by 35 points over the roadies.

It’s a busy enough Friday schedule, as 12 teams are in action this evening.  The pucks drop at 7 p.m. eastern for three games (Detroitat Buffalo [BELL TV], Anaheim at Washington [NHLN] and the New York Rangers at Carolina), followed half an hour later by two more (the New York Islanders at Ottawa [RDS] and Chicago at Florida).  This evening’s nightcap gets an earlier start than usual, as St. Louisat Colorado begins at 9 p.m. eastern.

Three of tonight’s games are between division rivals (Detroit at Buffalo, New York at Carolina and St. Louis at Colorado), and two are between teams currently qualifying for the playoffs (Chicago at Florida and St. Louis at Colorado).  Since one of those games is in both sets, we’ll focus on the game happening in Denver.

Tonight’s game marks St. Louis‘ ninth appearance in the Game of the Day series, where they own a 5-3-0 record.  Their most recent showing in the series was a 5-2 victory over the Penguins on Monday.  Colorado has been featured three times before tonight’s game, and own a 2-1-0 record in such games.  Their most recent game in the series was a 2-1 victory over the Sabres on Wednesday.

The 28-15-7 St. Louis Blues currently occupy third place in both the Central Division and the Western Conference.  They play a top-10 offense (as measured by goals scored), which they’ve needed to cover for a below-average defense (again, measured by goals allowed).  You can read a more detailed explanation of their game on Monday’s post.

The Blues are currently riding a three-game win streak, with their most recent being a 2-1 victory in Detroit on Wednesday.  A Noteswin this evening does not improve their seeding in the division, but it does pull them into a tie with Dallas on points, which the Stars  win the tiebreaker based on games played.

The 24-21-3 Colorado Avalanche currently sit in fifth place in the Central Division and sixth in the Western Conference, good enough for the second wild card spot.  Similar to the Blues, the Avalanche play an incredible offense backed by a poorer defense, but Colorado is more extreme, playing a better offense than St. Louis, but allowing far more goals.  A more in-depth explanation of their game can be found in Wednesday’s post.

Colorado is currently riding a two-game win streak, with their most recent being the 2-1 victory over Buffalo two days ago.  An Avalanche victory this evening does not do as much to improve their situation as much as it solidifies their qualifying for the playoffs.  Since Nashville does not play this evening, Colorado could expand their lead in the “last-team-out” race to three points, although the Predators will have two games in hand.

These squads have already met twice this season, with Coloradoowning the series 2-0-0.  Their most recent meeting was by far the more competitive, as the Avs needed an overtime goal from Gabriel Landeskog on January 6 on home ice.

Some players to watch in tonight’s game include Colorado‘s Matt Duchene (22 goals [tied for sixth-most in the league]) & St. Louis‘ Jake Allen (five shutouts [second-most in the league] and 18 wins [tenth-most in the league] and Vladimir Tarasenko (25 goals [tied for fourth-most in the league] and 46 points [tied for sixth-most in the league]).

As a Blues fan, I am worried for tonight’s game.  Colorado has been playing well of late and has the home-ice advantage.  I expect this to be a tight game, but one the Avs win.

In yesterday’s Game of the Day, the Colorado Avalanche spoiled Jamie McGinn and Ryan O’Reilly’s return to the Pepsi Center, beating the Sabres 2-1.

It was actually the Sabres who scored the opening goal of the game, but it did not occur until 36:38 had ticked off the clock.  It was a power play goal, courtesy of an Evander Kane wrister, who was assisted by Jack Eichel and O’Reilly (his 23rd helper of the season).  Buffalo‘s one-goal lead held into the second intermission.

The Avalanche leveled the game at the 9:23 mark of the third, courtesy of an Second Star of the Game Alex Tanguay backhander, assisted by Carl Soderberg (his 24th helper of the season) and First Star Francois Beauchemin.  Tanguay returned the favor with only 32 seconds remaining in the game with his 15th assist of the season, this one to Beauchemin, who banged home the game-winner.

Third Star Semyon Varlamov improves his record to 17-12-3 after saving 27 of 28 (96.4%), while Robin Lehner’s record falls to 0-2-0 after saving 33 of 35 (94.3%).

The DtFR Game of the Day series now stands at 44-20-9, favoring the home squad by 33 points over the roadies.

A light Wednesday gives way to a busy Thursday, with 10 games taking place.  The action gets started at 7 p.m. eastern with four games dropping the opening puck (Vancouver at Boston [SN360], Ottawaat New Jersey [RDS], Philadelphia at Pittsburgh and Calgary at Columbus), followed half an hour later by two more (Carolina at Toronto and Chicago at Tampa Bay [TVAS]).  Nashville at Winnipeggets started at 8 p.m. eastern, followed half an hour later by Edmonton at Dallas.  9 p.m. eastern brings with it the beginning of San Joseat Arizona, and this evening’s nightcap, Minnesota at Los Angeles(SN), gets started at 10:30 p.m. eastern.

Three of tonight’s games are between division rivals (Philadelphia at Pittsburgh, Nashville at Winnipeg and San Jose at Arizona), while three/four are between teams currently qualifying for the playoffs (Chicago at Tampa Bay, San Jose at Arizona and Minnesota at Los Angeles).

Tonight’s selection poses a tough choice for our Game of the Day, as you know I try to favor players returning to their old stomping grounds and last year’s playoff matchups.  Matt Bartkowski is making his first appearance in the TD Garden wearing a white sweater after spending the last five seasons with the Bruins, and Jarret Stoll’s return is even bigger as measured by seasons spent with a team, as he played seven seasons with Los Angeles before joining the Wild earlier this month.  Lastly, Chicago at Tampa Bay is a rematch of last season’s Stanley Cup Finals.

No team has been featured more in the DtFR Game of the Day series than the Chicago Blackhawks, as tonight is their 14th appearance.  They own a 8-4-1 record in such games, with their most recent being a 3-2 victory over the Predators in the United Center on January 12.  The Tampa Bay Lightning have been featured five times before this game, and own a 2-2-1 record in the series.  Their most recent showing in the series was a 5-2 loss to the Rangers the day before New Year’s Eve.

The 32-13-4 Chicago Blackhawks are the hottest team in the NHL right now, made evident by their position at the top of the Western Conference standings.  The play one of the top offenses in the league, with their defense only steps behind.

Led by Patrick Kane’s 177 shots, the Hawks have fired a whopping 1523 shots so far this season, with 9.4% finding the back of the net for 143 goals (led by Kane’s 30 tallies), third-most in the league.  Just like the offense as a whole, the power play has been nothing short of exemplary, scoring on 23.3% of opportunities for 33 goals, led by Kane’s 14 man-advantage goals.

It’s almost a shame Chicago‘s offense has been so good this season, because it casts shadows on their defense.  Even with Trevor van Riemsdyk’s 97 blocks, Chicago has allowed 1488 shots to reach 27-10-2 Corey Crawford and co., of which they’ve collectively saved 92.7% for only 111 goals against, sixth-fewest in the league.  The biggest hole in the Blackhawks‘ defense is the penalty kill, but Boltsfans shouldn’t be too excited – it’s still above average, completing the kill 82.09% of the time for only 24 goals against.  The penalty kill also has four goals of their own, one more than the league average.

Chicago has won their last 12 games, and has yet to lose this calendar year.  Their most recent game was a 4-1 win in Nashville on Tuesday.  A win tonight gets Chicago within three points of the league-leading Washington Capitals (73 points), although the Caps still have four games in hand.

The 25-17-4 Tampa Bay Lightning obviously made some New Year’s resolutions, as their 2016 surge has paid off with not only a playoff position, but a divisional spot.  They’ve used a top-10 defense to get them back in the playoff picture, and their offense is not far behind.

Thanks in part to Victor Hedman’s 76 blocks, the Bolts have only allowed 1291 shots to reach 18-13-3 Ben Bishop and co., of which they’ve collectively saved 92.3% for only 108 goals against, sixth-fewest in the league.  Similar to Chicago, Tampa‘s most glaring defensive deficiency has been their penalty kill, but their’s is slightly below the league average, killing 80.43% for 27 goals against.

Tampa Bay has fired 1318 shots this season (led by Steven Stamkos’ 135 attempts), of which 9.3% have found the back of the net for 123 tallies (led by Stamkos’ 20 goals).  The power play has been below average, scoring on only 17.95% for 28 goals (led by Stamkos’ nine extra-man tallies).

Tampa is also streaking, as they’ve won six-straight.  Their most recent showing was a 6-4 victory over the Oilers on Tuesday.  A Boltswin tonight puts them within a point of the division-leading Panthers.

We all know how last season’s Stanley Cup Finals, but these two have met more recently then that.  It was October 24 when Tampatraveled to the Windy City, and both played an entire 60 minutes without a goal.  Jonathan Toews was responsible for the game-winner, but a scoreless regulation game screams of an exciting, defensive game.

Some players to watch in tonight’s game includes Chicago‘s Crawford (six shutouts [best in the league], 27 wins [second-most in the league] and .931 save percentage [tied for fourth-best in the league]), Kane (71 points [most in the league], 41 assists [most in the league], 30 goals [most in the league] and +24 [third-best in the league]) and Artemi Panarin (45 points [tied for eighth-most in the league] and 29 assists [tied for eighth-most in the league]) & Tampa Bay‘s Bishop (1.97 GAA [second-best in the league], .927 save percentage [tied for eighth-best in the league] and 18 wins [tied for ninth-best in the league]) and Stamkos (20 goals [tied for ninth-best in the league]).

I predict this to be another great game between these two squads, but I do believe that Chicago will get out of The Big Guava with two points.

Thanks to a two-goal third period to seal the deal, the Boston Bruinshave won their third in a row after beating the Canadiens 4-1 in Montréal in yesterday’s Game of the Day.

The only goal of the first period occurred at the 13:08 mark, courtesy of Max Talbot, his second of the season.

The Habs leveled the score at one-all 8:48 after resuming play with Third Star of the Game Mark Barberio’s first goal of the season, assisted by P.K. Subban (his 30th helper of the season) and David Desharnais, but the Bruins were able to take the lead again 3:11 before the second intermission with First Star Patrice Bergeron’s game-winner (his 18th goal of the season), assisted by David Pastrnak and Dennis Seidenberg.

Boston scored their first insurance goal of the evening at the 12:14 mark of the final period, scored by Pastrnak (his fourth tally of the season) and assisted by Zac Rinaldo and Joe Morrow.  The final goal was an empty netter from Brad Marchand, assisted by Loui Eriksson (his 23rd helper of the season), setting the score at the 4-1 final.

Second Star Tuukka Rask improves his record to 16-13-4 after saving 38 of 39 (97.4%), while Mike Condon’s falls to 12-12-4 after saving only 20 of 23 (87%).

The DtFR Game of the Day series now stands at 43-20-9, favoring the home squad by 31 points over the roadies.

A busy Tuesday schedule makes way for a light Wednesday, as their are only three games taking place today.  The action gets started at 8 p.m. eastern when St. Louis visits their old friends in Detroit (NBCSN/TVAS/SN), followed two hours later by Buffalo at Colorado(BELL TV).  This evening’s nightcap drops the puck at 10:30 p.m. eastern, when Minnesota visits Anaheim (NBCSN/SN).

There are no division rivalries being played tonight, and St. Louis at Detroit represents the only matchup between teams currently qualifying for the playoffs.

While the Blues–Red Wings game would be fun for a variety of reasons (Speaking of, I have not featured the Red Wings enough this season… We’ll consider that a note for another day), I’m attracted to another game tonight, as Buffalo visits the Mile High City with a couple of old friends.

Tonight’s game will only be Buffalo‘s second appearance in the Game of the Day series, with their only other showing being a 4-3 loss in Pittsburgh on October 29.  Colorado has been featured twice before tonight, and own a 1-1-0 record in the series.  Their most recent game with our attention was 6-3 loss in Chicago on January 10.

With the Sabres visiting Colorado this evening, Jamie McGinn and Ryan O’Reilly will be making their first appearances in the Pepsi Center since being traded during the 2015 Entry Draft.

McGinn spent a total of 162 games over four seasons with the Avs, with his best season by far being his 2013-’14 campaign in which he scored 38 points (evenly split between assists and goals) and helped Colorado to their first division title in 11 years, although they could not advance beyond the first round after a 4-3 overtime loss to Minnesota on home ice.

O’Reilly had a longer career in Colorado, playing 427 games over six seasons.  Similar to McGinn, O’Reilly’s best season was the division championship campaign, where he scored 28 goals and 36 assists for 64 points with a 13.9% season shooting percentage, his best to date, although he has the potential to best that stat with a current 15.6% this season.  That strong shooting percentage is what he’s used to lead his team in scoring, with 17 goals to his credit.

The 19-23-4 Buffalo Sabres currently sit in seventh place in the Atlantic Division and 14th in the Eastern Conference.  Their success has been found on the defensive end, although they are still below-average in that end.

Even with Josh Gorges’ team-leading 98 blocks, Buffalo has allowed 1372 shots to reach 12-12-2 Chad Johnson and co., of which they’ve collectively saved 91.8% for 120 goals against, 13th-most in the league.  The first step in improving this defense should be to beef up the penalty kill, as the special teams have only killed 79.28% of opposing power plays for 23 goals against (four below the league average).

The offense has been the main thing holding the Sabres back this season.  Led by Jack Eichel’s 143 shots, Buffalo has fired the puck 1368 times, of which only 7.7% have found the back of the net for 106 goals (led by O’Reilly’s 17 tallies), fourth-fewest in the league.  Although the offense as a whole has not found much success, the Sabres‘ power play has still been strong, scoring on 20.41% of opportunities for 30 goals (led by O’Reilly’s seven tallies).

The Sabres are currently riding two-game win streak, with their most recent being a 2-1 victory in Arizona on Monday.  A win tonight might do more harm than good at this point in the season, as it will take a miracle for Buffalo to qualify for the playoffs.

The 23-21-3 Colorado Avalanche currently occupy fifth place in the Central Division and eighth in the Western Conference, good enough to qualify them for the second wild card position.  The Avsplay one of the top-five offenses in the league, but have not been able put their opponents away due also having a bottom-ten defense.

Even with Nathan MacKinnon’s 157 shots, Colorado has fired the puck only 1337 times, of which 9.8% have found the back of the net for 131 goals (led by Matt Duchene’s 22 tallies), fifth-most in the NHL.  Colorado‘s power play is slightly better than Buffalo‘s, as they’ve scored on 20.89% of opportunities for 33 goals (led by Jarome Iginla’s seven extra-man tallies).  That stat does come with a qualifier though, as the Avs have given up five shorthanded goals this season, two more than the league average.

As good as the offense has been, it’s a shame Colorado hasn’t done much to improve the blue line.  Although Francois Beauchemin has 143 blocks to his credit, 1454 shots have made their way to 16-12-3 Semyon Varlamov and co., of which they’ve collectively saved 91.5% for 130 goals against, seventh-most in the league.  The shining spot for this defense has been their penalty kill, as not only have they killed 80.54% for 29 power play goals against, but they’ve also scored four shorthanded goals, led by Blake Comeau’s two.

The Avalanche won their most recent game 2-1 in Winnipeg on Monday.  A Colorado win has the potential to pull them within a game of Minnesota for the first wild card spot, but a regulation loss allows Vancouver to take their spot in the second wild card position.

Some players to watch include Buffalo‘s O’Reilly (39 points, including 17 goals, 10 of which were at even-strength, with the remaining seven being power play tallies [all lead the team]) and Colorado‘s Duchene (22 goals [tied for sixth-most in the league]).

Based on standings alone, you’d like to think the Avs would win this game regardless of location, but that defense does not leave me with a good taste in my mouth.  I think I’ll pick Colorado, but I believe it will be a nail-biter.

The St. Louis Blues used a three-goal third period to secure the 5-2 win over the Pittsburgh Penguins in yesterday’s Game of the Day.

It took exactly 12 minutes before Alexander Steen scored the Blues‘ first goal, assisted by First Star of the Game Paul Stastny (his 16th  helper of the season), but they were not able to keep the lead into the intermission, as Christ Kunitz scored with 117 seconds remaining off assists from Kris Letang and Sidney Crosby (the 23rd assist of the season for both).

The Pens took their only lead of the game at the 15:56 mark of the second with a tally from Evgeni Malkin, off assists from Carl Hagelin and Letang (his 24th helper of the season), but the Blues leveled the score 1:18 later with Vladimir Tarasenko’s 25th goal of the season off assists from Joel Edmundson and Robby Fabbri.  The two-all score held into the second intermission.

The Blues‘ game-winning goal occurred only 2:10 after resuming play, courtesy of Second Star Troy Brouwer after assists from Stastny and Colton Parayko (his 13th helper of the season).  Stastny continued his excellent night with the first insurance goal, assisted by Brouwer and Jay Bouwmeester (his 11th helper of the season).  The final goal of the night was an empty-netter with only 12 seconds remaining, courtesy of Kevin Shattenkirk after assists from Steen (his 27th helper of the season) and Stastny.

Third Star Brian Elliott earns the win after saving 36 of 38 (94.7%) to improve his record to 9-5-4, while Jeff Zatkoff’s record falls to 3-5-1 after saving only 20 of 24 (83.3%).

The DtFR Game of the Day series now stands at 43-19-9, favoring the home squad by 33 points.

It’s an eight-game schedule on this Tuesday, with four games dropping the opening puck at 7 p.m. eastern (Calgary at New Jersey, Vancouver at the New York Rangers, Toronto at Philadelphia [TVAS] and Washington at Columbus).  7:30 p.m. eastern brings with it the beginning of two more games (Boston at Montréal [RDS] and Edmonton at Tampa Bay), followed half an hour later by Chicago at Nashville (NBCSN/SN1).  This evening’s nightcap occurs at 10:30 p.m. eastern between Dallas and Los Angeles.

Three of tonight’s games are between divisional rivals (Washingtonat Columbus, Boston at Montréal and Chicago at Nashville), and two are between teams currently qualifying for the playoffs (Boston at Montréal and Dallas at Los Angeles).  The Chicago at Nashville game is also a rematch of one of last season’s Western Conference Quarterfinals.

Although I’m intrigued by the Dallas–Los Angeles game, the Boston–Montréal game is too important in the standings for us to ignore.  To Montréal we go!

Tonight’s game will be Boston‘s 10th appearance in the Game of the Day series, where they own a 3-5-1 record.  Their most recent showing in such games was on January 11, when they lost 2-1 in Madison Square Garden.  Montréal has been featured eight times before tonight, and own a 6-1-0 record in such games, with their most recent being on New Year’s Day against these Bruins in Foxboro, Mass., where they won 5-1.

The 23-16-5 Boston Bruins currently occupy fourth place in the Atlantic Division and seventh in the Eastern Conference, good enough to qualify them for the first wild card position.  To get themselves to that position, they utilize one of the best offenses in the league, backed by an above-average defense.

Led by Patrice Bergeron’s 153 shots, the Bruins have fired the puck 1388 times, of which a solid 9.4% have found the back of the net for 131 goals (led by Bergeron’s 17 tallies), fourth-most in the league.  A specific facet of Boston‘s offense that has proven highly successful has been the power play, where they’ve scored on a whopping 27.73% of attempts for 33 goals.

Defensively, the Bruins have allowed only 1272 shots (aided by Kevan Miller’s team-leading 71 blocks) to reach 15-13-4 Tuukka Rask and co., of which they’ve collectively saved 91.5% for 115 goals against, 12th-best in the league.  While the penalty kill has been successful (killing 84% for only 24 power play goals against), their biggest strength has been scoring shorties, with six to their credit (led by Brad Marchand’s three).

Boston is currently riding a two-game win streak, with their most showing being a 3-2 victory against the Maple Leafs on Saturday.  A win tonight has the potential to move them past Tampa Bay into the third division spot for the Atlantic.

The 23-19-4 Montréal Canadiens currently sit in fifth place in the Atlantic Division and eighth in the Eastern Conference.  They play a game very similar to the Bruins (I know, neither fan base likes being compared to the other), as they have a solid offense backed by an above-average defense.

Led by Max Pacioretty’s 181 attempts, the Habs have fired the puck 1457 times, of which 8.6% have found the back of the net for 126 tallies (led by Pacioretty’s 19 goals), seventh-most in the league.  Although the offense as a whole has been very successful, the power play has not been as good, as they’ve only found the back of the net on 18.18% of attempts for 28 goals (led by Pacioretty’s seven).

Thanks in part to Andrei Markov’s team-leading 75 blocks, only 1274 shots have made their way to 12-11-4 Mike Condon and co., of which they’ve saved 91.1% for 117 goals against, 15th-best in the league.  The penalty kill has been slightly above average as well, as they’ve killed 84.56% of attempts for 23 goals against.

The Habs are currently riding a four-game losing streak, with their most recent being a 5-2 loss in Chicago on Sunday.  Should Montréalwin tonight, they will swap spots with the Bruins for the first wild card spot.

This is the final regular season meeting between these bitter rivals, with the Habs already winning the series 3-1-0.  Their last meeting was at the Winter Classic, where Montréal won 5-1.

Some players to watch in tonight’s game includes Boston‘s Rask (four shutouts [tied for third-most in the league]) and Montréal‘s P.K. Subban (29 assists [tied for sixth-most in the league]).

This one is a tough one to pick.  Although I think the Bruins are the better overall team, it is hard to argue against the result of the last meeting, especially since the game is in Montréal this time.  The line reads Montréal at -111, so I suppose I’ll pick the Habs to pull out the victory.

With yesterday’s 5-2 win over the New York Rangers, the Washington Capitals clinch the season series at 3-1-0 with a lone game remaining.

It was actually the Blueshirts who scored the opening goal, as Chris Kreider fired a goal after Ryan McDonagh and Mats Zuccarello both notched their 17th helpers of the season.  The Caps waited until only 1:59 remained in the first period to level the score, as Alex Ovechkin scored a power play goal after assists from Evgeny Kuznetsov and Dmitry Orlov.  The one-all tie held into the intermission.

The Caps struck only 7:18 after resuming play with another power play goal, this one from Marcus Johansson, with assists from Nicklas Backstrom (his 29th helper of the season) and Matt Niskanen, earning them a lead they would not give up.  Only 1:02 later, First Star of the Game Justin Williams scored his first of three goals on the afternoon, assisted by Third Star Taylor Chorney and Andre Burakovsky (his 11th helper of the season).  Second Star Chris Kreider tried to stage a Rangers comeback with 2:32 remaining in the second after assists from Rick Nash (his 19th helper of the season) and Derek Stepan, but New York was not able to score another goal in the contest.  The 3-2 lead held into the third.

Williams scored goal no. two 4:51 after resuming play, assisted by Kuznetsov (his 28th helper of the season) and Burakovsky.  He completed the hat trick at the 18:09 mark after an assist from Kuznetsov, setting the score at the 5-2 final.

The DtFR Game of the Day series now stands at 42-19-9, favoring the home squad by 31 points.

In honor of Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, the NHL is putting on five games.  The action gets started at 7:30 p.m. eastern when Edmontonvisits Florida, followed half an hour later by two more (Pittsburgh at St. Louis [NBCSN/TVAS] and Colorado at Winnipeg).  9 p.m. eastern brings with it the opening puck drop of Buffalo at Arizona (BELL TV), followed by this evening’s nightcap, Ottawa at San Jose, at 10:30 p.m. eastern (RDS).

Colorado at Winnipeg represents the only divisional matchup of the night, and there are no games between teams currently qualifying for the playoffs.

The game I’m most interested by is the Pittsburgh at St. Louis, and it’s not only because I like both of these teams.  Pittsburgh has the opportunity to move ahead of Montréal for the second wild card position with a win, but it will be against a Blues team led by one of the best goal scorers in the league.

Tonight’s game will be Pittsburgh‘s seventh in the Game of the Day series, with their most recent appearance being a 3-2 overtime loss to the Blackhawks on January 5.  They own a 3-2-1 record when the focus of our attention.  St. Louis has been featured in the series seven times before tonight, and own a 4-3-0 record in such games.  Their most recent showing in such games was a 3-1 loss on New Year’s Eve to the Wild.

The 21-16-7 Pittsburgh Penguins currently occupy fourth place in the Metropolitan Division and ninth in the Eastern Conference, but have opportunity to move into eighth with anything better than a loss this evening.  To do so, they will lean on a top-10 defense as measured by goals against.

Thanks in part to Ian Cole’s team-leading 78 blocks, the Pens have limited the opposition to 1344 shots against, of which 15-11-5 Marc-Andre Fleury and co. have saved 92.5% for only 105 goals against, seventh-fewest in the NHL.  The Pens have been especially strong on the penalty kill, where they’ve killed 83.92% for only 23 goals against.

The defense has needed to be good to cover up for issues on the offensive end.  Although the squad has 1376 shots to their credit (led by Patric Hornqvist’s 136 shots), only 7.4% have found the back of the net for 102 goals (led by Evgeni Malkin’s 19 tallies), fourth-fewest in the league.  Although the offense as a whole has been very poor, the power play has only been slightly below average, as they’ve scored on 18.88% for 27 goals (led by Malkin’s nine tallies).

Pittsburgh‘s most recent game was a five-goal shutout victory over the Hurricanes yesterday.

The 26-15-7 St. Louis Blues currently sit in third place in the Central Division and fourth in the Western Conference.  The Blues pair a slightly above-average offense with a slightly-below defense, measured by goals scored/against, respectively.

The Blues have fired a strong 1447 shots so far this season (led by Vladimir Tarasenko’s 168), but only 8.2% have found the back of the net for 118 goals (led by Tarasenko’s 24 tallies), 12th-most in the league.  The real potency of St. Louis‘ offense has been the power play, where they’ve scored 20.74% for 28 power play goals (led by Tarasenko’s eight tallies).

Even with Alex Pietrangelo’s 87 blocks, the Notes have allowed 1406 shots to reach 18-10-3 Jake Allen and co., of which they’ve collectively saved 92.2% for 119 goals against, 14th-most in the league.  The Blues definitely clamp down on the penalty kill, where they’ve killed 85.53% for only 23 goals against.

St. Louis‘ most recent game played was a 4-3 win over the Canadienson Saturday.

Some players to watch include Pittsburgh‘s Fleury (three shutouts [tied for eighth-most in the league]), Malkin (43 points [tied for eighth-most in the league]) and Olli Maatta (+17 [tied for seventh-best in the league]) & St. Louis‘ Allen (five shutouts [second-most in the league] and 18 wins [tied for eighth-most in the league]) and Tarasenko (45 points [fifth-most in the league] and 24 goals [fifth-most in the league]).

Since they are playing at home, I think the more balanced game will prevail in this one.  Don’t plan on the Pens joining the playoff picture, as I’m picking the Blues to earn the victory.

It took overtime, but the Sharks were able to spoil Antti Niemi’s homecoming, as they beat the Stars 4-3.

Only one goal was scored in the first period, and it belonged to the road team.  Mattias Janmark and Antoine Roussel both notched their eighth assists of the season as they helped Ales Hemsky to a backhander at the 11:15 mark.

The second period was all San Jose, as they not only leveled the game, but took the lead going into the second intermission.  Their first goal came only 3:54 after resuming play, scored by Second Star of the Game Marc-Edouard Vlasic after assists from Joe Thonton (his 25th helper of the season) and First Star Tomas Hertl.  Only 7:13 later, Chris Tierney fired a slapshot past Niemi on the power play after assists from Tommy Wingels (his ninth helper of the season) and Matt Nieto, setting the score at 2-1.

The Stars leveled the score only 33 seconds after resuming play in the final frame with a snap shot from Tyler Seguin (his 25th tally of the season) after an assist from Jamie Benn.  San Jose took the lead again only 7:18 later with Vlasic’s second goal of the night after assists from Dylan DeMelo and Joonas Donskoi (his 10th helper of the season).  The flurry of goals ended only 12 seconds later when Third Star Jason Spezza leveled the score again after assists from Benn (his 30th helper of the season) and Seguin.  The three-all tie held to the final horn, forcing some three-on-three play.

The overtime period lasted only 1:12 before Hertl scored the game-winner, assisted by Vlasic (his 16th helper of the season) and Logan Couture.

Martin Jones’ record improves to 20-13-2 after saving 32 of 35 (91.4%), while Niemi’s falls to 16-8-5 after saving 35 of 39 (89.7%).

The DtFR Game of the Day series now stands at 41-19-9, favoring the home squad by 29 points over the roadies.

Fourteen points are on the table in today’s Sunday schedule.  The action gets started at 3 p.m. eastern when Carolina visits Pittsburgh, followed an hour later by Vancouver at the New York Islanders.  The final two matinees start at 5 p.m. eastern when Florida visits Tampa Bay and the New York Rangers visit Washington (NHLN/TVAS).  Montréal at Chicago (SN/RDS) gets started at the usual starting time of 7 p.m. eastern, followed half an hour later by Philadelphia at Detroit (NBCSN).  Finally, this evening’s nightcap, Los Angeles at Anaheim, gets started at 9 p.m. eastern.

A majority of today’s games are divisional matchups (Carolina at Pittsburgh, Florida at Tampa Bay, New York at Washington and Los Angeles at Anaheim), and three are between teams currently qualifying for the playoffs (Florida at Tampa Bay, New York at Washington and Montréal at Chicago).  In addition to qualifying for the other two groups, the New York–Washington game is also a rematch of one of last season’s Eastern Conference Semifinals.

Those who have followed along all season know that I like to give preference to those games that are rematches of last year’s playoffs or a return of a player to an arena he used to call home, and today is no exception.

Today’s appearance in the Game of the Day series for New York will tie them with Chicago for most games featured in the series at 13.  The Rangers own a 7-3-2 record in such games, and their most recent showing in the series was a 2-1 victory over the Bruins on Monday.  Washington has been featured eight times before this afternoon’s competition, and own a 5-3-0 record in such games.  Their most recent showing in the series was a 4-3 overtime victory in Madison Square Garden on January 9.

The 24-15-5 New York Rangers are currently second in the Metropolitan Division and third in the Eastern Conference.  To get them to that position, the Rangers have employed a top-10 offense backed by an above-average defense, measured by goals for or against.

The Blueshirts‘ most recent showing was a 3-2 shootout victory in Philadelphia yesterday.  Should New York win today’s game, they would move at least a point closer to the league-leading Capitals and potentially create a lead more solid than winning a ROW tiebreaker over the Islanders.

The 33-8-3 Washington Capitals currently lead the Metropolitan Division by 16 points over the Rangers, the Eastern Conference by 12 points over the Panthers and the NHL by five points over the Blackhawks.  Not only does the best defense in the league call the Verizon Center home, but also the second-best offense, showing why the Caps are the class of the NHL.

Thanks in large part to Karl Alzner and his team-leading 115 blocks, the Caps have allowed only 1229 shots to reach 28-4-2 Braden Holtby and co., of which they’ve collectively saved 93.1% for only 95 goals against, best in the NHL by two goals over Los Angeles.  Washington maintains their excellent form on the penalty kill, where they’ve killed 84.92% of opposing power plays for only 19 tallies allowed.

Of course, the story in Washington is usually the offense, and this season has not been short of successes on that end as well.  Led by Alex Ovechkin’s 216 attempts, the Caps have fired 1328 shots so far this season, of which a whopping 10.6% have found the back of the net for 144 goals (led by Ovechkin’s 26 goals), second-most in the league (trail Dallas by seven tallies).  Just like the penalty kill, special teams have been a big part of that success, as the Capitals have scored on 26.15% of attempts for 34 power play goals, led by Ovechkin’s nine extra-man tallies.

Washington played yesterday, but it was not the result they were looking for as they lost 4-1 in Buffalo.

This is the fourth meeting of five between these two squads so far this season, with Washington leading the series 2-1-0.  We’ve been there for all three, so you can read a quick-and-dirty recap of the games that occurred November 3, December 20 and January 9.

Some players to watch in this afternoon’s game include New York‘s Henrik Lundqvist (20 wins [fourth-most in the league]) and Washington‘s Nicklas Backstrom (28 assists [tied for fifth-most in the league] and +17 [tied for sixth-best in the league]), Holtby (28 wins [leads the league], 1.97 GAA [second-best in the league] and .931 save percentage [tied for third-best in the league]), Evgeny Kuznetsov (+21 [fourth-best in the league]) and Ovechkin (26 goals [tied for second-most in the league] and +19 [fifth-best in the league]).

I’m not even going to lie to you, I have to pick Washington in today’s game.  They are the best team in the NHL, and I don’t see New Yorkbeing anything more than a stepping stone on their way to a Stanley Cup Finals appearance.

Second Star of the Game Bo Horvat loves to play the Carolina Hurricanes.  When they played in Vancouver last week, he had two goals, including the game-winner.

Guess what he did tonight?

Just notch two goals, including the overtime game-winner to secure the Canucks‘ 3-2 victory.

The story was more than Horvat though.  Linden Vey scored his first goal of the season after 13:14 of play to give Vancouver the lead, but Third Star Kris Versteeg was able to level the score with 1:33 remaining before intermission with a power play goal, assisted by Jaccob Slavin and Jordan Staal (his 12th assist of the season).  The one-all tie held into the second period.

Horvat scored his first goal of the night 9:32 after resuming play, assisted by Taylor Fedun and Matt Bartkowski (his ninth helper of the season) to give the Canucks a 2-1 lead that would hold into the second intermission.

Vancouver was beginning to feel certain about their victory, but John-Michael Liles had other ideas.  After assists from Andrej Nestrasil and Victor Rask (his 17th helper of the season), he leveled the score at two-all, which held to the end of regulation, forcing the three-on-three overtime period.

Horvat waited 3:25 before scoring his winner, assisted by Radim Vrbata (his 10th assist of the season) and Christopher Tanev.

First Star of the Game Jacob Markstrom improves his record to 7-5-4 after saving 38 of 40 (95%), while Cam Ward’s record falls to 14-11-5 after saving 19 of 22 (86.4%).

The DtFR Game of the Day series now stands at 40-19-9, favoring the home squads by 28 points over the road teams.

For a Friday night, the schedule was relatively light with only six games.  Don’t worry though, the NHL has our back, as there’s a solid 10 on deck today.  The action gets started at 1 p.m. eastern when the New York Rangers visit Philadelphia (SN), followed an hour later by New Jersey at Arizona.  The final matinee begins at 4 p.m. eastern when Ottawa visits Los Angeles.  Four games drop the puck at the normal starting time of 7 p.m. eastern (Toronto at Boston [CBC], Washington at Buffalo [BELL TV], Colorado at Columbus and Montréal at St. Louis [NHLN/TVAS/SN]), followed an hour later by Minnesota at Nashville.  10 p.m. eastern brings with it the beginning of Calgary at Edmonton (CBC/SN), followed half an hour later by Dallas at San Jose, this evening’s nightcap.

Four of tonight’s games are divisional rivalries (New York at Philadelphia, Toronto at Boston, Minnesota at Nashville and Calgary at Edmonton), while two other matchups represent meetings of teams currently qualifying for the playoffs (Montréal at St. Louis and Dallasat San Jose).

The game that strikes me most is the Dallas–San Jose matchup, and it’s not just because of how both teams are doing this season.  The Sharks have already welcomed Todd McLellan back to The Tank this week, so what hurts seeing another old friend?  How about the goaltender for most of McLellan’s tenure, Antti Niemi?

Tonight’s game will be Dallas‘ sixth appearance in the Game of the Day series, where they own a 4-0-1 record.  Their most recent showing in the series was the day after Christmas, a 3-2 shootout loss in St. Louis.  San Jose has been featured much more recently, as they beat the Oilers 2-1 in a shootout on Thursday to improve their series record to 2-2-0.

Niemi spent a total of five seasons in San Jose before having his signing rights traded to Dallas this offseason.  With the exception of the lockout-shortened 2012-’13 season, he was always good for 60+ games and 31+ wins per season, with his best being his 39-17-7 2013-’14 campaign, when he 91.3% for 149 goals against.

Excluding last season, Niemi’s Sharks always qualified for the playoffs, with his best performance certainly being the 2012-’13 where he saved 93% of the shots that came his way.

So far this season, Niemi has helped to lead his 29-11-4 Dallas Starsto second place in both the Central Division and the Western Conference.

Measured by goals scored, Dallas is the best offense in the NHL this season.  Led by Tyler Seguin’s 166 shots, the Stars have fired the puck 1419 times this season, of which 10.4% have found the back of the net for 147 tallies, led by Jamie Benn’s 25 tallies.  Special teams have certainly contributed to that success, as Dallas scores on 22.46% for 31 power play goals (led by Benn’s 11).  The biggest problem for the power play has actually been the defense, which has given up five short-handed goals so far this season.

Niemi was an excellent add for this team,  as the Stars‘ defense is not exactly anything spectacular.  Even with Johnny Oduya’s team-leading 93 blocks, Dallas has allowed 1279 shots to reach 16-8-4 Niemi and co., of which they’ve collectively saved 91.2% for 114 goals against, 13th-most in the league.  The defense does clamp down when facing the power play, as they’ve killed 81.25% for only 24 power play goals against.  What improves this special teams unit is their six shorties this season.

Dallas is currently riding a two-game losing skid, with their most recent being a 4-2 loss in Anaheim last night.  A Stars win tonight puts them back the division and conference lead, as they win the games played-tiebreaker over Chicago.

The 22-18-2 San Jose Sharks are currently in third place in the Pacific Division and eighth in the Western Conference.  Similar to Dallas, the Sharks play a more offensive game, but they are backed by a stronger defense than tonight’s opposition.  You can read more about the Sharks‘ play here.

San Jose is currently riding a four-game win streak, with their most recent being the 2-1 shootout victory over the Oilers on Thursday.  A Sharks victory this evening increases their lead over Vancouverfor the third division spot to two points, while a loss loses one of San Jose‘s three games in hand over rival Canucks.

Some players to watch in tonight’s game include Dallas‘ Benn (53 points [second-most in the league], 25 goals [third-most in the league], 28 assists [tied for fifth-most in the league] and +17 [tied for sixth-best in the league]), John Klingberg (32 assists [third-most in the league]), Niemi (three shutouts [tied for seventh-best in the league]) and Seguin (51 points [third-most in the league], 24 goals [tied for fourth-most in the league] and 27 assists [ninth-most in the league]) & San Jose‘s Martin Jones (four shutouts [tied for third-most in the league] and 19 wins [tied for fourth-most in the league]) and Joe Pavelski (22 goals [tied for sixth-most in the league] and 43 points [tied for seventh-best in the league]).

Although I’m picking the Sharks to win this game tonight due to their current steak and playing on home ice, you can never count out a team like the Dallas Stars, who have aspirations of a Stanley Cup on their mind.

Yesterday’s Game of the Day between the Edmonton Oilers and the San Jose Sharks was the first since December 26 in the series to require a shootout, which the Sharks executed to perfection to win 2-1.

San Jose scored the opening goal of the game after 11:29 of play, courtesy of Marc-Edouard Vlasic after assists from Melker Karlsson and Joe Thornton, his 24th helper of the season.  The Sharks‘ 1-0 lead held into the intermission.

Edmonton leveled the score at the 8:02 mark of the second when Second Star of the Game Nail Yakupov scored on assists from Lauri Korpikoski (his sixth assist of the season) and Justin Schultz.

It was the final goal in regulation, and there wasn’t one scored in the five minutes of three-on-three play, so The Tank hosted its first shootout of the season.

Joe Pavelski was the first to take his shootout goal, and his attempt was pure, giving the Sharks a 1-0 shootout lead.  First Star Martin Jones made the save on Jordan Eberle’s attempt, which was quickly followed by Joonas Donskoi’s shot that also trickled into the net.  Jones secured the bonus point with a save on Ryan Nugent-Hopkins, cemented San Jose‘s lead over Vancouver to two points, and ruined the homecoming of ex-head coach Todd McLellan.

Jones earns the win after saving 24 of 25 (96%) to improve his record to 19-13-2, while Cam Talbot’s record falls to 7-13-3 after saving 36 of 37 (97.3%).

The DtFR Game of the Day series now stands at 40-19-8, favoring the home squad by 29 points.

A busy Thursday schedule yields a lighter Friday schedule than normal in preparation of an exciting weekend of NHL action.  A total of six games will be played this evening, with half getting started at 7 p.m. eastern (Boston at Buffalo [BELL TV], Chicago at Toronto[NHLN] and Vancouver at Carolina).  Pittsburgh and Tampa Bay(TVAS) drop the puck 30 minutes later, followed at 8 p.m. eastern by Winnipeg at Minnesota.  This evening’s nightcap gets its start at 10 p.m. eastern when Dallas visits Anaheim (SN).

A third of tonight’s games are between divisional rivals (Boston at Buffalo and Winnipeg at Minnesota), while none involve both squads currently qualifying for the playoffs.

The game that has attracted my attention the most is actually the Vancouver at Carolina matchup, as both teams are currently very close to qualifying for the playoffs, but are still on the outside looking in.

Tonight’s game will be Vancouver‘s fourth appearance in the Game of the Day series, where they own a 1-2-0 record, while the Canes lost the only other game they’ve played in the series.  Both team’s most recent appearance in the series was on January 6 when Carolina visited Rogers Arena and fell 3-2 to the Canucks.

The 17-17-10 Vancouver Canucks currently sit in fourth place in the Pacific Division and 10th in the Western Conference, meaning that they are sitting on the outside of the playoff picture looking in, although they trail the Sharks by only two points.  Vancouver plays a balanced, yet lackluster game, slightly favoring their defense.

Even with Chris Tanev’s 99 blocks, the Canucks have allowed a whopping 1315 shots to reach 10-11-6 Ryan Miller and co., who’ve collectively saved 91.3% for 120 goals against, ninth-most in the league.  The power play has also been below average, killing 79.58% of attempts for 29 goals against.

Vancouver‘s offense has also left much to be desired for residents of British Columbia, as they’ve managed only 1249 shots (led by Daniel Sedin’s 149), of which only 8.2% have found the back of the net for 105 goals (led by Sedin’s 19), eighth-fewest in the league.  The power play has been just as incompetent, scoring only only 17.36% of attempts for 25 goals (led by Sedin’s six).

Vancouver‘s most recent game was a 4-1 loss in Washington last night.

The 20-18-7 Carolina Hurricanes currently sit in fourth place in the Metropolitan Division and ninth in the Eastern Conference, presently missing the playoffs only due to losing a tiebreaker of games played to Boston.  Similar to Vancouver, they play a balanced, but rather underwhelming game slightly favoring their defense.

Thanks in part to Ron Hainsey’s 71 blocks, only 1146 shots have made their way to 14-11-4 Cam Ward and co., who’ve collectively saved 90.1% for 120 goals against, ninth-most in the league.  The Canes‘ penalty kill has been only slightly below league average, killing 80.19% attempts for 21 goals against.

Led by Justin Faulk’s 130 shots, the Hurricanes have fired the puck 1298 times, of which 8.1% have found the back of the net for 105 goals (led by Jeff Skinner’s 16 tallies), eighth-fewest in the league.  The power play has certainly let the Canes down, as they’ve scored on only 17.16% attempts for 23 goals (led by Faulk’s 12).

Carolina is currently riding a four-game win streak, with their most recent game being a 4-1 victory in St. Louis last night.  A win tonight in combination with wins by Buffalo and/or Pittsburgh gets the Canes in the group of eight Eastern Conference teams competing for the Cup.

Some players to watch in tonight’s game include Carolina‘s Faulk (32 points, including 12 power play goals, on 130 shots and 84 hits [all lead the team]) and Vancouver‘s Henrik Sedin (28 assists [tied for fifth-most in the league]).

As made evident by the last time these two met, these squads are an even match for each other, and goals are always at a premium with these offenses.  That being said, I am forced to lean with the Canessolely because they are playing in PNC Arena.

The Anaheim Ducks scored three goals in 3:29 to beat the Ottawa Senators 4-1 in last night’s Game of the Day.

The first goal of the night did not occur until 27:06 had ticked off the clock.  It belonged to Andrew Cogliana, a wrister after the assist from Kevin Bieksa (his sixth helper of the season).  Ottawa leveled the score with only 3:48 remaining in the second period, as Curtis Lazar snapped a shot past Third Star of the Game Frederik Andersen.  The 1-1 tie held into the second intermission.

The game remained knotted until only 4:55 remained in regulation when First Star Shea Theodore scored the game-winner, a power play goal (his first career point), after assists from Ryan Getzlaf (his 23rd helper of the season) and Sami Vatanen.  2:23 later, it was Carl Hagelin with the first insurance goal, assisted by Ryan Kesler (his ninth assist of the season) and Jakob Silfverberg.  Silfverberg’s night was not done, as he scored with only 1:26 remaining in the game after assists from Second Star Hampus Lindholm (his eighth helper of the season) and Hagelin, giving the Ducks the 4-1 victory.

Andersen’s record improves to 6-8-5 after saving 24 of 25 (96%), while Craig Anderson’s falls to 17-13-4 after saving 34 of 38 (89.5%).

The DtFR Game of the Day series now stands at 39-19-8, favoring the home squads by 28 points over the roadies.

It was a light schedule yesterday, which usually means a full set of games tonight.  This Thursday follows the trend, as a total of 16 points are on the table this evening.  The action gets started at the usual time of 7 p.m. eastern with two games dropping the opening pucks (the New York Rangers at the New York Islanders [TVAS] and Vancouver at Washington), followed half an hour later by Chicago at Montréal (NBCSN/RDS).  8 p.m. eastern brings with it the beginning of two games (Carolina at St. Louis and Nashville at Winnipeg), with another pair dropping the puck an hour later (New Jersey at Colorado and Detroit at Arizona).  Finally, at 10:30 p.m. eastern, we have our nightcap between Edmonton and San Jose.

Three of tonight’s games are between divisional rivals (Rangers at Islanders, Nashville at Winnipeg and Edmonton at San Jose), while another set of three represents matchups between teams currently qualifying for the playoffs (Rangers at Islanders, Chicago at Montréal and Detroit at Arizona).

While this information is usually important in choosing a Game of the Day, there is a special reason I’ve chosen Edmonton at San Joseas the point of our focus – the return of Todd McLellan to the Tank.

This is the second time Edmonton has been featured in the Game of the Day series.  They lost their only other appearance 4-2 on December 15 in Madison Square Garden.  The Sharks have been featured three times before tonight, and own a 1-2-0 record in such games.  Their most recent showing in the series was also a 4-2 loss on December 18 in Ottawa.

The whole focus of tonight’s game will be McLellan, who is making his first appearance in San Jose since “mutually parting ways” with the squad following the 2014-’15 season.

McLellan never had a losing season in The Tank, including the team’s lone Presidents’ Trophy in 2008-’09, and missed the playoffs only once in his seven-season tenure.  But, for all the success he found in the regular season, the Sharks advanced to the Western Conference Finals only twice (2009-’10 and 2010-’11), and never to the Stanley Cup Finals.

He now leads his new squad, the Edmonton Oilers, in their attempts to qualify for the playoffs for the first time since losing in the Stanley Cup Finals to Carolina in 2005-’06.  He will probably not keep his winning-season streak alive, but he certainly has his team heading in the right direction.

McLellan’s 17-23-4 Edmonton Oilers currently sit in last place in the Pacific Division and the Western Conference, and lose the games played tiebreaker with Buffalo, putting them in second to last in the league.  Although Edmonton does not play a strong game on either end of the ice, they have to be considered more of an offensive team than a team of strong defense and goaltending.

The Oil has fired 1279 shots so far this season (led by Taylor Hall’s 175), of which 8.2% have found the back of the net for 105 tallies (led by Hall’s 16), 21st most in the league.  While the shots and shot percentage are on par with the rest of the league, the Oilers‘ power play has been a major shortcoming.    Edmonton has scored on only 17.42% of their attempts for 23 goals.

Of course, the forwards can’t take all the blame for the Oilers‘ position, as the defense has been anything but exemplary this season.  Even with Andrej Sekera’s team-leading 88 blocks, 1356 shots have still made their way to 10-10-2 Anders Nilsson and co., who’ve collectively saved 90.7% for 131 goals against, third-most in the league.  The special teams issues continue to the power play, where the Oilhave killed only 78.74% of attempts for 27 goals against.

Edmonton is currently riding a three-game losing skid, with their most recent showing being a 4-3 overtime loss in Arizona on Tuesday.

The 21-18-2 San Jose Sharks currently sit in third place in the Pacific Division and 10th in the Western Conference, and have utilized a decent offense to fight for position in the competitive race for the Pacific’s third division qualifier.

So far this season, the Sharks have fired  1227 shots (led by Brent Burns’ 177 attempts), of which a whopping 9.5% have found the back of the net for 117 goals (led by Joe Pavelski’s 22 tallies), 11th most in the league.  The success has continued to the power play, where San Jose has scored on 21.01% of attempts for 29 goals (led by Pavelski’s seven PP tallies).

Although below the league average, the Sharks‘ defense has not been atrocious.  Burns leads the charge, with 84 blocks to his credit, to allow only 1146 shots to make their way to Martin Jones and co., of which they’ve collectively saved 90.9% for 113 goals against, 11th-fewest in the league.  The real deficiencies show up on the penalty kill, where the Sharks have only killed 79.69% of opposing power plays for 26 goals against.

San Jose is currently riding a three-game win streak, with their most recent being a 4-1 win in Winnipeg on Tuesday.

Some players to watch in tonight’s game include Edmonton‘s Hall (41 points [tied for eighth-most in the league]) & San Jose‘s Jones (four shutouts (tied for third-most in the league] and 18 wins [tied for sixth-most in the league]) and Pavelski (43 points [sixth-most in the league] and 22 goals [sixth-most in the league]).

Although it seems like McLellan has the Oil headed in the right direction, they are still nowhere near the team Edmonton fans would like to see, due in part to Connor McDavid’s injury.  Expect the Sharks to beat their old coach.

In yesterday’s Game of the Day, the Chicago Blackhawks held on for a 3-2 victory over the Nashville Predators to extend their winning streak to eight.

Only one goal was scored in the first period, and it belonged to the Hawks.  With only 58 seconds remaining in the period, First Star of the Game Andrew Shaw gave the Blackhawks the lead, assisted by Second Star Marian Hossa and Jonathan Toews (his 16th helper of the season).

The busiest period was by far the second.  Chicago opened the period scoring after 6:14 ticked off the clock courtesy of Shaw’s second tally of the evening, assisted by Hossa (his 14th assist of the season) and Dennis Rasmussen.  The Hawks‘ final goal of the game, and ultimately their game-winner, occurred 7:04 later when Brent Seabrook set the score at 3-0, assisted by Patrick Kane (his 38th assist) and Erik Gustafsson.  Only 18 later, Mike Ribeiro scored his fifth goal of the season to get the score back to 3-1, which held into the second intermission.

Nashville‘s final goal of the night did not occur until the 19:23 mark, a power play tally from Filip Forsberg after assists from Ryan Johansen and Ribeiro (his 23rd assist).

Third Star Corey Crawford made saved 41 of 43 (95.3%) to improve his record to 24-10-2, while Pekka Rinne’s record falls to 16-14-6 after saving 20 of 23 (87%).

The DtFR Game of the Day series now stands at 38-19-8, favoring the home squad by 26 points over the roadies.

A busy Tuesday has come and gone; lets take a step back with today’s four-game schedule.  Columbus and Toronto (SN) get things started at 7 p.m. eastern, followed an hour later by Boston at Philadelphia (NBCSN/TVAS).  The western games get going at 9:30 p.m. eastern with Florida visiting Calgary (SN1), followed half an hour later by tonight’s nightcap between Ottawa and Anaheim (RDS).

None of tonight’s games are between divisional rivals, both teams currently qualifying for the playoffs, or a rematch of last year’s playoffs.

Today’s Game of the Day is Ottawa at Anaheim, due to both of these teams having playoff aspirations, but currently sit outside the tournament looking in.

Ottawa has been featured in the Game of the Day series six times before tonight, and currently owns a 2-3-1 record in such games.  Their most showing in the series was a 7-3 loss in Boston on December 29.  This will be Anaheim‘s fourth appearance in the series, where they own a 0-1-2 record.  The Ducks‘ most recent game as the focus of our attention was a 4-3 overtime loss to the Coyotes on November 9.

The 20-17-6 Ottawa Senators currently sit in sixth place in the Atlantic Division and 11th in the Eastern Conference.  They play a top-10 offense, but have not been able to break into the playoffs due to the second-worst defense in the league.

Ottawa‘s offense doesn’t put the puck on net very often (only 1222 times in their 43 games, led by Erik Karlsson’s 116), but they score a whopping 9.5% for 116 goals (led by Mike Hoffman’s 20 tallies), eighth-most in the league.  The Sens still need to improve on the power play, scoring on 18.05% attempts for 24 goals (led by Hoffman’s five tallies), but it doesn’t seem like they are too worried with such success in five-on-five play.

The offense has needed to be good to compensate for, frankly, an atrocious defense, especially for a team with playoff aspirations.  They’ve allowed 1429 shots to be fired (even with Karlsson’s team-leading 88 blocks), of which 17-12-4 Craig Anderson and co. have saved an average 91.7% for 127 goals against, second-most in the league.  The special teams issues continue into the penalty kill, where Ottawa has killed only 76.22% for 34 goals against.  Matters are made a little less terrible though, as the penalty kill has actually been very successful with the puck on their stick, scoring eight shorties already this season (led by Jean-Gabriel Pageau’s four goals).

In their last showing, the Sens were handily defeated 7-1 in Washington on Sunday, and they currently trail Boston by a single point for a wild card spot.

The 17-17-7 Anaheim Ducks currently occupy fifth place in the Pacific Division and 11th in the Western Conference.  Their game play is the exact opposite of Ottawa‘s, as the Ducks are one of the best teams in the league on defense, yet have arguably the worst offense in the game.

Thanks in part to Kevin Bieksa’s team-leading 69 blocks, the Ducks‘ opposition has only managed 1120 shots so far this season, 91.7% of which have been collectively saved by 9-6-2 John Gibson and co. for only 97 goals against, fourth-least in the league.  The penalty kill has been equally as strong, killing 89.66% of opposing power plays for only 15 goals against.

Measured by goals scored, Anaheim has the worst offense in the league, but it’s not for a lack of effort.  The Ducks have attempted 1231 shots so far this season (led by Corey Perry’s 119 shots), but only 6.2% have found the back of the net for a measly 76 scores (led by Perry’s 16).  To give a better understanding of how few tallies this is, Philadelphia has scored the second-fewest goals this season, and they have 91 to their credit, 13 more than the Ducks.  The peculiar quandary that is Anaheim exhibits itself in the Ducks‘ power play, which is actually slightly better than the average team’s in the NHL.  Anaheim has scored on 19.27% of their attempts for 21 goals to their credit (led by Perry’s six).

The Ducks‘ most recent game was a 2-1 loss to the Red Wings on Sunday, and they currently trail San Jose by three points for the third spot in the division.

Some players to watch in tonight’s game include Anaheim‘s Gibson (1.84 GAA [leads the league] and four shutouts [tied for third-best in the league]) & Ottawa‘s Anderson (17 wins [tenth-best in the league]), Hoffman (20 goals [tied for eighth-most in the league]) and Karlsson (36 assists [second-most in the lead] and 45 points [fourth-most in the league]).

I predict Anaheim to win tonight’s game on home ice, mostly because their incredible defense should be able to handle anything Ottawa can throw at them.  The Sens also like to commit a lot of penalties, giving the Ducks the opportunity to beat them on the power play.

With four second period goals, and six goals in 30:15, the Chicago Blackhawks beat the Colorado Avalanche 6-3 in yesterday’s Game of the Day.

The Hawks‘ offense blitz did not get started until the 8:27 mark of the first when Brandon Mashinter opened the scoring off assists from Ryan Garbutt (his fourth helper of the season) and Dennis Rasmussen.  The other goal of the period came with 3:38 remaining on the clock, as Second Star of the Game Patrick Kane scored off assists from Artemi Panarin (his 24th assist of the season) and Trevor van Riemsdyk to set the score at 2-0, which held into the intermission.

Chicago continued their success into the second, scoring only 1:39 after resuming play.  It was First Star Marian Hossa with the tally, assisted by Niklas Hjalmarsson and Jonathan Toews (his 14th assist of the season).  Colorado finally got on the board with a goal from Third Star Matt Duchene, assisted by Carl Soderberg (his 22nd helper of the season) and Gabriel Landeskog.  Duchene struck only 4:08 later to set the score at 3-2 after being assisted by Alex Tanguay and Nathan MacKinnon (his 22nd assist of the season).  Two-straight Avalanche goals didn’t seem to make the Blackhawks very happy, as they fired three-straight of their own before the second period ended.  The first was a Kane power play goal at the 12:25 mark, his 25th goal of the season, assisted by Brent Seabrook and Artem Anisimov, which proved to be the game-winner.  The next Hawk goal came only 2:06 later, Toews’ 16th tally, assisted by Andrew Shaw and Erik Gustafsson.  Chicago completed their surge with 1:18 remaining in the period with Hossa’s second goal of the night, assisted by Toews (his 15th assist of the season) and Shaw to set the score at 6-2.

Colorado could only manage one goal in the final period, compliments of MacKinnon after assists from Duchene (his 16th of the season) and Nick Holden, setting the score at the 6-3 final.

Corey Crawford’s record improves to 23-10-2 after saving 34 of 37 (91.9%), while Semyon Varlamov’s record falls to 15-11-3 after saving 16 of 20 (80%).  He was pulled after 32:25 of play following Kane’s second goal of the night, and replaced by Calvin Pickard, who saved 13 of 15 (86.7%).

The DtFR Game of the Day series now stands at 36-19-8, favoring the home squads by 22 points over the roadies.

After a busy weekend, this Monday’s schedule consists of only four games, with the action getting started at 7 p.m. eastern when Boston visits the New York Rangers (NHLN/TVAS/SN).  The rest of the games don’t get started for at least another two hours, as San Joseand Calgary drop the puck at 9 p.m. eastern.  10 p.m. eastern brings with it the beginning of the Florida at Vancouver game, followed half an hour later by this evening’s nightcap, Detroit at Los Angeles.

San Jose at Calgary represents the only divisional rivalry being played this evening, and the remaining matchups are all between teams currently qualifying for the playoffs.

I know we’ve watched both of these teams recently, one as recent as Saturday, but a team qualifying only for a wild card spot always has a little more to play for, so let’s take a look at the Boston–New Yorkgame.

The Boston Bruins have been featured eight times before tonight’s game in the DtFR Game of the Day series, and own a 3-4-1 record in such games, with their most recent showing being a 4-1 victory in New Jersey on Friday.  The New York Rangers are tied with Chicagofor the most appearances in the series, and own a 6-3-2 record when the focus of our attention.  Their most recent game in the series was a 4-3 overtime loss to the Capitals on Saturday.

The 21-14-5 Boston Bruins currently sit in fourth place in the Atlantic Division and seventh in the Eastern Conference and, most importantly, the first wild card position.  An in-depth explanation of their game may be read here, but the important thing to know is Boston is one of the best offensive teams in the league.

Their most recent showing was a 2-1 overtime loss in Ottawa on Saturday.

The 22-14-5 New York Rangers currently own second place in the Metropolitan Division and fourth in the Eastern Conference.  Similar to the Bruins, the Blueshirts also play a strongly offensive game, which you can read more about here.

The Rangers‘ most recent game was their 4-3 overtime loss to the Capitals in Saturday’s Game of the Day.  You can read a quick-and-dirty recap of that game here.

These two have already met up once this season, a 4-3 Boston win the day after Thanksgiving in the TD Garden.  Although the Rangershad the lead twice, they were not able to hold on for the victory, and will utilize those sour memories as inspiration to level the season series.

Some players to watch in this one include Boston‘s Tuukka Rask (four shutouts [tied for third-most in the leauge]) and New York‘s Henrik Lundqvist (18 wins [tied for fifth-best in the league]).

Both of these teams play similar styles of play – good defenses supported by strong offenses.  That being said, the B’s have done better on both ends than their opponents, and I believe that will be the difference in this one.  I expect this Original Six matchup to go the way of the Bruins.

It may have taken overtime, but the Washington Capitals were able to complete their weekend-sweep of New York City-based teams, as they knocked off the Rangers with a 4-3 victory.

The first two periods had only a goal each, both scored by the Caps.  The first period tally is compliments of none other than First Star of the Game Alex Ovechkin, a power play goal with only 15 seconds remaining before intermission.

Washington‘s second goal of the night came a little bit quicker, only 3:56 after resuming play.  Nate Schmidt assisted Justin Williams to his 12th goal of the year to set the score the score at 2-0.

Although the Caps entered the period with the lead, it took a late goal to get the game into overtime.  Oscar Lindberg and the Blueshirts got on the board 5:54 after resuming play after assists from Dominic Moore and Ryan McDonagh, his 13th helper of the season.  Twelve seconds before the midway point of the period, Third Star McDonagh and Derick Brassard (his 16th assist of the year) assisted Kevin Hayes to level the score at two-all.  New York‘s go-ahead goal crossed the goal line at the 13:11 mark, scored by Viktor Stalberg after assists from Keith Yandle (his 20th of the season) and Kevin Hayes.  The Rangers got within six seconds of the victory, but Washington had different plans, as Second Star Nicklas Backstrom scored a game-tying goal after assists from Williams and Matt Niskanen (his 16th helper of the season).

The overtime period lasted only until 1:25 before Nate Schmidt assisted Ovechkin to the 24th goal of his season, and the 499th of his career to earn the Capitals the bonus point.

Braden Holtby improves his record to 27-4-2 after saving 23 of 26 (88.5%), while Henrik Lundqvist’s record falls to 18-11-4 after saving 27 of 31 (87.1%).

The DtFR Game of the Day series now stands at 35-19-8, favoring the home squad by 20 points over the roadies.

The second weekend of the new year is completed with six games being played this Sunday.  Only one matinee game is being played, with Buffalo visiting Winnipeg (BELL TV) at 3 p.m. eastern.  Two games get started at the usual 7 p.m. eastern (Ottawa at Washington[TVAS/SN] and Colorado at Chicago), followed an hour later by a couple more (New Jersey at Minnesota [NBCSN] and Detroit at Anaheim).  The final game of the night gets started at 9:30 p.m. eastern when Florida visits Edmonton (SN1).

Colorado at Chicago represents not only the only divisional matchup of the evening, but also the only game between teams both qualifying for the playoffs.  Especially since I’ve been wanting to write about the Avs for a while, lets take a look at that game.

Tonight’s game is only Colorado‘s second appearance in the DtFR Game of the Day series, with their first being a three-goal shutout victory in Anaheim on October 16.  On the other hand, Chicago has been featured a series-leading 12 times, and host a 6-4-1 record in such games.  Their most recent showing was a 3-2 overtime victory in Pittsburgh on Tuesday.

The 21-18-3 Colorado Avalanche currently sit in fifth place in the Central Division and seventh in the Western Conference, good enough to qualify them for the second wild card position over the Nashville Predators (Colorado wins on regulation+overtime wins).  To get to this position, they’ve utilized one of the best offenses in the league to compensate for a less-exemplary defense.

So far this season, the Avs have put only fired the puck 1189 times (led by Nathan MacKinnon’s 137), of which a whopping 10.3% have found the back of the net for 122 goals (led by Matt Duchene’s 19 tallies), third-most in the NHL.  That sharp-shooting success has followed them to the power play, where Colorado has converted 21.77% of their 147 opportunities for 32 goals.  This success is good, but it comes with a catch – the Avalanche has already given up five short-handed goals this season, two more than the league average.

The offense has been necessary to cover up some less-than-ideal play on the defensive end.  Although Francois Beauchemin has 125 blocks to his credit, 1296 shots have still made their way to 15-10-3 Semyon Varlamov and co., who’ve collectively saved an average 91.5% for 117 goals against, seventh-most in the league.  The average, if not less-than, defensive play has continued to the penalty kill, where Colorado has killed only 79.26% of opposing attempts (1.61% below the league average) for 28 power play goals against.

Colorado is currently riding a three-game winning streak, with their most recent being a 5-3 victory over the Predators on Friday.

The 26-13-4 Chicago Blackhawks currently sit in second place in both the Central Division and the Western Conference, trailing the Dallas Stars by six points with a game in hand.  As indicated by their place in the standings, they are one of the strongest teams in the Conference, playing a balanced, strongly competitive game.  You can read more about their style of play here.

Chicago is currently riding a six-game win streak, with their most recent being a 3-1 win over the Sabres on Friday.

Some players to watch in tonight’s game include Chicago‘s Corey Crawford (six shutouts [leads the league], 22 wins [third-best in the league] and .927 save percentage [ninth-best in the league]) and Patrick Kane (60 points [leads the league], 37 assists [leads the league], +20 [third-best in the league] and 23 goals [fifth-best in the league]) & Colorado‘s Duchene (19 goals [tied for seventh-best in the league]).

Tonight’s meeting will be the third in the four-game season series, and the second in the Windy City.  Colorado currently leads the series 1-0-1, thanks to a three-goal shutout victory in the United Center on December 15, followed by a 4-3 overtime Blackhawks winner on New Year’s Eve in Denver.

It will be a tall task for the Avalanche to pull off the upset in the United Center tonight.  Not only are they playing on the road, but the Hawks‘ offense should be able to shred the Avs‘ defense and goaltending.  While I always like to pull underdog, I gotta go with Chicago taking the win.

It was the second straight 4-1 road victory in the Game of the Day series, as Boston earned their 3000th all-time victory with a win at The Rock.

The lone goal of the first period belongs to Frank Vatrano and the Bruins after only 2:02 of play, assisted by Third Star of the Game Colin Miller, his 11th helper of the season.

It was a night of quick starts for the Bruins, as First Star Ryan Spooner fired his ninth goal of the season, this one the eventual game-winner, after being assisted by Second Star Dennis Seidenberg 4:49 after resuming play.  New Jersey tried to stage a comeback with a goal from Bobby Farnham, assisted by Stephen Gionta and Adam Larsson (his seventh of the season) at the 11:57 mark to set the score at 2-1, but eventually gave up a power play goal to Jimmy Hayes with only 1:25 remaining in the period, assisted by Zdeno Chara (his 15th helper of the season) and Matt Beleskey.

Boston completed their series of quick goals when Seidenberg and Spooner (his 19th assist of the season) assisted Miller to the final goal of the game, setting the score at the 4-1 final.

Tuukka Rask took the night off, so it’s Jonas Gustavsson who earned the win after saving 19 of 20 (95%) to improve his record to 7-3-1, while Cory Schneider’s record falls to 17-13-5 after saving 27 of 31 (87.1%).

The DtFR Game of the Day series now stands at 35-19-7, favoring the home squad over the roadies by 21 points.

It’s a busy Saturday in the NHL, with a whopping 10 games being played.  There’s two matinees at 1 p.m. eastern, both of them involving the teams from the Big Apple (Washington at the New York Rangers and the New York Islanders at Philadelphia).  Four games drop the puck at the usual starting time of 7 p.m. eastern (Pittsburghat Montréal [NHLN/TVAS/SN], Boston at Ottawa, Carolina at Columbus and Toronto at San Jose [CBC]), followed an hour later by Minnesota at Dallas.  The games west of the Rockies get started at 9 p.m. eastern when Nashville visits Arizona, followed an hour later by Tampa Bay at Vancouver (CBC/SN).  Finally, this evening’s nightcap drops the puck at 10:30 p.m. eastern when St. Louis visits Los Angeles.

Five of tonight’s games are divisional rivalries (Washington at New York, New York at Philadelphia, Boston at Ottawa, Carolina at Columbus and Minnesota at Dallas), while four feature teams currently qualifying for the playoffs (Washington at New York, Minnesota at Dallas, Nashville at Arizona and St. Louis at Los Angeles).  Washington at New York also represents a rematch of an Eastern Conference Semifinal from last season’s playoffs.

Since we already watched Washington‘s rematch with their quarterfinal opponent of a year ago, let’s watch them take on their opponent from the semifinals.

Washington has been featured seven times before tonight’s game, and owns a 4-3-0 record in such games.  Their most recent was a 4-1 victory in Brooklyn on Thursday.  Tonight’s game will tie New York with Chicagofor 11 appearances, most in our series.  The Rangers own a 6-3-1 in such games, with their most recent being a 3-0 loss in Sunrise last Saturday to the Panthers.

The 30-7-3 Washington Capitals currently own the best team in the NHL, as they have a 14-point lead over the Islanders in the Metropolitan Division, a nine-point lead over the Panthers in the Eastern Conference, and a one-point lead in the league over the Stars.  You can read a summary of their play here, but for those that don’t want to, just know that there’s a reason the Caps lead the league – they’re the best on defense, and second-best in offense.  In other words, they’re pretty good!

The Caps are currently riding a two-game winning streak, and their most recent game was a Thursday 4-1 victory in Brooklyn against the Islanders. You can read a quick-and-dirty recap of it here.

The 22-14-4 New York Rangers currently sit in third place in the Metropolitan Division and sixth in the Eastern Conference, and have utilized a strong offense to get them to that position.

Usually, good teams put lots of pucks on net.  Instead, the Rangersprefer to take shots of a higher quality, as they’ve scored 10.3% of their 1132 shots (led by Rick Nash’s 117 shots) for 117 goals (led by Mats Zuccarello’s 16 tallies), fourth-most in the league.  Although the offense as a whole has been one of the best, the Blueshirts‘ power play has been nothing special.  They’ve had 114 opportunities and scored only 22 goals, for a 19.3% success rate that leads the league average by only .17%.

Thanks in part to Ryan McDonagh’s team-leading 77 blocks, the Rangers‘ defense has been able to keep all but 1193 shots away from 18-11-3 Henrik Lundqvist and co., who’ve collectively saved 91.8% for 103 goals against.  Just like the power play, the penalty kill has been only average this season.  New York has defended 133 penalties so far this season, of which they’ve killed 80.45% (.42% below average) for 26 goals against.

The Blueshirts‘ most recent game was a 6-2 victory over the Stars on Tuesday.

The Capitals and Rangers have already met twice before tonight’s game, with both taking place at Madison Square Garden.  New Yorkwon the first meeting 5-2 on November 3, but Washington leveled the series only three weeks ago on December 20 with a 7-3 win.  Both of those games were featured as a Game of the Day, and a recap can be found by clicking either score.

Some players to watch in tonight’s games include New York‘s Lundqvist (18 wins [tied for fifth-best in the league]) & Washington‘s Nicklas Backstrom (25 assists [tied for eighth-best in the league]), Braden Holtby (26 wins [best in the league], 1.9 GAA [third-best in the league] and .933 save percentage [fourth-best in the league]), Evgeny Kuznetsov (+18 [tied for fourth-best in the league]) and Alex Ovechkin (22 goals [fifth-best in the league] and +17 [tied for sixth-best in the league]).

Like I said a couple days ago, it is hard to pick against the Washington Capitals.  I don’t care where they’re playing, who they’re playing, or any other variable.  This team is no doubt the best team in the Eastern Conference, and potentially the league.  Expect the Caps to complete their three-day, two-game tour of the Big Apple with four points.

First Star of the Game Bo Horvat scored twice in the third period to clinch the 3-2 Vancouver victory in Yesterday’s Game of the Day against the Carolina Hurricanes.

It was actually the Canes that struck first in this one, but it wasn’t until 28:02 had ticked off the clock.  It was an important score for Carolina, as Jordan Staal earned his ninth assist of the season, helping Second Star John-Michael Liles to a short-handed goal, the first of the year for the squad.  Vancouver leveled the score with 2:21 remaining on the clock when Adam Cracknell and Christopher Tanev assisted Third Star Sven Baertschi, the score that held into the second intermission.

The Canucks took their first lead of the game when Matt Bartkowski (his eighth assist of the season) and Alex Biega assisted Horvat 7:15 after resuming play.  Their lead was short-lived though, as Noah Hanifin assisted Staal to his eighth goal of the season to knot the score at two.  The game-winner came with only 1:06 remaining on the clock, courtesy of Horvat after being assisted by Baertschi (his seventh on the season) and Linden Vey on the power play.

These Swedish goalkeepers go way back, even before their NHL days.  Eddie Läck began backing up Jacob Markstrom in 2009, when both played for Brynäs IF, and continued their relationship into the NHL, as both played in the Canucks‘ system.  Markstrom got the advantage in this one, saving 26 of 28 (92.9%) to improve his record to 5-5-3.  Läck’s record falls to 5-7-3 after saving 18 of 21 (85.7%).

Today’s Thursday schedule is an exciting one, with eight playoff teams in action.  The festivities get started at 7 p.m. eastern when Washington visits the New York Islanders (TVAS/SN360), followed half an hour later by Floridaat Ottawa (RDS).  Philadelphia at Minnesota (NBCSN) gets started at 8 p.m. eastern, followed 30 minutes later by Winnipeg at Dallas.  9 p.m. eastern starts the Arizona at Calgary game, and this evening’s nightcaps start an hour and a half later (Toronto at Los Angeles and Detroit at San Jose).

Four of tonight’s games are between division rivals (Washington at New York, Florida at Ottawa, Winnipeg at Dallasand Arizona at Calgary), and Washington at New York represents the only game between two playoff qualifiers in addition to being an Eastern Conference Quarterfinal rematch.

Take all that information into account, and I challenge you to take a guess as to which game we’ll watch…

Washington has been featured in the DtFR Game of the Day series sixth times before this evening, and own a 3-3-0 record under such circumstances.  Their most recent showing in the series was a 7-3 victory in Madison Square Garden against the New York Rangers on December 20.  New York has been featured only one time before, a 4-0 victory over the Devils on December 13.

The 29-7-3 Washington Capitals are currently the best team in the NHL, leading the Metropolitan Division by 12 points, the Eastern Conference by nine points, and the league by a lone point.  Almost every facet of their game works to a t, as they lead the league in goals against and are second in goals for.

Good defenses keep the puck off their goalie as much as possible, and that is exactly what the Caps are doing.  Thanks in part to Karl Alzner’s 103 blocks, they’ve allowed only 1105 shots to reach 25-4-2 Braden Holtby and co., who’ve collectively saved 92.9% (leads the league average by 1.3%) for only 84 goals against, 21 below the league average and tops in the NHL.  Washington‘s been even better on the penalty kill, where they’ve saved 84.21% of the 114 attempts they’ve defended (3.51% above the league average), allowing only 18 goals.

Another thing good defenses do is get the puck to their forwards, and these forwards are some of the best in the business as well.  Led by Alex Ovechkin’s 192 shots, the Capitals have put the puck on net 1183 times, of which 10.3% have found the back of the net for 122 tallies (led by Ovechkin’s 21).  They’ve been especially potent on the power play, scoring on 25.83% of their attempts for 31 goals (led by Ovechkin’s seven).

The Caps‘ most recent showing was a 3-2 victory in Boston on Tuesday.

The 22-13-5 New York Islanders currently sit in second place in the Metropolitan Division and third in the Eastern Conference.  Similar to Washington, the Isles play a very balanced game, but New York slightly favors the offensive end.

So far this season, New York has put 1191 shots on net (led by John Tavares’ 113), of which 9.2% have turned into goals for 110 tallies (led by Tavares’ 15), eighth-most in the league.  Probably the biggest deficiency in the offense has been their power play.  On 112 attempts, the Isles have scored 21 goals (led by Frans Nielsen’s four) for a 18.75% success rate that trails the league average by .55%.

What makes this Islanders team good is that the offense isn’t playing this well to overcome defensive or goaltending struggles.  Although Calvin de Haan has 100 blocks to his credit, 1210 shots have still made their way to 12-6-2 Thomas Greiss and co., who have collectively saved 92.5% for only 97 goals against.  And even though one special team has been struggling doesn’t mean that the other is.  New York‘s penalty kill is great, killing 85.59% of 118 attempts for only 17 goals against.

The Isles‘ most recent game was a 6-5 victory over the Stars on Sunday.

Some players to watch in tonight’s game include New York‘s Greiss (.928 save percentage [sixth-best in the league]) or Jaroslav Halak (2.09 GAA [seventh-best in the league]) & Washington‘s Holtby (25 wins [best in the league], 1.93 GAA [second-best in the league] and .932 save percentage [tied for third-best in the league]), Evgeny Kuznetsov (+18 [tied for fourth-best in the league]) and Ovechkin (21 goals [fifth-best in the league] and +15 [tenth-best in the league]).

Last season, these squads met in the first round of the playoffs, with Washington needing all seven games to knock off the Islanders.  Both teams seem to have improved since then, making this game and the season-series all the better to watch.

It doesn’t matter where they play, it is tough to pick against Washington.  The Islanders and their fans will put up a good fight, especially given how the playoffs went last year, but I think the Capitals can get out of the Barclays Center with two points.

Yesterday’s Game of the Day between the Chicago Blackhawks and Pittsburgh Penguins was nothing short of fantastic, as it needed an extra 3:47 of play before being decided a 3-2 Hawks win.

First Star of the Game Artemi Panarin scored the first goal of the game after 28:47 of play after being assisted by Patrick Kane and Duncan Keith (his 17th of the season), giving the Blackhawks a one-goal advantage.  Almost exactly 10 minutes later, Third Star Jonathan Toews expanded the lead to two after being assisted by Brent Seabrook (his 20th of the season) and Andrew Shaw.  The 2-0 lead held into the second intermission.

Just as the second period was all Chicago, Pittsburgh took command of the third.  Captain Sidney Crosby scored the Pens‘ first goal 5:54 after resuming play, assisted by David Perron and Second Star Kris Letang (his 20th of the season).  Letang’s night wasn’t done, as he fired the game-tying score with 2:50 remaining in regulation after being assisted by Crosby (his 19th of the season).

Panarin is responsible for the Chicago winner after being assisted by Kane (his 36th of the season) and Seabrook.

Corey Crawford’s record improves to 21-10-2 after saving 34 of 36 (94.4%), while Marc-Andre Fleury’s falls to 14-10-3 after saving 27 of 30 (90%).

These two squads both traveled to Chicago following the game, and are lacing them up again tonight in the United Center.

The DtFR Game of the Day series now stand at 34-17-7, favoring the home side by 23 points over the roadies.

Today’s Wednesday schedule is a light one in comparison to yesterday’s, as only five games are being played.  The action gets started at 7 p.m. eastern when New Jersey visits Montréal (SN/RDS), followed an hour later by Pittsburgh at Chicago (NBCSN/TVAS).  Three games share the title of nightcap (St. Louis at Colorado, Carolina at Vancouver and Toronto at Anaheim), all of which start at 10 p.m. eastern.

St. Louis at Colorado represents the only divisional rivalry this evening, and New Jersey at Montréal is the only game featuring two teams currently qualifying for the playoffs.

While both of those games should be excellent, there’s one matchup that sticks out due to a player returning to his old stomping grounds.

That, and there is only one team remaining that hasn’t been featured in the Game of the Day series, and since everyone deserves an opportunity (it’s my page, I get to set the rules!) and this is probably their best shot at being featured, let’s catch the Carolina at Vancouver game!

As stated before, tonight’s game will be Carolina‘s first time featured in the Game of the Day, while Vancouver has been featured twice before, losing both games.  Their most recent showing in the series was also their most recent game played – their 3-2 loss to Arizona on Monday.

The 16-17-7 Carolina Hurricanes currently sit in seventh place in the Metropolitan Division and 13th in the Eastern Conference.  Neither side of the ice has favored the Hurricanes this season (then again, they’ve been hearing that since the 2009-’10 season), but if Caniacs have to hang their hat on something, they should lean towards their defense.

Carolina‘s problems this season have not necessarily been a result of poor defensive work, but poor goaltending.  Led by Ron Hainsey’s 67 blocks, the Canes have allowed only 1040 shots to reach 11-11-4 Cam Ward and co.’s net so far this season, 114 below the league average even with an extra game played.  The problem rears it’s head here: only 89.9% have been saved (1.7% below the league average), meaning that Carolina has allowed 110 goals, which exceeds the league average by six tallies.  The Canes have also done well to avoid the box as much as possible (only making 92 visits that resulted in an opposing man-advantage), as their 79.35% kill rate trails the league average by 1.3%.

Just like their skaters on the blue line, it has not been a lack of effort in Carolina that has put them in their position.  Led by Justin Faulk’s 117 shots, the Canes have put 1190 shots on net, but only 7.7% of them have resulted in tallies (led by Jeff Skinner’s 15).  The next step in making improvements in Raleigh will be to improve the power play.  Carolina has earned 121 attempts, but has converted only 20 of them (led by Faulk’s 12 goals) for a 16.53% success rate that trails the league average by 2.82%.

Carolina‘s most recent showing was a 1-0 overtime loss in Edmonton on Monday.

The 15-16-9 Vancouver Canucks find themselves in fifth place in the Pacific Division and 12th in the Western Conference.  An explanation of their play may be found here, but a basic summary is that the Canucks prefer their defensive end.

Their most recent game was that 3-2 loss to the Coyotes on Monday.  A quick-and-dirty recap of that game may be found here.

The main reason we’re focusing on this game is because of a particular player, nicknamed The Stork playing for them as of June 27 – none other than 5-6-3 backup goaltender Eddie Läck, who will get the start this evening.  The Vancouver Canucks signed the undrafted goaltender on April 6, 2010, and he saw his first game on October 6, 2013, a 5-4 overtime winner over the arch-rival Calgary Flames.  In fact, Läck’s first NHL shutout was against his current team, the Carolina Hurricanes, on December 9 of that same season.

Last season was certainly the better of his two with the Canucks‘ senior squad, as he earned an 18-13-4 record with a 92.1% save percentage in the regular season before playing in four games in the playoffs, where the Canucks were ultimately eliminated by the Flames.

Some players to watch in tonight’s game include Carolina‘s Faulk (117 shots, 77 hits and 30 points, including 12 power play goals and 13 even-strength assists [all lead team]) and Skinner (15 goals, 13 of which were at even-strength, with four being game-winners[all lead team]) & Vancouver‘s Daniel Sedin (38 points [tied for ninth in the league]) and Henrik Sedin (25 assists [tied for eighth in the league]).

I do not believe either of these teams to be very strong, but I will give the advantage to the Canucks simply because they are on home ice.  Expect Läck’s return to be spoiled.

The Arizona Coyotes survived an exciting third period to earn a 3-2 victory in Vancouver last night in out Game of the Day.

The first goal of the game didn’t come until 26:55 had passed, and it was First Star of the Game Shane Doan who broke the tie with his 14th tally of the season, assisted by Connor Murphy and Brad Richardson, an ex-Canuck as of this offseason.  Vancouver leveled the score again at the 13:41 mark with a slapshot form Bo Horvat, but the tie lasted only 19 seconds before Tobias Rieder and Louis Domingue assisted Laurent Dauphin to his first career NHL goal.  The Coyotes‘ 2-1 lead held into the second intermission.

The eventual game-winner was a power play goal only 1:13 into the third from Doan, assisted by Rieder and Antoine Vermette.  The Canucks tried to stage a comeback with a goal at the 4:41 mark of the third from Second Star Daniel Sedin, who took a puck to the face earlier in the game and lost a few teeth, but were unable to get a third puck past Domingue.

Domingue improves his record to 4-2-2 after saving 35 of 37 (94.6%), while Jacob Markstrom’s record falls to 4-5-3 after saving 26 of 29 (89.7%).

The DtFR Game of the Day series now stands at 34-17-6, favoring the home squad by 24 over the roadies.

There’s a total of eight games being played in the NHL this evening, and most of them will end before your bedtime!  The action gets started at 7 p.m. eastern when the first five games drop the opening pucks (Washington at Boston [TVAS], Florida at Buffalo [BELL TV], Dallas at the New York Rangers, Chicago at Pittsburgh [SN1] and Minnesota at Columbus), followed half an hour later by Montréal at Philadelphia (NBCSN/RDS).  8 p.m. eastern brings with it the start of the Winnipeg at Nashville game, while this evening’s nightcap, Tampa Bay at Calgary, will begin at 9 p.m. eastern.

Two of tonight’s games are divisional rivalries (Florida at Buffalo and Winnipeg at Nashville), while another two are between teams currently qualifying for the playoffs (Washington at Boston and Dallas at New York).

Tonight also marks Rob Scuderi’s first return to Pittsburgh since being traded to the Chicago Blackhawks.  Because this is his only trip back to the city he played eight seasons in (barring a Stanley Cup Finals series) this year, lets take a look at the game in the City of Bridges.

Tonight marks Chicago‘s Game of the Day series-leading 11th appearance, in which they host a 5-4-1 record.  Their most recent showing in the series was a two-goal shutout victory over the Jets on December 11.  Pittsburgh has been featured five times before tonight, and currently owns a 3-2-0 record in such games.  Their most recent was a 4-1 loss to the Capitals on home ice on December 14.

The 23-13-4 Chicago Blackhawks currently sit in third place in the Central Division and fourth in the Western Conference.  They may have started the season slowly, but the Hawks have refined their game to be strong on both ends of the ice, only slightly favoring their offensive end.

With the puck on their stick, the Blackhawks do what every good team does: shoot.  They’ve put a total of 1231 shots on net so far this season (led by Patrick Kane’s 141), of which 8.9% have found the back of the net for 110 goals (led by Kane’s 23).  An especially potent facet of their offense has been the power play, where they’ve scored on 23.58% of attempts for 29 goals (led by Kane’s 12), both numbers well over the league averages.

The Chicago defense has also been very strong this season.  They have allowed 1188 shots on net (Trevor van Riemsdyk has a team-leading 78 blocks), but 20-10-2 Corey Crawford and co. have collectively saved 92.1% for only 97 goals against.  They’ve especially clamped down on the penalty kill, where they have allowed only 21 goals on 113 attempts for at 81.42% kill rate that leads the league average by .66%.  In addition to making kills, the special teams have also gotten four scores of their own.

The Hawks are currently riding a three-game win streak, with their most recent being a three-goal shutout victory over the Senators on Sunday.

The 19-15-4 Pittsburgh Penguins currently sit in fifth place in the Metropolitan Division and 10th in the Eastern Conference.  Although the offense is picking up, the Pens are still a very defensive-minded team.

Even though Ian Cole has a team-leading 70 blocks, 1198 shots have still made their way to 14-10-2 Marc-Andre Fleury and co., who have collectively saved 92.7% (1.1% better than the league average) for only 90 goals against.  The Pens have been just as good on the penalty kill, if not better.  Although Pittsburgh has provided the opposition 126 opportunities, they’ve only been scored on 20 times for a 84.13% kill rate that leads the league average by 3.37%.

Offensively the Penguins haven’t been as fortunate, although it is not for lack of effort.  Led by Phil Kessel’s 121 shots, the Pens have put 1225 shots on net, but only 90 have found the back of the net (led by Evgeni Malkin’s 18) for a 7.3% success rate.  Just like the total offense, the power play has also performed below average.  On 129 opportunities, Pittsburgh has only converted 18.6% (.64% below league average) for 24 goals (led by Malkin’s eight).

The Penguins are currently riding a win-streak of their own, as they are victorious in their last two.  Their most recent game was a 5-2 victory over the Islanders on Saturday.

With the 134th pick in the 1998 entry draft, the Pittsburgh Penguins selected Rob Scuderi, a Boston College product from Syosset, N.Y. in Nassau County.  It took until the 2003-’04 before he saw time with the senior club, and earned a full-time position in the 2006-’07 season.  Following the 2008-’09 season that witnessed the Penguins winning their third Stanley Cup (and, subsequently, him being the first ever Long Islander to have his name engraved on the Cup), he signed with the Los Angeles Kings, where he won his second Cup during the 2011-’12 season.  He signed again with the Penguins before the 2013-’14 season where he has remained until December 14, when he was traded to Chicago for Trevor Daley.

After playing in exactly 460 games with the Penguins, probably his most productive season was with the championship team, as he set career highs in assists (15), blocks (164), points (16), takeaways (26) and +/- (+23).

Some players to watch in tonight’s game include Chicago‘s Crawford (six shutouts [leads league] and 20 wins [third in the league]) and Kane (57 points [leads league], 34 assists [leads league], 23 goals [tied for second in the league] and +18 [fourth in the league]) & Pittsburgh‘s Fleury (.927 save percentage [tied for ninth in the league]) and Malkin (18 goals [tied for seventh in the league] and 37 points [10th in the league]).

It is hard to pull against Chicago in this one, as their defense should be able to easily neutralize Pittsburgh‘s offense.

The Boston Bruins didn’t seem to show up until the final period of the Winter Classic, and the Montréal Canadienstook advantage to claim a 5-1 victory in Foxboro, Mass.

Only one goal was scored in the first period, and it occurred in the second minute of play.  Assisted by Dale Weise and Alexei Emelin, David Desharnais scored a wrister to give the Habs a one-goal lead, but the real story of the first period was Montréal‘s commanding defense (or Boston‘s poor offense, depending on how you want to look at it).  Montréal owned the shots statistic by 11, as they held Boston to only three.

Just like the first period, the Habs owned the second period as well.  They scored their first of two goals of the period at the two-minute mark, when Brian Flynn and Mark Barberio (his first helper of the season) assisted Paul Byron to a wrister, the game-winner.  Montréal‘s third goal came with 2:40 remaining in the period when Max Pacioretty and Tomas Plekanec assisted First Star of the Game Brendan Gallagher to a wrister of his own.

The Bruins gave their fans a ray of hope with a goal after 3:56, when Adam McQuaid and Ryan Spooner assisted Third Star Matt Beleskey, setting the score at 3-1.  That optimism was short-lived though, as Gallagher and Plekanec assisted Pacioretty to a goal only 4:53 later to regain the three-goal lead.  The final goal of the game was courtesy of Byron with 1:32 remaining in the game, assisted by P.K. Subban and Nathan Beaulieu.

Second Star Mike Condon, a Mass. native, improves his record to 11-9-3 after saving 27 of 28 (96.4%), while Tuukka Rask’s record falls to 14-10-3 after saving only 25 of 30 (83.3%).

The DtFR Game of the Day series now stands at 32-16-6, favoring the home squad by 22 points.

Today’s Saturday schedule is a busy one, as there are a total of 12 games taking place.  The three matinee games gets started at 1 p.m. eastern when Detroit visits Buffalo (BELL TV), followed at 4 p.m. eastern by the remaining two (Arizona at Edmonton and Philadelphia at Los Angeles).  Beginning at the usual starting time of 7 p.m. eastern is seven total games (St. Louis at Toronto [CBC], Minnesota at Tampa Bay, the New York Rangers at Florida, Dallas at New Jersey, the New York Islanders at Pittsburgh [NHLN/TVAS/SN], Nashville at Carolina and Washington at Columbus).  After those games are complete, the final two games of the day get started at 10 p.m. eastern (Calgary at Colorado [CBC/TVAS] and Winnipeg at San Jose [SN]).

Four of today’s games are divisional rivalries (Detroit at Buffalo, Arizona at Edmonton, New York at Pittsburgh and Washington at Columbus), while two involve teams currently qualifying for the playoffs (New York at Florida and Dallas at New Jersey).  Since Florida and New York‘s records are almost identical, we’ll assume the game to be the more competitive of the two (that’s exactly how this works, right?) and focus in on Sunrise, Fla.

This will be New York‘s 10th time featured in the Game of the Day series, which ties them with Chicago for the most appearances this season.  They own a 6-2-1 record when being featured, with their most recent being a 5-2 victory in Tampa Bay on Wednesday.  Florida has been featured twice before today, and host a 1-1-0 record.  Their last game in the series was a 2-1 shootout victory over the Senators on December 22.

The 21-13-4 New York Rangers currently occupy third place in the Metropolitan Division and fifth in the Eastern Conference.  They play a strong game on the offensive end of the ice, which you can read about here.

The Blueshirts‘ most recent showing was their 5-2 victory in Tampa Bay, which was featured as the Game of the Day on Wednesday.  You can read a quick-and-dirty recap of that game here.

The 21-12-4 Florida Panthers currently sit in second place in the Atlantic Division and fourth in the Eastern Conference.  They utilize one of the best defenses in the league, measured by goals against, to establish themselves as one of the best teams in the division.

The Panthers couple defensive pairs that have allowed only 1061 shots to reach the crease (led by Captain Willie Mitchell’s 51 blocks) with Roberto Luongo and co. who saves 92.6% of those attempts (a rate that leads the league average by 1%) for only 83 goals against.  Probably the biggest hole in the defense is their penalty kill, but even then it is technically better than average.  Florida has killed exactly 80% of opponents’ power plays, which leads the average team by .5%.

The offense has not been quite as good as the defense, due in part to not getting many shots on net.  Of their 1055 shots (led by Aaron Ekblad’s 93), 9.1% have found the back of the net for 96 goals.  Just like the defense, Florida‘s special teams still have room to improve, as they’ve only converted 17.83% for 23 goals (led by Aleksander Barkov’s four).

The Panthers are riding a league-leading seven-game winning streak, with their most recent a 3-1 victory over the Canadiens on Tuesday.

Some players to watch in tonight’s game include Florida‘s Luongo (16 wins [tied for sixth in the league] and .926 save percentage [ninth in the league]) and New York‘s Henrik Lundqvist (17 wins [fifth in the league]).

Especially since they are at home, I am leading towards a Florida winner.  They are the hottest team in the league right now, and I believe that their defense will be able to handle New York‘s offense.

Yesterday’s Game of the Day between the Minnesota Wild and St. Louis Blues ended poorly for the home squad, as the Wild scored two goals in the final 8:32 of play to secure the 3-1 victory.

The first goal of the game was not scored until 28:42 had ticked off the clock, and belonged to St. Louis.  Thanks to Marco Scandella sending the puck over the glass, the Blues took advantage of the extra man to get Third Star of the Game Kevin Shattenkirk his seventh goal of the season, assisted by Alexander Steen (his 22nd helper of the season) and Paul Stastny.  Minnesota waited until 3:48 remained in the second period to level the score at one-all, as Justin Fontaine and First Star Erik Haula assisted Second Star Nino Niederreiter to his eighth goal of the season.  The 1-1 score held into the second intermission.

The Wild notched their game winner at the 11:28 mark of the final period with a tally from Haula, assisted by Niederreiter.  Minnesota‘s final tally was an empty-netter, scored with 1:37 remaining in the game, compliments of Thomas Vanek, assisted by Charlie Coyle to set the score at 3-1.

Devan Dubnyk improves his record to 16-10-2 after saving 33 of 34 (97.1%), while Jake Allen’s record falls to 18-9-2 after saving 26 of 28 (92.9%).

The DtFR Game of the Day Series now stands at 32-15-6, with the homers favoring the roadies by 24 points.

Happy New Year from all of us at Down the Frozen River!  Too bad the NHL doesn’t share our sentiments, as they are only putting on two games today.  Jerks.

Oh wait.  One of those is the Winter Classic between the Montréal Canadiens and Boston Bruins!

It gets started at 1 p.m. eastern and takes place at Gillette Stadium in Foxboro, Mass.  The other game takes place inside Rogers Arena (Indoor games.  So yesterday, I know.) at 10 p.m. eastern when the Anaheim Ducks visit the Vancouver Canucks.

Both teams have been featured six times before today’s game in the DtFR Game of the Day series, but the Habsown a much better record than the Bruins (5-1-0 and 2-3-1, respectively).  Montréal‘s last showing in the series was a 6-2 defeat in Dallas on December 19, while the home squad has been featured as recently as Tuesday, when they beat the Senators 7-3 on home ice.

The 21-15-3 Montréal Canadiens currently sit in second place in the Atlantic Division and fifth in the Eastern Conference.  Although they play a strong game on both ends of the ice, the Habs are certainly a more offensive-minded team having scored the fifth-most goals so far this season.

They may have two more games to their credit than the league average, but that is not the reason the Habs have 1226 shots to their credit (led by Max Pacioretty’s 156), 134 over the league average.  8.9% of those shots have turned into goals, 109 to be exact, led by Pacioretty’s 15 tallies.  Although the offense has been strong, the power play has been only average.  On 129 attempts, Montréal has only scored 25 goals (led by Pacioretty’s five goals) for a 19.38% success rate that leads the league average by only .24%.

The main facet of Montréal‘s defense has been keeping shots off 10-9-3 Mike Condon and co.  Thanks to Tom Gilbert’s team-leading 61 blocks, only 1077 shots have found their way to the crease, of which 91.2% have ben saved for 97 goals against.  The defensive successes have continued into the penalty kill, which has neutralized 84.5% of opposing opportunities for only 20 power play goals against.  Also, an added bonus to the penalty kill has been the seven short-handed goals that lead the league average by four tallies.

Their most recent showing was a 3-1 loss at Florida on Tuesday.

The 20-12-4 Boston Bruins currently sit in third place in the Atlantic Division and sixth in the Eastern Conference.  Just like Montréal, Boston employs a strong offensive attack, but are backed by a solid defense.

Led by Patrice Bergeron’s 122 shots, the Bruins have put 1127 shots on goal, of which 10% have found the back of the net for 113 goals (led by Brad Marchand’s 15).  Boston employs one of the strongest power plays in the league, successful on 29.41% attempts for 30 goals.

The Bruins‘ defense has also been very strong, as they’ve only allowed 1039 shots to reach 14-9-3 Tuukka Rask and co. (led by Adam McQuaid’s team-leading 64 blocks), of which 91.4% have been saved for 96 goals allowed.  Boston‘s penalty kill has been slightly better than average, allowing 23 goals on 127 opposing attempts for a 81.89% kill that leads the league average by 1.03%.

Their most recent showing was a 7-3 victory over the Ottawa Senators on Tuesday.

Some players to watch include Boston‘s Tuukka Rask (four shutouts [tied for third in the league]) and Montréal‘s P.K. Subban (25 assists [tied for seventh in the league]).

This will be the fourth meeting of the season between these two bitter rivals.  Montréal owns a 2-1-0 lead in the season series, but the most recent game, on December 9, was a 3-1 Boston victory in the Bell Centre.

It is hard to pick against the Bruins in today’s game.  Both their offense and defense is better than Montréal‘s, and the stands will definitely be filled with rowdy Patriots Bruins fans.  Expect Boston to pick up their first win of the New Year.

The 5-2 final score is not indicative of how competitive last night’s Game of the Day between the New York Rangers and Tampa Bay Lightning was, as the Blueshirts scored two empty-netters in the final 1:30 to secure the win.

The first two periods ended in ties, but New York never trailed.  They earned their first lead of the night after only 1:53 of play, when Keith Yandle and First Star of the Game Dominic Moore assisted Third Star Dan Boyle to his fifth goal of the season.  The Bolts waited until the 16:35 mark to take advantage of a Rick Nash high-sticking penalty, allowing Second Star Anton Stralman and Nikita Kucherov to assist Jonathan Marchessault to the game-tying goal.  The one-all score held into the intermission.

Even quicker than they scored in the first, New York scored in the second, only 56 seconds after resuming play.  J.T. Miller and Boyle assisted Mats Zuccarello to his 16th goal of the season to give the Rangers their second lead of the night.  Tampa waited until only nine seconds remained in the period to level the score, this tally couresty of Stralman on another power play after being assisted by Valtteri Filppula and Kucherov.  The two-all score held into the final period.

New York‘s winning goal came after 3:16 of play, courtesy of Moore, who was assisted by Viktor Stalberg.  Stalberg’s night wasn’t yet complete, as he scored the first of the Rangers‘ two empty-netters, this one at the 18:39 mark.  The Blueshirts‘ final tally came with only 33 seconds remaining in the game after Jesper Fast assisted Nash to his 12th of the season.

Henrik Lundqvist improves his record to 17-10-3 after saving 20 of 22 (90.9%), while Ben Bishop’s record falls to 15-12-3 after he saved 21 of 24 (87.5%).

The DtFR Game of the Day series now stands at 32-14-6, favoring the home squad by 26 points over the roadies.

Eighteen teams will play on the last day of 2015, with the action getting started an hour earlier than usual when three games drop the opening puck at 6 p.m. eastern (the New York Islanders at Buffalo [BELL TV], Pittsburgh at Detroit [SN] and Washington at Carolina).  8 p.m. eastern brings with it two Central division rivalries (Minnesota at St. Louis and Chicago at Colorado), followed half an hour later by another (Nashville at Dallas).  Three games combine as this evening’s nightcap, which will get started at 9 p.m. eastern (Los Angeles at Calgary[NHLN/SN360/SN1], Anaheim at Edmonton and Winnipeg at Arizona).

Six of tonight’s nine games are divisional rivalries (Washington at Carolina, Minnesota at St. Louis, Chicago at Colorado, Nashville at Dallas, Los Angeles at Calgary and Anaheim at Edmonton), while two of those, Minnesota at St. Louis and Nashville at Dallas, feature matchups between two teams currently qualifying for the playoffs.  Based on records alone, the Wild–Blues game should be more competitive, and it is also a rematch of a Western Conference Quarterfinals matchup, so let’s head to the Scottrade Center.

This will be Minnesota‘s sixth time featured in the Game of the Day series, where they own a 3-2-0 record.  Their most recent showing in the series was a 6-3 loss to the Stars on home ice on December 21.  St. Louis has one more game played in the series, and it was a 3-2 nine-round shootout victory against the Stars on Saturday that improved their record in the series to 4-2-0.

To start the season, the 19-10-6 Minnesota Wild (third in the Central Division and fourth in the Western Conference) were leaning on their offense to cover up for defensive decencies.  But, as more games have been played, the Wild have improved their goals against to third best in the league.

So far this season, the Wild defense has allowed only 1005 shots to reach 15-10-2 Devan Dubnyk and co., thanks in part to Jared Spurgeon’s team-leading 79 shots.  91.9% of those shots have been saved, leaving only 84 goals against.  These numbers are good, but Minnesota is still searching for answers on the penalty kill.  Although they’ve allowed only 85 opposing power plays, 19 of them have yielded goals, giving Minnesota a 77.65% kill rate that trails the league average by 3.23%.

Offensively, the Wild has had a falling-off.  They only have 991 shots to their credit, but fortunately for them, 9.6% of those attempts have found the back of the net for 95 goals.  Although the offensive numbers overall have slid, the power play has still been strong.  On 109 opportunities, they’ve scored 22 goals for a 20.18% success rate that leads the league average by 1.06%.

Their most recent showing was a 3-1 victory over the Red Wings on Monday.

The 23-12-4 St. Louis Blues are currently second best in both the Central Division and the Western Conference and, just like Minnesota, have utilized defensive prowess to get them where they are.

Even with Jay Bouwmeester’s team-leading 71 blocks, 1114 shots have made their way to 18-8-2 Jake Allen and co., who have saved a combined 92.4% (leads the league average by .9%) for only 92 goals against.  An especially strong aspect of this Blues‘ defense has been their penalty kill.  86.4% of the opposing power plays have been killed for only 17 goals allowed, both easily superior to the league average.

St. Louis‘ offense has put a whopping 1170 shots on goal (led by Vladimir Tarasenko’s 142), of which 8.3% have found the back of the net for 97 goals (led by Tarasenko’s 22).  St. Louis‘ power play has also been successful this season, scoring on 20.37% of attempts for 22 goals (led by Tarasenko’s seven).

Their last showing was a 4-3 overtime victory over the Predators Tuesday.

Some players to watch include Minnesota‘s Dubnyk (four shutouts [tied for third in the league]) & St. Louis‘ Allen (five shutouts [tied for first in the league], 18 wins [fourth in the league], .927 save percentage [tied for sixth in the league] and 2.08 GAA [seventh in the league]) and Tarasenko (22 goals [tied for second in the league] and 39 points [tied for sixth in the league]).

Tonight’s game will be the third in the season series between these two squads, where Minnesota currently leads 1-0-1.  Their most recent meeting was two months ago on Halloween night when the Wild visited St. Louis and left with a point as the Blues won in overtime 3-2.

Since I have to make a pick for this game, I am leaning towards the Blues since I believe their defense is more capable of stopping Minnesota‘s offense than the Wild’s defense against St. Louis‘ offense.  Pairing that with home ice, I predict the Blues to have a pleasant start to 2016.

It may have ended in a 7-3 victory for the Boston Bruins over the Ottawa Senators, but a better representation of yesterday’s Game of the Day is the combined 110 penalty minutes.

Thanks to a goal from Second Star of the Game Jimmy Hayes after 8:01 of play, the Bruins never trailed in this game.  Assisted by Kevan Miller, he scored his first of three goals in the game, the Game of the Day’s second straight hat trick.  Only 4:30 later, Shane Prince and Max McCormick assisted Chris Neil to level the score at one-all.  The final goal of the period was the first of four power play tallies on the evening, all scored by Boston.  This one came with only 3:35 remaining in the first period courtesy of First Star Patrice Bergeron, assisted by Torey Krug and Ryan Spooner.

The third and final Bruin to score in the game notched his first goal only 1:21 after resuming play, as Brett Connolly and Brad Marchand assisted Third Star Matt Beleskey to the Bruins‘ second power play goal.  Ottawawaited until only 2:09 remained in the period to get a goal back, with a tally from Mika Zibanejad after being assisted by Neil and Prince, setting the second intermission score at 3-2.

The Bruins‘ game winner was, you guessed it, a power play goal from Bergeron after being assisted by Krug and Seth Griffith, his first of the season, at the 2:38 mark.  Ottawa‘s final tally of the evening came 1:44 later when Erik Karlsson and Marc Methot assisted Mike Hoffman, setting the score at 4-3.  As far as scoring is concerned, the game slowed down for over 11 minutes until Max Talbot and Loui Eriksson assisted Hayes to his second score of the night.  At the 16:40 mark, Beleskey closed his scoring line for the evening with his second goal after being assisted by Spooner and Eriksson, setting the score at 6-3.  Hayes scored his hat trick-clinching goal into the game with only a second remaining in the game while on the power play, assisted by Talbot and Dennis Seidenberg.

Tuukka Rask improves his record to 14-9-3 after saving 29 of 32 (90.6%), while Craig Anderson’s record falls to 16-10-4, due to saving only 30 of 37 (81.1%).

The DtFR Game of the Day series now stands at 32-13-6, favoring the home squad by 28 points over the roadies.

Today’s Wednesday schedule is a light one, as only 10 teams are in action.  The evening’s festivities begin at the usual starting time of 7 p.m. eastern when two of the five games get started (Toronto at Pittsburgh [SN] and Buffalo at Washington [BELL TV]), followed half an hour later by New Jersey at Ottawa (TVAS).  8 p.m. eastern brings with it the first leg of NBCSN’s Wednesday Night Rivalry, as the New York Rangers visit Tampa Bay.  Following the conclusion of that game, NBCSN completes their double-header by showing Philadelphia at San Jose, this evening’s nightcap.

None of tonight’s games are between either division rivals or teams currently qualifying for the playoff.  Probably the most intriguing matchup of the evening based on team names alone is the New York at Tampa Bay game, as it is a rematch of the Eastern Conference Finals and their second meeting of the year.  Due to this and the fact that I don’t want to focus on Ottawa three times in the last six games, let’s take a look at the Blueshirt–Bolt game.

This will be New York‘s ninth time featured in the DtFR Game of the Day Series, but their first since a 7-3 loss to the Capitals on December 20 that set their series record at 5-2-1.  Tampa Bay has been featured four times before tonight and host a 2-1-1 record in the series.  The last time they were the focus of our attention was October 27 when they fell in St. Louis 2-0.

The 20-13-4 New York Rangers are currently in third place in the Metropolitan Division and sixth in the Eastern Conference.  Their most recent showing was a 5-3 loss in Nashville on Monday.  Even though Madison Square Garden is home to one of, if not the best goalkeeper in hockey, the Rangers have actually been a better offensive team this season.

They may have put only 1037 shots on goal so far this season (led by Rick Nash’s 110), but the Rangers have scored 10.2% of those attempts (1.3% above the league average) for 106 goals (led by Mats Zuccarello’s 15), sixth-most in the league. As it does for most good teams, the success continues into the power play, where the Blueshirts score on 21.36% of attempts (2.25% above the league average) for 22 goals.

Defensively, the Rangers haven’t played as well as I would expect.  Even though Dan Girardi has 72 blocks to his credit, they’ve allowed 1133 shots to reach 16-10-3 Henrik Lundqvist and co., who’ve saved 92% and allowed 96 goals.  Just as the defense as a whole has been average, so too has the penalty kill.  The Rangers are killing 80.99% of attempts, only .1% over the league average, and allowing 23 goals.

The 18-15-4 Tampa Bay Lightning sit in sixth place in the Atlantic Division and 10th in the Eastern Conference.  Their most recent game was a 4-3 shootout loss at home against the Canadiens on Monday.  Tampa has favored the defensive end this season, where they are eighth-best in the league in goals against.

Thanks in part to Jason Garrison’s 58 blocks, the Lightning have allowed only 1049 shots to reach 15-11-3 Ben Bishop and co., who have saved 92.4% and allowed only 85 goals.  Although the defense as a whole has been strong, the penalty kill has been lacking.  The Bolts have allowed 24 power play goals on 110 attempts for a 78.18% kill rate that trails the league average by 2.71%.

Although the penalty kill needs to be improved, a bigger hole for the Bolts has been the offense.  Even with Steven Stamkos’ 100 shots, the Lightning have only managed 1048 shots, of which 9% have found the back of the net for 94 goals (led by Stamkos’ 16).  Just as the offense has only been average, so too has been the power play.  Although the Bolts have 24 power play goals to their credit (led by Stamkos’ nine), they’ve needed 130 opportunities, and those of us that are mathematically astute know that brings down averages – 18.46%, to be exact, which trails the league average by .65%.

Some players to watch include New York‘s Lundqvist (16 wins [tied for fifth in the league]) and Tampa Bay‘s Bishop (2.03 GAA [fourth in the league], 15 wins [tied for eighth in the league] and .926 save percentage [tied for eighth in the league]).

This is the second of three meetings between these two squads this season, with the first occurring on November 19 when Tampa held home ice to win 2-1.  Of course, it is not the regular season series that makes this one special, but the playoff series in May.  It took seven games, but Tampa was able to earn their spot in the Stanley Cup Finals with a 2-0 victory in the Garden.  If both of these results are indicative of anything, we should be in for a good game.

These teams match up well, given that it’s both teams’ strengths are going against one another.  Tampa has been surging of late and has the opportunity to get back into the playoff conversation, so I think they can defend home ice and earn two points.

In last night’s Game of the Day, we confirmed our beliefs that it’s Los Angeles and the rest of the Pacific Division, as the Kings won in Vancouver with a five-goal shutout that included the first hat trick of the Game of the Day series, courtesy of First Star of the Game Tyler Toffoli.

The winning goal was the lone tally of the first period, compliments of Toffoli, assisted by Second Star Anze Kopitar and Milan Lucic after 15:33 of play.

6:24 minutes later (if you’re only counting game time and not the intermission!), Trevor Lewis assisted Derek Forbort to his first goal of his career in 11 games, setting the score at 2-0.  Exactly 10 minutes later, Kopitar notched his second assist of the evening with a helper to Brayden McNabb at the 11:57 mark.  The Kings‘ 3-0 lead held into the second intermission.

If they hadn’t put the final nail in the coffin yet, Los Angeles scored their fourth goal of the evening at the 5:55 mark when Kopitar (yes, if you’re keeping score at home, that’s three assists!) and Alec Martinez assisted Toffoli to his second tally.  Toffoli completed his hat trick at the 12:56 mark with a power play goal, assisted by Drew Doughty and, you guessed it, Kopitar, for his fourth assist of the evening, setting the score at the 5-0 final.

Third Star (guess that’s what a shutout gets you when there’s a hat trick and a four-assist night) Jonathan Quick made all 27 saves to improve his record to 19-9-1, while Jacob Markstrom’s record falls to 3-4-3 after saving only 33 of 38 (86.8%).

The DtFR Game of the Day series now stands at 31-13-6, favoring the homers by 26 points over the roadies.

Ten games will be played this evening in the NHL, with the action getting started at the usual 7 p.m. eastern starting time as four matchups go underway (Ottawa at Boston [RDS2], the New York Islanders at Toronto [TVAS], Carolina at New Jersey and Dallas at Columbus), followed half an hour later by Montréal at Florida (RDS).  8 p.m. eastern brings with it two games (Nashville at St. Louis [NBCSN] and Detroit at Winnipeg), with the final three games beginning an hour later (Anaheim at Calgary, Los Angeles at Edmonton and Chicago at Arizona).

Six of tonight’s games are divisional rivalries (Ottawa at Boston, Carolina at New Jersey, Montréal at Florida, Nashville at St. Louis, Anaheim at Calgary and Los Angeles at Edmonton), while four feature teams currently qualifying for the playoffs (Ottawa at Boston, Montréal at Florida, Nashville at St. Louis and Chicago at Arizona).  Finally, tonight also features a rematch of the Western Conference Semifinals, as Anaheim takes on Calgary.

While most of the matchups listed are tantalizing, it is hard to take our attention away from the Ottawa–Bostongame due to their deadlock tie in the division table.  To the TD Garden we go!

Both squads have been featured five times already in the DtFR Game of the Day series, with their most recent being against each other only two days ago in Ottawa, where the Sens won 3-1.  In the Game of the Day Series, Boston has a lackluster 1-3-1 record, while the Sens host a 2-2-1 record.

Yes, before you write nasty things in the comment section, I’m fully aware we just watched these two go at it on Sunday (this sounds like as good a time as ever for a plug: here’s my quick-and-dirty recap of that game!).  But, the fact of the matter is that both of these teams are tied at 42 points apiece and qualifying for both the wild card spots, and a win tonight has the potential to move one of these teams into a division qualifying-spot should Detroit lose.

You can read an analysis of both teams here.

Some players to watch in tonight’s game include Boston‘s Tuukka Rask (four shutouts [tied for third in the league]) & Ottawa‘s Craig Anderson (16 wins [tied for fifth in the league]), Mike Hoffman (17 goals [tied for seventh in the league]) and Erik Karlsson (31 assists [tied for league lead] and 40 points [tied for fourth in the league]).

Ottawa spoiled my prediction when they beat the Bruins at home, but I feel much more confident picking Bostonto win in the Garden.

I predicted a Bruins win, but the Senators proved me wrong with a 3-1 victory on home ice in yesterday’s Game of the Day.

Ottawa snuck in the only goal of the first period with only 19 seconds remaining.  After Jimmy Hayes was sent to the box for instigating, Kyle Turris and Erik Karlsson assisted Mark Stone to a power play goal.

That late goal did not sit well with Third Star of the Game David Krejci and the Bruins during the intermission, as he scored a goal after 7:54, assisted by Matt Beleskey and Loui Eriksson, to knot the game at one-all.  Again, the Sens waited until the end of the period to take the lead, as Bobby Ryan and Mike Hoffman assisted Second Star Mika Zibanejad to the game-winner with only 1:39 remaining in the second period.

The final goal only occurred because Tuukka Rask was on the bench to give the Bruins a man-advantage.  It was a copy of the Senators‘ first goal, with Turris and Karlsson assisting Stone to an empty netter with 54 seconds remaining in the game, setting the score at the 3-1 final.

First Star Craig Anderson made 38 of 39 saves (97.4%) to improve his record to 16-9-4, while Rask’s record falls to 13-9-3 after saving 19 of 21 (90.5%).

The DtFR Game of the Day series now stands at 31-12-6 in favor of the home side, leading the roadies by 28 points.

After 18 games over the weekend, Monday is a slightly relaxed schedule, featuring six matchups.  The action gets started at 7 p.m. eastern when Washington visits Buffalo, followed half an hour later by Montréal at Tampa Bay(RDS).  Two games drop the opening puck at 8 p.m. eastern (the New York Rangers at Nashville [TVAS] and Detroitat Minnesota) and are the last games to start before 10 p.m. eastern, when Los Angeles visits Vancouver.  Finally, this evening’s nightcap gets started at 10:30 p.m. eastern when Colorado visits San Jose.

Two of tonight’s games are between divisional rivals (Montréal at Tampa Bay and Los Angeles at Vancouver), while three are between quality squads currently qualifying for the playoffs (New York at Nashville, Detroit at Minnesota and Los Angeles at Vancouver).  Finally, Montréal at Tampa Bay is also a rematch of one of last season’s Eastern Conference Semifinals.

Even though the rematch provides interesting storylines, I’m taking the personal leverage to instead focus in the Los Angeles–Vancouver, mostly because I want to look into the Kings‘ play.  I know, selfish.

This will be Los Angeles‘ second appearance in the DtFR Game of the Day – the other time they were featured, they fell in Chicago 4-2 on November 2.  Tonight’s game will be Vancouver‘s first appearance as the Game of the Day.

The 21-11-2 Los Angeles Kings currently own a seven-point lead in the Pacific Division, and are tied for third in the Western Conference.  They’ve found that success by playing one of the best defenses in the league, even though their most recent showing, a 4-3 overtime victory in Arizona on Saturday may not be indicative of that.

Thanks in part to Alec Martinez’ team-leading 73 blocks, the Kings have allowed only 958 shots to reach the net, of which 18-9-1 Jonathan Quick and co. have saved 92.1%, allowing only 78 goals, the second best in the league.  The Kings have also killed 82.11% of penalties, allowing 22 goals on 123 attempts.

I say it on a regular basis, but more shots usually turn into more goals.  While the Kings‘ percentages may not be on par with the league average, 86 (led by Tyler Toffoli’s 14 goals) of their 1097 shots (led by Jeff Carter’s 103 shots) have found the back of the net.  One point that the Kings should focus on to improve their offense should be their power play.  They have been successful on only 18%, scoring 18 goals on, you guessed it, 100 attempts.

Their counterparts, the 14-14-9 Vancouver Canucks, currently sit in third place in the Pacific Division, but eighth in the Western Conference.  They are currently riding a two-game win streak, with their most recent showing a 2-1 overtime victory over the Oilers on Saturday.  So far this season, the Canucks have been a better team with the puck on their stick, but both sides of the ice are performing below the league average.

Led by Daniel Sedin’s 133 shots, Vancouver has put 1086 shots on net so far this season (well above the league average), but only 91 have found the back of the net, led by Sedin’s 16 tallies.  The main facet of Vancouver‘s offense that is holding them back is their lack of success on the power play.  On 124 attempts (well-above the league average), the Canucks only have the league-average 21 goals to their credit, led by Sedin’s five.  Given the weak competition in the Pacific division, I expect Vancouver to make moves to improve their offense in preparation of a playoff run.

Defensively, the Canucks have needed all the help they can get.  Even though Chris Tanev has a team-leading 89 blocks to his credit, Vancouver has allowed 1129 shots to reach 10-11-6 Ryan Miller and co., of which they’ve saved 91.2% and allowed 102 goals.  The special teams’ issues continue when defending against the man-advantage, as the Canucks have allowed 124 opportunities to the opposition.  Of those, they’ve killed 79.69%, allowing 26 goals.

Some players to watch include Los Angeles‘ Carter (+16 [tied for fifth in the league]), Quick (18 wins [tied for second in the league] and two shutouts [tied for eighth in the league]) and Toffoli (+18 [third in the league]) & Vancouver‘s D. Sedin (37 points [tied for seventh in the league] and 16 goals [tied for ninth in the league]) and Henrik Sedin (24 assists [tied for seventh in the league]).

The Kings and Canucks have already played two games in their five-game season series.  The Canucks won the first meeting 3-0 on October 13 in the Staples Center, but the Kings were able to hold home ice on the first day of this month, winning 2-1 in overtime.

Given Vancouver‘s defensive woes, it’s hard to pick against a stellar Kings team, even if the Canucks have played Los Angeles tough twice this season.  Expect Los Angeles to get the win north of the border.

Thanks to a clutch save from Jake Allen in the ninth round of the shutout, the St. Louis Blues were able to claim the extra point over the Dallas Stars in last night’s Game of the Day.

After playing a scoreless 26:18, First Star of the Game Alexander Steen scored a power play goal, assisted by Kevin Shattenkirk and Third Star Vladimir Tarasenko, to give the Blues a one-goal lead.  It was short-lived though, as Cody Eakin and Jamie Benn assisted Colton Sceviour to knot the score at one-all.  The Stars scored their second and final goal of regulation with only 37 seconds remaining in the period when Patrick Sharp and Alex Goligoski assisted Tyler Seguin to his 20th goal of the season, giving Dallas a 2-1 lead going into the second intermission.

The Blues waited to score the game-tying goal until only 1:50 remained in regulation, as Jay Bouwmeester and David Backes assisted Second Star Robby Fabbri to send the game to overtime and, ultimately, the shoutout.

While he won’t get a goal added to his season total, Backes scored the final goal of the shootout, but it was Allen, who made the save on Vernon Fiddler’s shot, who secured the Blues‘ victory.

Allen improves his record to 17-8-2 with the win, saving 22 of 24 (91.7%), while Antti Niemi’s record falls to 15-5-3, saving 35 of 37 (94.6%).

The DtFR Game of the Day Series now stands at 30-12-6, favoring the home squad by 26 points.  Last night’s game was the second straight that required a shootout, as Ottawa beat Florida on Tuesday, the last day of action before the Christmas break.

Tonight’s schedule consists of nine games, with the action getting started at 5 p.m. eastern when Boston visits Ottawa (RDS2).  Three games follow at 6 p.m. eastern (Columbus at Florida, Toronto at the New York Islanders[TVAS/SN] and St. Louis at Dallas), trailed an hour later by Carolina at Chicago.  Three games get started at 8 p.m. eastern (Pittsburgh at Winnipeg, Arizona at Colorado and Philadelphia at Anaheim), and the nightcap follows an hour later when Edmonton visits Calgary (SN).

Three of tonight’s games are between divisional rivals (Boston at Ottawa, St. Louis at Dallas and Edmonton at Calgary), while two of those are between teams currently qualifying for the playoffs (sorry Edmonton–Calgary!).  Even though Dallas and St. Louis just played last night and should carry over a lot of emotion, the Boston–Ottawagame has a more immediate effect on the standings.

This will be both teams’ fifth time featured in the DtFR Game of the Day series, where they both have a 1-2-1 record.  The lone time the Bruins were the road squad in the series was November 7 then they visited Montréal – they lost 4-2.  Ottawa has been the home side twice, winning their most recent game 4-2 over the Sharks(December 18), but losing 3-1 on October 11 against the Canadiens.

The 19-11-4 Boston Bruins currently sit third in the Atlantic Division and sixth in the Eastern Conference.  They are currently riding a two-game losing skid, their most recent showing being a 6-3 defeat at the hands of the Buffalo Sabres.  Don’t let those recent results fool you, though: Boston has been a quietly good team this season, especially on the offensive end of the ice.

Led by Patrice Bergeron’s 110 shots, the Bruins have accounted for 1018 attempts so far this season.  Exactly 10%, a significant portion, of those shots have found the back of the net for 102 goals, led by Brad Marchand’s 15.  Especially strong for Boston has been their power play.  Of the 90 opportunities the Bruins have been given, they’ve scored 26 goals (led by Loui Eriksson’s seven) for a 28.89% success rate.  Although it is always wise to avoid penalties, Ottawa should probably take special care to avoid the box this evening, as Boston has a knack for making teams pay.

While the defense started the season playing very poorly, they have clamped down to give up only 84 goals to date.  The main reason for this has not been so much the play of 13-8-3 Tuukka Rask and co., but the defense allowing only 959 shots to reach net (led by Adam McQuaid’s 56 blocks).  Although the penalty kill has been only average (currently killing 81.36%), it has gotten in on the goal-scoring.  When shorthanded, the Bruins have scored six times already this season, well above the league average of two.

The 17-12-6 Ottawa Senators currently hold the second wild card position as the fifth-best team in the Atlantic Division and eighth-best in the Eastern Conference.  Similar to their New England opponent, the Senators are also riding a two-game losing skid, with their most recent game a 2-1 shootout loss at Florida on Tuesday.  I know I sound like a broken record when I talk about Ottawa, but their offense and goaltending have had to cover up for the poor defensive play on a regular basis this season.

I usually try to start with a positive, and Ottawa‘s offense is certainly one.  Thanks in no part to only 969 shots put on net (led by Mike Hoffman’s 95), the Sens have scored 102 goals so far this season, led by  Hoffman’s 17 tallies.  While in no way as strong as Boston‘s, Ottawa‘s power play has been better than average, as they’ve scored 21 (led by Hoffman’s four) on 108 attempts for a 19.4% success rate.

The other end of the ice has not been quite as spectacular.  Although Erik Karlsson already has 71 blocks this season, the Sens have allowed 1180 shots to reach 15-9-4 Craig Anderson and co., who have a combined 92% save percentage, only half a percent above league average.  In addition to allowing too many shots into the crease, the penalty kill is also not going Ottawa‘s way.  They’ve allowed 26 goals on 118 attempts, killing only 77.97%.  If the defense could do more to improve these two statistics, they could be considered a significant threat for the cup this season.  Until then, Ottawa can only be considered a playoff stepping stone.

Some players to watch in tonight’s game include Boston‘s Rask (four shutouts [tied for third in the league]) & Ottawa‘s Anderson (15 wins [tied for sixth in the league]), Hoffman (17 goals [tied for sixth in the league]) and Karlsson (29 assists [tied for league lead] and 38 points [sixth in the league]).

Given Ottawa‘s poor defense and penalty kill, it is hard to pick against the Bruins, even if they are the visiting team.  I expect Boston to jump into the division lead with a win tonight.

Dallas may have waited until they were down two goals, but they ended up beating Minnesota 6-3.

On the same day he signed a four-year, $20.75 million contract extension, Jared Spurgeon celebrated by scoring his fifth goal of the season at the 4:57 mark of the game.  The Wild‘s second goal came 3:19 later, when Justin Fontaine and Third Star of the Game Nino Niederreiter assisted First Star Charlie Coyle to his seventh score of the season.  Minnesota‘s 2-0 lead held into the first intermission.

While the first 20 minutes was all about the home squad, the second period favored the road Stars.  Dallas scored their first goal of the game at the 14:59 mark of the second period, courtesy of Jordie Benn, assisted by Jason Spezza, his 12th helper of the season.  3:31 later, Dallas tied the game at two-all with a power play tally from Vernon Fiddler, assisted by Patrick Eaves and Alex Goligoski, his 11th of the season.  The Stars‘ final goal of the period came only 59 seconds later, as Patrick Sharp and Jamie Benn assisted Tyler Seguin to a wrister to take the lead.  Dallas‘ 3-2 lead held into the second intermission.

Dallas‘ fourth straight goal, the eventual game-winner, came only 3:41 into the final period when Johnny Oduya assisted Antoine Roussel to a backhander.  The streak ended at the 10:26 mark when Coyle and Fontaine assisted Niederreiter, setting the score at 4-3.  The comeback could not be completed though, as Cody Eakin scored the first of two empty netters for the Stars at the 18:07 mark.  The second came with only 14 seconds remaining in the game when Seguin assisted Fiddler to his second goal of the game, and the final tally of the night.

Second Star Antti Niemi improved his record to 14-5-2 after earning the win, saving 30 of 31 (96.8%).  He replaced Kari Lehtonen, who saved only two of four shots faced (50%) in only 8:16 played.  14-9-2 Devan Dubnyk earns the loss after saving only 28 of 32 (87.5%).

The DtFR Game of the Day series now stands at 28-12-6, favoring the home squads by 24 over the roadies.

Tonight is the last set of games before the NHL takes their Christmas break, with action resuming this Saturday.  Due to that, there’s a total of 10 games occurring this evening, with the first two getting started at 7 p.m. eastern (St. Louis at Boston and Anaheim at the New York Rangers [SN1]).  Three more get started 30 minutes later (New Jersey at Detroit, Vancouver at Tampa Bay [TVAS] and Ottawa at Florida [RDS2]), followed at 8 p.m. eastern by Montréal at Minnesota (NBCSN/RDS).  Chicago at Dallas gets started at 8:30 p.m. eastern, followed half an hour later by two more (Winnipeg at Calgary and Toronto at Arizona).  Finally, the nightcap drops the opening puck at 10:30 p.m. eastern when Los Angeles hosts San Jose (NBCSN/SN).

Three of tonight’s games are between divisional rivals (Ottawa at Florida, Chicago at Dallas and San Jose at Los Angeles), and they are joined by two others (St. Louis at Boston and Montréal at Minnesota) to make five games between current playoff qualifiers.

The game that deserves our attention is the one that will have the biggest effect on the standings going into the three-day break, so let’s focus in on the Sunshine State.

This will be Ottawa‘s fourth time featured in DtFR’s featured matchup.  When the focus of our attention, they have a 1-2-0 record, with their most recent showing a 4-2 victory over the Sharks on Friday.  The home Panthers have only been featured once before, when they visited Boston on December 12 and lost 3-1.

The 17-12-5 Ottawa Senators are currently in fifth place in the Atlantic Division and eighth in the Eastern Conference, which qualifies them for the second wild card position.  Their most recent contest was a 5-2 loss in Tampa Bay on Sunday.  The Sens are certainly an offensive-minded team, as they’ve had to cover up mistakes on the other end of the ice.

So far this season, the Senators have only put 953 shots on net (led by Mike Hoffman’s 94), they’ve scored on a whopping 10.6% of those attempts for 101 goals, including Hoffman’s team-leading 17 tallies.  Although Ottawaemploys a strong offense, an interestingly average aspect of their attack is their power play.  On 106 attempts, they’ve scored 20 goals (led by Hoffman’s four), for a slightly sub-average 18.87% success rate.

The offense has needed to be good, because the other end of the ice has been lacking.  Although Erik Karlsson has a team-leading 69 blocks, 1140 shots have made it to 15-9-3 Craig Anderson and co.  Although the goaltenders have allowed 99 goals, they do have a combined 91.8% save rate that slightly exceeds the league average, implying that the defense needs to do more to disrupt plays and block shots, potentially by being active before or at the trade deadline.

An even more distressing number is Ottawa‘s penalty kill rate: 76.99%.  They have allowed 26 power play goals to the opposition on 113 attempts.  This also points to Ottawa being very active at the trade deadline to bolster their blue line.

Their opposition this evening are the 18-12-4 Florida Panthers, who currently sit in fourth in the Atlantic Division and seventh in the Eastern Conference, which qualifies them for the first wild card.  They are currently riding a four-game win streak, with their most recent showing a 5-4 shootout victory over the Canucks on Sunday.  Florida plays well on both ends of the ice, but their strength is certainly their defense.

Although the Panther defense has allowed more shots on net than average, they have been much more stingy than Ottawa, allowing only 998, helped by Willie Mitchell’s team-leading 49 blocks.  The real strength has been 13-11-3 Roberto Luongo an co.  While his personal record is not indicative of their success, the goaltenders have a combined 92.6% save rate that leads the league average.  One spot where Florida still needs to improve is on the penalty kill.  They have allowed 20 goals on 106 attempts for a 81.13% kill rate that barely exceeds the league average.

The Panthers‘ offense may have put only 953 shots on goal (led by Aaron Ekblad’s 88), they’ve scored on 9.3% of those attempts for 89 goals, led by Reilly Smith’s 11.  The power play has been an extension of that success, as they’ve scored 22 goals on 113 opportunities for a 19.47% success rate that leads the league average by .55%.

Tonight’s result could have major implications on the Atlantic Division and the Eastern Conference Wild-Card standings.  Should Ottawa pull off the upset on the road, they will move into a tie with Detroit (who has a game against the Devils tonight) at 41 points.  A Florida win puts the Panthers into a tie with Boston (who is hosting the Blues this evening), while an overtime loss puts them into a tie with Detroit and Ottawa.

Some players to watch in tonight’s game include Florida‘s Ekblad (+11 and 88 shots [both lead team]), Erik Gudbranson (84 hits [leads team]) and Jaromir Jagr (24 points [leads team]) & Ottawa‘s Anderson (15 wins [tied for fourth in the league] and two shutouts [tied for seventh in the league]), Hoffman (17 goals [tied for fifth in the league]) and Karlsson (28 assists [second in the league] and 37 points [fourth in the league]).

Due to Ottawa‘s poor defensive game and being on the road, I expect the Florida Panthers to win tonight’s game.

Yesterday’s Game of the Day between the Washington Capitals and New York Rangers was a game of goal-streaks, but the Caps took control of the game in the second and third periods to win 7-3.

After 12 minutes of scoreless action, First Star of the Game Justin Williams scored Washington‘s first goal, assisted by Taylor Chorney and John Carlson (his 20th on the season).  The Caps‘ momentum was short-lived though (1:39, to be exact), as J.T. Miller fired a wrister to level the score at one-all, assisted by Rick Nash and Keith Yandle (his 18th of the season).  New York then took the lead at the 15:44 mark with a wrister from Chris Kreider.  The final goal of the period also belongs to the Blueshirts and Dan Boyle, a slap shot after being assisted by Ryan McDonagh and Mats Zuccarello (his 14th of the season), setting the score at 3-1.

Washington began their comeback at the 5:25 mark of the second when Evgeny Kuznetsov, assisted by Dmitry Orlov and Williams (his 13th of the season), fired a backhand into net, setting the score at 3-2.  1:36 later, T.J. Oshie scored on a backhander of his own, assisted by Second Star Nicklas Backstrom and Dmitry Orlov to tie the game.  Captain Alex Ovechkin finally got on the score sheet at the 11:03 mark of the second, assisted by Third Star Marcus Johnansson and Backstrom.  The final score of the period belonged to Williams, a snap shot after being assisted by Johansson and Backstrom (his 21st of the season).  William’s second tallly of the night set the score at 5-3.

Washington began the third where they ended the second, scoring their sixth tally of the evening after only 2:26.  Tom Wilson assisted Jason Chimera to his eighth goal of the season.  Only 2:10 later, the Capitals scored again, this time a snap shot from Johansson after being assisted by Kuznetsov (his 20th of the season), setting the score at the 7-3 final.

21-4-1 Braden Holtby earns the win in tonight’s game by saving 33 of 36 (91.7%), while Henrik Lundqvist’s record falls to 15-9-3 after saving only 19 of 24 (79.2%).  He was replaced with Magnus Hellberg for the third period, who saved four of six shots faced (66.7%).

The DtFR Game of the Day series now stands at 28-11-6, favoring the home squad by 26 points over the roadies.

Today’s schedule features eight games, with the action getting started at 7 p.m. eastern when half of those games drop the opening puck (Anaheim at the New York Islanders, St. Louis at Philadelphia, Columbus at Pittsburgh and Washington at Carolina).  At 8 p.m. eastern, two more games get started (Montréal at Nashville[RDS] and Dallas at Minnesota [TVAS]), followed an hour by the co-nightcaps (Toronto at Colorado and Winnipegat Edmonton).

Three of tonight’s games are between divisional rivals (Columbus at Pittsburgh, Washington at Carolina and Dallasat Minnesota), while two of tonight’s matchups are between current playoff qualifiers (Montréal at Nashville and Dallas at Minnesota).  Only one game qualifies for both lists, so we will focus on the Stars–Wild matchup.

Dallas has been featured three times already in the DtFR Game of the Day Series, most recently Saturday’s win against the Canadiens, which set their record in the series at a perfect 3-0-0.  Minnesota has been featured an additional time and host a 3-1-0 record in the series.

The 24-7-2 Stars currently lead both the Central Division and the Western Conference, and are tied with the Washington Capitals for the league lead.  Their most recent victory was the aforementioned game against the Habs.  A summary of the Stars‘ play is featured here.  For those not willing to read the summary, Dallas‘ record and position in the standings should tell the story.

The 17-8-6 Wild currently sit in fourth place in the Central Division, and fifth in the Western Conference.  Their most recent game was in Nashville on Saturday, where they lost 3-2.  So far this season, the Wild have built their success on their defensive strength.

Just as shots for are usually indicative of a team’s success, shots against can also tell a good portion of the story.  Thanks in part to Jared Spurgeon’s 65 blocks, Minnesota has allowed only 887 shots to reach 14-8-2 Devan Dubnyk and co., of which 91.9% have been saved.  One of the major shortcomings of the Wild is their penalty kill.  Although they’ve only allowed 77 opportunities and 17 goals, their 77.92% kill rate trails the league average by 3.23%.

Offensively, the Wild are an interesting situation.  While they have only managed 887 shots (led by Jason Zucker’s 88), they have scored on 9.9% of those shots for 86 goals.  An especially potent aspect of Minnesota‘s offense is their power play.  On 102 attempts, they have scored 21 goals for a 20.59% success rate that leads the league average by 1.74%.

Some players to watch in tonight’s game include Dallas‘ Jamie Benn (22 goals [leads league], 44 points [tied for second in the league], +15 [tied for fourth in the league] and 22 assists [tied for sixth in the league]), John Klingberg (26 assists [tied for third in the league]) and Tyler Seguin (44 points [tied for second in the league], 26 assists [tied for third in the league], 18 goals [fourth in the league] and +14 [tied for ninth in the league]) & Minnesota‘s Dubnyk (four shutouts [tied for second in the league] and 14 wins [tied for seventh in the league]).

The Stars and Wild have already played twice this season, with Dallas winning both games in overtime.  If that is indicative of how this game will go, it should be a good one.

Dallas proved their position as one of, if not the best team in the league by beating Montréal 6-2 in yesterday’s Game of the Day.

The Stars scored the first goal of the game after only 1:34 minutes of play, the lone goal of the first period.  Second Star of the Game Jason Spezza is credited with the tally, his 12th of the season, assisted by Ales Hemsky.

Even quicker than Spezza scored his goal, First Star Jamie Benn scored his, as he scored his unassisted goal at the 1:24 mark of the second.  1:42 later, Patrick Sharp scored the eventual game-winning power play goal, assisted by Third Star Tyler Seguin and Spezza.  The Habs finally got on the board on a power play of their own, when Tomas Fleischmann and P.K. Subban assisted Daniel Carr to his second goal of the season at the 11:35 mark, setting the score at 3-1.  Any momentum the Canadiens had built though, was squelched by another Starsgoal, this one courtesy of Seguin at the 13:51 mark, assisted by Alex Goligoski and Benn.  The 4-1 score held into the second intermission.

It was a night of quick starts for the Stars, as they scored their fifth goal only 31 seconds into the third.  Benn notched his second of the night, assisted by Sharp and Spezza.  3:41 later, the Can scored their final goal of the season when Brian Flynn assisted Paul Byron to a shorty.  On that same power play, Dallas scored their sixth goal of the evening at the 4:27 mark when Vernon Fiddler assisted Patrick Eaves to the second goal of his season, setting the score at the 6-2 final.

13-5-2 Antti Niemi earned the win after saving 21 of 23 (91.3%), while Mike Condon’s record falls to 9-7-3 after saving 17 of 23 (73.9%).  He was pulled after 44:27 for Dustin Tokarski, who saved all four shots he faced.

The DtFR Game of the Day series now stands at 28-10-6, favoring the home team by 28 points.

Six games will be played on this Sunday, with the action getting started at 4 p.m. eastern when Vancouver visits Florida, followed an hour later by two more games (New Jersey at Boston and Ottawa at Tampa Bay [RDS2]).  Finally, three games share the nightcap role, all starting at 7 p.m. eastern (Calgary at Detroit [SN], Washington at the New York Rangers [NHLN/TVAS] and San Jose at Chicago).

Two of today’s games are between divisional rivals (Ottawa at Tampa Bay and Washington at New York), as well as two involving two teams between current playoff qualifiers (Washington at New York and San Jose at Chicago).  Lastly, Washington–New York is also a rematch of last year’s Eastern Conference Semifinal.

In other words, we’re watching Washington at New York, just in case you couldn’t figure that out!

The Capitals have been featured in the DtFR Game of the Day series five times, where they currently own a 2-3-0 record.  The Rangers have been featured an additional two times, and they have a 5-1-1 record.

The 23-6-2 Washington Capitals currently lead both the Atlantic Division as well as the Eastern Conference, trailing the Stars by only two points for the league lead.  They are riding a four-game win streak, with their most recent game a 5-3 victory over the Lightning on Friday.  The Caps play a superior game on both ends of the ice, but their strength has actually been on the ice, which is surprising for a team with Nicklas Backstrom, John Carlson, Evgeny Kuznetsov and Alex Ovechkin.

20-4-1 Braden Holtby and co. have allowed only 857 shots, helped by Karl Alzner’s 76 blocks.  Of those shots, only 67 have found the back of the net (92.6% save rate), which ranks second-best in the league.  The Caps‘ penalty kill is not so much their defense, but that they do not commit many penalties.  Washington has only had to defend 87 power plays, and given up 14 goals (83.91% kill rate).

As we’ve grown accustomed to, Washington‘s offense is also very good.  Although they’ve only shot the puck 936 times (led by Ovechkin’s 155), they’ve scored a whopping 94 goals (led by Ovechkin’s 16), sixth best in the league.  Especially potent has been the Caps‘ power play, which has a 25% success rate.

They are visiting the 19-11-4 New York Rangers, who currently occupy second place in the Metropolitan Division and third in the Eastern Conference.  They are currently riding a two-game losing skid, most recently a 5-2 loss at Winnipeg on Friday.  The Blueshirts will put Holtby to the test, as they exhibit a strong offense.

Led by Rick Nash’s 96, the Rangers have put a total of 950 shots on goal so far this season, scoring 97 of those attempts (led by Mats Zuccarello’s 14).  Although not as potent as Washington‘s, New York‘s power play is also good, as they’ve scored 20 goals (led by Nash’s four) on 92 opportunities.

It goes without saying that a defense spearheaded by 15-8-3 Henrik Lundqvist in net is a good one.  Aided by Dan Girardi’s 71 blocks, the Blueshirts have only allowed 82 on 1049 shots.  Even when a man down, New York has still been strong, as Lundqvist and co. have killed 83.04% of opposing power plays.

Last year, the Caps and Rangers met in the second round of the Stanley Cup playoffs.  The Blueshirts won that series in seven games, and if that is indicative of how tonight’s game will go, we should be in for a good one.  Expect the Caps to pull off the road upset.

Ottawa tried to level the game, but it was too little too late, as the Caps held on to win 2-1 in last night’s Game of the Day.

Each period had its own goal, with the first and second belonging to Washington.  Second Star of the Game Michael Latta scored the first tally of the game at the 14:06 mark, assisted by Dmitry Orvlov and Taylor Chorney.  The second period witnessed the game-winner compliments of Third Star John Carlsson, assisted by Justin Williams and Latta at the 5:43 mark.

Ottawa got their lone tally of the evening with 4:14 remaining in the game when Kyle Turris and Erik Karlsson assisted Bobby Ryan to a power play goal, but was not able to put another past First Star Braden Holtby.

Holtby saved 26 of 27 (96.3%) to improve his record to 20-4-1, while last year’s phenom Andrew Hammond (2-1-2) took the loss after saving 23 of 25 (92%).

The DtFR Game of the Day series now stands at 24-10-5, still favoring the home squad by 21 points.

Tonight’s schedule is in stark contrast to yesterday’s two-gamer, as we have a total of 11 matchups taking place this evening.  Per the usual, the action gets started at 7 p.m. eastern when three games drop the opening puck (Anaheim at Buffalo [Bell TV], Florida at New Jersey and Vancouver at Philadelphia [SN360]), followed half an hour by two more (San Jose at Toronto and Los Angeles at Montréal [RDS]).  8 p.m. eastern brings the beginning another couple games (Nashville at St. Louis and the New York Rangers at Minnesota), followed 30 minutes later by another pair (Edmonton at Chicago and Calgary at Dallas).  Finally, the last two games get started at 9 p.m. eastern (the New York Islanders at Colorado and Columbus at Arizona).

Nashville at St. Louis represents the only game between divisional rivals, while two other games (Los Angeles at Montréal and New York at Minnesota) join that one as games between two squads currently qualifying for the playoffs.  In addition to qualifying for both sets, the Nashville–St. Louis game is also special because it is Barret Jackman’s first game at the Scottrade Center as a member of a squad not wearing the Note.

Jackman was drafted by the St. Louis Blues in the 1999 Entry Draft, 17th overall.  He saw his first action during the 2001-’02 season, and was promoted to a full-time position the following season when he won the Calder Trophy.  During his time with the Blues, he played 16,364 minutes over 803 games (an average of over 20 minutes per game), scoring 28 goals and notching 153 assists for a total of 181 points.  Pair that effort with his strong defensive game (787 hits and 987 blocks during his St. Louis career), and you get a good understanding of why so many Blues fans wore Jackman sweaters.

I try acknowledge my biases as often as possible, especially in instances like this, so I must admit that as a Bluesfan I am still partial to Jackman.  One reason for this was actually not related to what he did for the Blues, but his commitment to play in St. Louis.  During the 2004-’05 lockout season, instead of playing in Europe like many displaced players in the league, he instead chose to play with the now-defunct Missouri River Otters in St. Charles, a suburb of St. Louis.

Jackman signed with the Nashville Predators this offseason after not being offered a contract from the Notes.  In his first year with the Preds, Jackman has played all but one game, scoring a goal and an assist in his enforcer role (leads the team with 48 penalty minutes).  He is also responsible for the third-most blocks (48) and the seventh-most hits (44).

It has been defense like this that has propelled the 15-10-6 Predators to fifth in the Central Division and sixth in the Western Conference, qualifying them for the second wild card spot.  Nashville is currently riding a two-game win-less skid, with their most recent game being a 2-1 OT loss to the Flames at Bridgestone Arena on Tuesday.

That defense, headed by 12-8-6 Pekka Rinne and Captain Shea Weber, has given up only 818 shots so far this season (Roman Josi has a team-leading 84 blocks).  Those fewer shots have not necessarily yielded fewer goals though, as opponents have scored 80 tallies against the Preds, a total that trails the league average by only two scores.

One of the main reasons for Nashville‘s higher than expected goal totals is their poor penalty kill.  The Preds have given up 23 goals on 98 opportunities, meaning that they’re only killing 76.53% of opposing power plays.  If Nashville wants to be a real threat for the Cup, they will need to improve this rate.

Offensively, the Predators have put a good 973 shots on goal so far this season (led by James Neal’s 100), scoring 79 of those attempts (led by Neal’s dozen).  To make up for their poor penalty kill, Nashville plays an excellent power play, scoring on 21 of their 104 opportunities (led by Weber’s eight) – that 20.19% success rate leads the league average by 1.28%.

Their opposition this evening is the 18-10-4 St. Louis Blues, who currently sit second in the Central Division and third in the Western Conference.  In their last game played, the Blues beat the Jets in Winnipeg 4-3 on Tuesday.  Similar to the Predators, the Blues also play an defensive game.

That defense, headed by 14-7-2 Jake Allen and alternate captain Alex Pietrangelo, have given up only 891 shots (Carl Gunnarsson has 55 blocks) and 77 goals.  Even when a man-down, the Blues have been a force to be reckoned with, as they’ve only given up 19 scores on 94 opportunities for a 87.96 kill rate that exceeds the league average by 6.87%.

Offensively, the Blues have been only average.  Although they’ve managed 973 shots this season (led by Vladimir Tarasenko’s 115), only 81 have found the back of the net (led by Tarasenko’s 19).  Luckily for the Blues, they have found success on the power play, scoring on 19 of 94 opportunities (led by Tarasenko’s six goals), giving them a 20.21% success rate that exceeds the league average by 1.3%.

Some players to watch in tonight’s game include Nashville‘s Josi (84 blocks, 22 points and 15 assists [all lead team]), Neal (100 shots and 12 goals [both lead team]) and Weber (74 hits and eight power play goals [both lead team]) & St. Louis‘ Allen (four shutouts [tied for league lead], 14 wins [tied for fifth in the league], 2.11 GAA [eighth in the league] and .925 save percentage [tied for ninth in the league]) and Tarasenko (19 goals [tied for second in the league] and 32 points [tied for seventh in the league]).

While Barret Jackman should expect a warm welcome from St. Louis fans, I think those same fans will go home happy, as the Notes should be able to win this game.

Yesterday’s Game of the Day between the Edmonton Oilers and New York Rangers was a good one, as the 4-2 score was not indicative of the competitive play.

The Blueshirts opened the scoring by notching the only tally of the first period, a snap shot at the 5:04 mark from Second Star of the Game Mats Zuccarello, assisted by Keith Yandle and First Star Rick Nash.

Almost exactly 20 game minutes later, Taylor Hall fired a wrister after being assisted by Leon Draisaitl and Teddy Purcell to tie the game for Edmonton.  The draw lasted only 2:42 before Third Star Dylan McIlrath scored his first goal of the season, assisted by Yandle and Dominic Moore to give the Rangers a 2-1 lead.  Jordan Eberle scored a wrister to knot the game again, assisted by Ryan Nugent-Hopkins, but the Oilers could not maintain the tie into the third period, as Nash scored on a power play with only 39 seconds remaining, assisted by Zuccarello and Derick Brassard, giving the Blueshirts a 3-2 lead that they would not yield.

Jesper Fast tacked on an empty netter late in third period, assisted by Dominic Moore and Viktor Stalberg to set the score at the 4-2 final.

Henrik Lundqvist (15-6-3) earned the win by saving 18 of 20 (90%), while Anders Nilsson’s record falls to 10-8-1 after saving only 17 of 20 (85%).

The DtFR Game of the Day series now stands at 23-10-5, favoring the home side by 19 points.

After a busy Tuesday, Wednesday has only two games on the schedule.  The evening gets started at 7 p.m. eastern when Ottawa visits Washington (TVAS/SN), and is followed an hour later by Pittsburgh at Boston (NBCSN).

Neither of today’s matchups are divisional rivalries, but the Ottawa–Washington game is between two teams currently qualifying for the playoffs.  That game will be the one to focus on today.

The 16-10-5 Ottawa Senators currently sit in third place in the Atlantic Division and sixth place in the Western Conference.  To establish this position, they’ve needed to employ a strong offense behind Mike Hoffman to cover their defensive deficiencies.

That offense has fired the puck 866 times so far this season (led by Hoffman’s 86) for a total of 94 goals (led by Hoffman’s 17), connecting on 10.9% of attempts.  An especially strong point of the offense has been their efforts on the power play, scoring 19 goals (led by Hoffman’s four tallies) on 95 attempts, giving them a 20% success rate.

The offensive power has been necessary to cover up for issues on the other end of the ice.  Four different goalies have taken their place between the pipes, but 14-9-3 Craig Anderson has taken the lion’s share of the minutes (1,543 of 1,881 available minutes, or 82%).  Anderson and co. have saved 91.8% of 1049 shots for 90 goals against, but within that stat the problem is found, as the save percentage is actually better than the league average.  Although Erik Karlsson has a team-leading 60 blocks, the defense is giving up far too many shots.  If Ottawa wants to be a real threat to the Cup this season, they will need to bolster the blue line.

The 21-6-2 Washington Capitals were featured in Monday’s Game of the Day.  You can read more about them here. If you don’t want to read the summary, just know that Washington is pretty good.

Some players to watch in tonight’s game include Ottawa‘s Anderson (14 wins [tied for fifth in the league] and two shutouts [tied for seventh in the league]), Hoffman (17 goals [fourth in the league] and 30 points [tied for ninth in the league]), Karlsson (27 assists [tied for league lead] and 34 points [fifth in the league]) and Mark Stone (21 assists [tied for fifth in the league]) & Washington‘s Braden Holtby (19 wins [leads the league], 1.87 GAA [leads the league] and .933 save percentage [tied for fourth in the league]), Evgeny Kuznetsov (+15 [tied for second in the league]) and Alex Ovechkin (+13 [tied for seventh in the league]).

The major hole in this game is represented by Ottawa‘s defense.  Although the offense may be able to cover this hole most nights, Washington‘s defense will not let that happen.  Expect the Caps to hold home ice for the win.

The Washington Capitals paid back the Pittsburgh Penguins for beating them in the Verizon Center in October by taking a 4-1 victory in Consol Energy Center in last night’s Game of the Day, spoiling Mike Sullivan’s debut.

Third Star of the Game Nicklas Backstrom scored his 10th goal of the season at the 3:53 mark of the first period after being assisted by Second Star T.J. Oshie and Karl Alzner.  The eventual game-winner was fired only 3:11 later when Jason Chimera and Jay Beagle assisted John Carlson to the Caps‘ final goal of the period.  Evgeni Malkin fired the lone goal of the game for the Pens at the 13:59 mark, assisted by Ben Lovejoy and Phil Kessel.  The 2-1 Washington lead held through both intermissions before expanding.

Oshie again found his way onto the stat sheet with his first of two goals in the final period.  He was assisted by Backstrom at the 8:50 mark to give the Caps a two-goal lead.  His second was a five-on-three power play goal, scored at the 19:11 mark after being assisted by Backstrom and Carlson.

First Star Braden Holtby saved 45 of 46 (97.8%) shots to improve his record to 19-4-1, while Marc-Andre Fleury (13-10-2) takes the loss after saving only 30 of 34 (88.2%).

The DtFR Game of the Day series now stands 22-10-5 in favor of the home team, who lead the roadies by 17 points.

Tonight’s schedule is a busy one, with a total of 11 games being played.  Four get their start at 7 p.m. eastern (New Jersey at Buffalo [Bell TV], Florida at the New York Islanders, Edmonton at the New York Rangers and Carolina at Philadelphia), followed half an hour later by two more (Tampa Bay at Toronto [TVAS] and San Jose at Montréal [RDS]).  Starting at 8 p.m. eastern are three games involving the Central Division (Calgary at Nashville, Vancouver at Minnesota and St. Louis at Winnipeg), followed half an hour later by the two nightcaps of the evening (Colorado at Chicago [NBCSN] and Columbus at Dallas).

Four of tonight’s games involve division rivals (Carolina at Philadelphia, Tampa Bay at Toronto, St. Louis at Winnipeg and Colorado at Chicago), while another represents the lone matchup between two teams currently qualifying for the playoffs: Edmonton at New York.  To commemorate the potential for Edmonton‘s first playoff push since falling in the Stanley Cup Finals to Carolina in 2006, let’s tune into the Oilers visiting the Rangers.

Yes, you read that correctly.  The 14-15-2 Edmonton Oilers are currently qualifying for the playoffs.  Nevermind that three Pacific Division teams are technically tied for second place in the division and Edmonton narrowly leads Vancouver by Regulation+Overtime wins, focus more on the fact that Edmonton only needs Arizona to lose two games for the Oilers to officially move past them in the standings.  The future is bright for the Oil!

But how have they made it to this position?  Did Connor McDavid get healthy and the media not let us know? No, he still has near a month before he sees the ice again, but that has not stopped the squad from winning six games in a row coming into tonight’s matchup, including a 3-2 victory over Boston in the TD Garden last night.

So far this season, Edmonton‘s offense has been little more than average.  They’ve scored 80 goals so far, led by Taylor Hall’s 14 tallies, on 865 shots (led by Hall’s 124).  While the shot total trails the league average, the Oilershave made up for it by scoring on 9.2% of their attempts.

Even the power play has been average, as they’ve scored 18 goals on 95 attempts (six players have two goals, including Hall and McDavid), the same 18.95% the average team has earned.

The defense has been where Edmonton has really struggled this season.  Most teams have given up 79 goals so far this season: Anders Nilsson (10-7-1) and co. have given up a whopping 90.  This hasn’t been all the goaltenders’ fault though, as they’ve faced 913 shots already this season.  Oscar Klefbom has a team-leading 62 blocks, but the rest of the defense needs to do more to prevent opponents from putting so much pressure on their keeper.

Luckily, one of the saving graces of this defense has been their penalty kill.  They’ve given up 18 goals on 91 attempts for a 80.22% kill rate that is, once again, simply on par with the rest of the league.

Also, speaking of keepers and the like, it would be wrong to ignore 3-8-1 Cam Talbot who was such an important part of New York‘s season last year when King Henrik went down.  Unfortunately for him, he has not found the same success in Edmonton and has been again relegated to a backup position.

While it is exciting for the Oil to be in the position they’re in after years of futility, they face a stiff opponent this evening that will surely test their grit, as they head to Madison Square Garden to face the 18-9-4 New York Rangers, who currently own the third-best record in the Metropolitan Division and fourth in the Eastern Conference.  With their eyes on a deep playoff run, even though they’re currently riding a three-game losing skid (including a 5-4 OT loss in Calgary on Saturday), the Blueshirts employ a strong game on both ends of the ice.

Beginning with the offense, we find a team that has scored 89 goals this season (led by Mats Zuccarello’s 13), well exceeding the league average of 79.  I usually say that goals are a symptom of a high quantity of shots, which still holds true with the Rangers‘ 878 total shots (led by Rick Nash’s 88), but I think this is actually an instance of impeccable and opportunistic shooting accuracy, made evident by a whopping 10.1% of shots tickling the twine.

The Blueshirts are an imposing offense when evenly matched, but their power play has been especially strong, as they’ve scored the league average of 18 goals on 12 fewer attempts (21.69%).  While Edmonton‘s penalty kill may be good, it would be in the Oil‘s best interest to avoid going down a man as much as possible.

Of course, we cannot talk about Nash, Zuccarello and the offense without discussing 14-6-3 Henrik Lundqvist and the Rangers‘ defense. They’ve given up only 70 goals this season, and saved 959 shots (well exceeding the league average) for a 93.1% save percentage.  But it’s not been just King Henrik, but also the defense, specifically Dan Girardi and his 70 blocks.  Unfortunately for him, one of those blocks cost him a knee, as he is currently dealing with swelling in that spot and listed as day-to-day.

Just like Edmonton, New York is also good on the penalty kill.  They’ve faced 100 penalties already this season, and only allowed 16 goals.  That 84% kill rate exceeds the league average by over 3%.

The Blueshirts and Oil have already met once this season, a 7-5 Edmonton victory last Friday in Rexall Place.

Some players to watch in tonight’s game include Edmonton‘s Hall (34 points [tied for fourth in the league], +14 [tied for fifth in the league], 20 assists [tied for sixth in the league] and 14 goals [tied for eighth in the league]) and New York‘s Lundqvist (14 wins [tied for fourth in the league], .933 save percentage [tied for fourth in the league], two shutouts [tied for seventh in the league] and 2.14 GAA [ninth in the league]).

The Oilers may be hot and caught the Rangers on a long Canadian road trip last week, but I do not think they will be so fortunate in Madison Square Garden.  I expect the Rangers to easily take care of the Oil, potentially even shut them out, to break this losing skid.

Yesterday’s Game of the Day was a Metropolitan beat-down, as the New York Islanders absolutely took it to the New Jersey Devils, winning on a four-goal shutout.

The game-winning goal belongs to First Star of the Game Marek Zidlicky, scored at the 7:43 mark of the opening period after being assisted by Mikhail Grabovski and Josh Bailey.  Third Star John Tavares notched the lone insurance goal of the first period at the 11:53 mark after being assisted by Kyle Okposo and Brock Nelson.

It was another two-goal period for the Isles in the second, with Matt Martin notching the first one at the 7:28 mark, with assists going to Casey Cizikas and Calvin de Haan.  Zidlicky snuck his second goal of the game, and the final tally of the night, at the 19:17 mark, with assists belonging to Thomas Hickey and Steve Bernier.  The 4-0 lead held not only  into the second intermission, but to the final horn.

Second Star Thomas Greiss (9-3-2) earned the shutout victory on 27 shots faced, while Cory Schneider (13-8-4) earns the loss after saving only 15 of 18 (83.3%).  He was pulled from the game after 27:28 (the third goal of the game), with Keith Kinkaid finishing up the remaining 32:32, saving 11 of 12 (91.7%).

Tomorrow’s schedule consists of five games, and the action gets started at 7 p.m. eastern when three of them drop the opening puck (Edmonton at Boston [TVAS], Washington at Pittsburgh [NHLN] and Tampa Bay at Columbus), with the other two following only half an hour later (Los Angeles at Ottawa [RDS] and Buffalo at Detroit [Bell TV]).

Two of tonight’s games are between divisional rivals (Washington at Pittsburgh and Buffalo at Detroit), and only one is between two teams currently qualifying for the playoffs (Los Angeles at Ottawa).  Then again, this information really doesn’t matter that much, as you probably knew which matchup is our Game of the Day today.

When Pittsburgh fired Head Coach Mike Johnston Saturday morning, you saw this one coming.  Johnston led the club to a 15-10-3 record so far this season (58-37-15 during his 110-game tenure), which has the Pens in fifth place in the division and ninth in the conference.

Even though Jim Rutherford went out and traded for Phil Kessel (nine goals [second-most on team]) as well as ascertained a few other offensive skaters, Johnston’s Penguins simply did not produce, which should take most of the blame for him being relieved of his duties.  So far this season, they’ve only scored 66 goals (led by Evgeni Malkin’s 13), but even more distressing is the 858 shots (led by Kessel’s 90) they’ve put on goal (trails the league average by 13).  While the number isn’t terribly under the league average, their 7.7% shot percentage speaks volumes, as it trails the league average by 1.2%.

Probably the biggest issue of Pittsburgh‘s game has been the power play.  They’ve scored only 15 goals (led by Malkin’s six) on 96 opportunities, for a 15.63% success rate that trails the league average by 3.49%.  One saving grace about the Pens‘ man-advantage has been that they have yet to give up a shorty all season.

What has kept Pittsburgh in the midst of the playoff hunt this season has been Marc-Andre Fleury (13-9-2) and the defense.  They’ve only given up 65 goals so far this season, a number that makes most teams jealous.  Not only have Fleury and co. saved 92.9% of the 887 shots they’ve faced this season, but they’ve also had Ian Cole’s team-leading 60 blocks to keep even more from reaching the net.

Even when a man-down, the Pens have still done well in keeping the opposition off the board.  They’ve only given up 15 power play goals on 95 attempts, saving a strong 84.21% of attempts.

Johnston’s replacement was found within the organization, albeit four hours up the road in Wilkes-Barre/Scranton.  Mike Sullivan had only been the head coach of the Baby Pens for this season, but he had led his AHL squad to a 19-5-0 record (best winning percentage in the league) and the top of the Atlantic Division.  In addition to playing 12 years of professional hockey (including part or all of 11 seasons in the NHL) he was head coach of the Boston Bruins for two seasons from 2003-’06 (04-’05 was the lockout) where he amassed a total record of 70-56-15-23.  He also coached the Vancouver Canucks for six games during the ’13-’14 season when John Tortorella was suspended, earning a 2-4-0 record.

Another indicator that management is expecting more goals scored is Wilkes-Barre/Scranton‘s offensive strength.  The Baby Penguins have scored 89 goals so far this season, a total that is second in the conference and third in the league, while being backed by the second-best defense and goaltending in the league.  Sullivan will be expected to enact that same game plan with the senior squad, especially since the defense is already present.

It will be trial by fire for Sullivan’s first game though, as he is going up against the division-leading and second-best in conference 20-6-2 Washington Capitals.  Washington plays a tough game on both ends of the ice, but their defense and goaltending has been their strongest asset this season and will be a good test for Sullivan’s new system.

So far this season, Washington has given up only 62 goals, thanks in part to Karl Alzner’s 62 blocks and Braden Holtby (18-4-1) and co.’s incredible play.  Of the 766 shots that have made their way to the net (102 fewer than the league average, but on two-less games), Holtby and Philipp Grubauer have saved 92.4%.  Even when down a man, the Caps have still kept the opposition off the board 83.54% of the time, giving up only 13 tallies.

The offense has been no joke either, as they’ve put 854 shots (led by Alex Ovechkin’s 138) on goal so far this season for 83 tallies (9.7%), led by Ovechkin’s 14.  Probably the scariest facet of Washington‘s game is the power play, as they’ve scored on 21 of 90 opportunities (23.33%), led by Ovechkin’s four.

Some players to watch in tonight’s game include Pittsburgh‘s Fleury (13 wins [tied for fifth in the league], two shutouts [tied for seventh in the league] and .927 save percentage [eighth in the league]) and Washington‘s Holtby (18 wins [leads the league], 1.9 GAA [leads the league] and .93 save percentage [tied for sixth in the league]), Evgeny Kuznetsov (+15 [tied for second in the league]) and Ovechkin (14 goals [tied for seventh in the league]).

Based on the stats alone, Pittsburgh‘s weak offense should not be able to keep up with Washington‘s, but it is always hard to tell how a team will react to a new coach.  Unlike the first coaching change of the year in Columbus (which, interestingly, involved the coach he replaced in Vancouver), I think this one was a good move by management that will hopefully yield positive results for an organization that intends to be a part of the playoff discussion.

The insurance goal in a 2-0 shutout may not always be the most important goal, but it was last night when Chicago beat Winnipeg in the United Center.

The winning goal was scored quickly, when First Star of the Game Jonathan Toews, assisted by Marian Hossa and Andrew Shaw, scored at the 4:34 mark on their first power play opportunity of the contest.

The aforementioned insurance goal did not come until the 10:36 mark of the second period on another Winnipegpenalty.  Teuvo Teravainen and David Rundblad assisted, you guessed it, Second Star Patrick Kane to his 25th-straight point.  This point tied him with Sidney Crosby’s own 25-point streak during the 2010-’11 season.

Second Star Corey Crawford (14-7-2) earned his third shutout and 14th win of the season by saving all 25 shots faced, while Connor Hellebuyck (4-1-0) earned the first loss of his career by saving 29 of 31 (93.5%).

The DtFR Game of the Day series now stands at 21-9-5, favoring the home squad by 17 points.

Per usual, today’s Saturday schedule is a busy one, with 20 teams in action.  The action gets started early in the TD Garden when Boston hosts Florida at 1 p.m. eastern (SN1).  Four games are getting started at the typical 7 p.m. eastern (Los Angeles at Buffalo [Bell TV], Ottawa at Montréal [CBC/TVAS], Washington at Tampa Bay [NHLN] and the New York Islanders at Columbus).  The next games don’t get started until an hour later at 8 p.m. eastern (Dallas at St. Louis and Colorado at Nashville), followed an hour later by Carolina at Arizona.  The New York Rangers and Calgary drop the puck at 10 p.m. eastern (CBC), with the final game of the evening, Minnesota at San Jose, getting started at 10:30 p.m. eastern.

Five of today’s games are divisional rivalries (Florida at Boston, Ottawa at Montréal, New York at Columbus, Dallasat St. Louis and Colorado at Nashville), and three are between two teams currently qualifying for the playoffs (Ottawa at Montréal, Dallas at St. Louis and Minnesota at San Jose).

Today marks the first game back in the TD Garden for Reilly Smith, so let’s head to Boston for their afternoon matinee with the B’s.

The Boston Bruins traded Reilly Smith to the Florida Panthers this off-season in exchange for Jimmy Hayes.  During his two seasons in Boston, he was a consistent offensive threat as he ranked top-five in goals and top-six in assists in both campaigns.  He was especially important in Boston‘s special teams unit as well, as he notched a total of 18 power play assists, including 10 last season.

So far this season, Smith ranks first in power play goals (three); third in goals (seven); fourth in shots (55); fifth in points (14); and sixth in assists (seven), +/- (+1) and hits (40), and has been an integral addition to a Panthersquad that has intentions of playing hockey instead of golf this April.

Maybe more significant than Smith returning to the Garden this afternoon is not so much his presence, but the presence of a man he also represents.  Smith was not the only contract that Florida has taken on – they are also currently paying Marc Savard’s salary.  Savard hasn’t stepped foot on the ice since the 2010-’11 Stanley Cup Championship season, and it is almost 100% certain that he never will again due to post-concussion syndrome.

During his playing days in Boston, he played a total of 304 games, scoring 74 goals (25 in 2008-’09) and 231 assists (74 in 2006-’07) for 305 total points (96 in ’06-’07).  Just like Smith, he represented a strong force on Boston‘s power play team as he notched a total of 29 goals (10 in ’06-’07) and 102 assists (39 in ’06-’07).

Currently, Florida sits outside the playoff picture, trailing Boston by only a lone point for the second wild card spot.  They play a strong defensive game with a resurgent Roberto Luongo in net.

Luongo (10-10-3) and co. have only given up 70 goals so far this season, a total that trails the league average by seven tallies.  Especially impressive about this is that 866 shots have found their way to goal, which exceeds the league average of 849, and the goalies have combined for a 92.4% save percentage.

Offensively, the Panthers have notched a total of 72 tallies on 824 shots (8.7%), led by Jaromir Jagr’s nine goals.

The opposition will test that defense, as they like to play a very strong offensive game.  So far this season, the Boston Bruins have scored 87 goals, led by Brad Marchand’s 13 tallies.  What’s most impressive about this high number is they are doing it on much fewer shots, made evident by the strong 10.7% shooting percentage.

Especially potent has been the Bruins‘ power play.  A total of 23 goals have been scored with the man-advantage (led by Loui Eriksson’s six tallies).  While that 23 is good, it’s made even better when it’s presented next to the lowly 77 penalties committed against the Bruins.  For those of you not doing that math, the Bruins are scoring on 29.87% of their power play opportunities.  The Panthers would be very wise to avoid the box at all costs.

Defensively, the Bruins are still a force to be reckoned with.  Although the defense and Tuukka Rask (10-7-3) started slowly this year, they’ve given up only 75 goals so far this season.  The 783 shots that Torey Krug doesn’t block (47 so far this season) have been saved 90.9% of the time.

The biggest shortcoming of this defense has been their penalty killing abilities.  Boston has given teams 103 opportunities, and has been scored on 22 times.  That 78.64% kill rate needs to improve if Boston wants to get out of a wild card position and as far away as possible from their division-leading rivals.

Some players to keep an eye on in today’s game include Boston‘s Rask (three shutouts [tied for second in the league]) and Florida‘s Aaron Ekblad (80 shots, +7, and two game-winners [all lead team])

I think Boston‘s offense will be too much to handle for Florida‘s defense, so I predict that the Bruins will have the potential to move into the third division spot should Montréal beat Ottawa this evening.

Yesterday’s Game of the Day between New Jersey and the New York Rangers finally gave the series its first overtime game, as the Devils won on a Lee Stempniak goal to grab the bonus point.

The Blueshirts struck first with a goal only 3:12 into the game, when Oscar Lindberg assisted Derek Stepan to his third goal of the season.  The one-goal advantage held into the second period.

Assisted by Mike Cammalleri and Damon Severson at the 1:52 mark of the second, Adam Henrique leveled the score at one-all, the score that held until Stempniak, first star of the game, fired his game winner at the 3:07 mark of three-on-three overtime.

The DtFR Game of the Day series now stands at a six-all draw.

Today is the second day of the season in which the league only has one game on the schedule, and the puck is dropped at 7 p.m. eastern (NHL Network).  Hope you enjoyed watching the Blueshirts yesterday, ‘cuz…

…The World’s Most Famous Arena is hosting the Sharks tonight.

The Blueshirts won both games last season by a combined score of 7-1 after being swept by the Sharks the season before.  So far this season, both teams have found early success as San Jose is 4-1-0 and New York is 3-2-1.

Some players to watch in this matchup include Sharks goaltender Martin Jones (two shutouts [tied for lead in league], averaging 0.33 goals against per game [second best in the league], stopping .987 percent of shots faced [second best in league] and owning three wins [tied for second in league]) and Rangers goaltender Henrik Lundqvist (owns three wins [tied for second best in league]).

As stated before, the Sharks enter the game with the better record and on better rest.  It will be interesting to see if Martin Jones can continue his early success against a proven Rangers side.

Heck, why not… I’ll pick Sharks in this one!

Last night’s Game of the Day between the Blueshirts and Habs ended in a three-goal shutout for Montréal, earning them their best start (5-0-0) in their illustrious franchise history.

The Habs earned their first goal after almost 29 minutes of scoreless play when Tomas Fleischmann scored his second goal of the year, the eventual game winner, off an assist from David Desharnais.  Both were involved in the first insurance goal of the game, assisting Dale Weise to his first season of the season with little more than two minutes remaining in the game.  The final goal was fired by Tomas Plekanec into an empty net in the final minute of action.

Carey Price earned the shutout victory by stopping all 25 Rangers shots, while Henrik Lundqvist only stopped 29 of 31 (93.5%).

Don’t let the Canadiens (or Maple Leafs fans!) know now, but in addition to having the best start ever, they also have a little bit of history on their side.  The franchise has begun their season at 4-0-0 three times before, and all three of those seasons ended with the Stanley Cup living in The City of Saints for the year.

The DtFR Game of the Day series now stands at a 5-4 advantage for the home squad after the third straight shutout.

Tonight, there’s seven games on the schedule.  The evening gets started at 7 p.m. eastern when San Jose visits New Jersey and Toronto visits Columbus.  Half an hour later, the Canes visit the Wings.  At 8 p.m. eastern, Calgaryvisits Winnipeg.  Starting at 10 p.m. eastern are St. Louis at Vancouver and Colorado at Anaheim.  Finally, Minnesota and Los Angeles drop the puck at 10:30 p.m. eastern.

There are a few significant returns tonight, including Calgary‘s Michael Frolik to Winnipeg and San Jose coach Peter DeBoer to New Jersey.  That being said, there is one that stands out even more: Francois Beauchemin, current defenseman for the Colorado Avalanche, is returning to the Pond, a place he has called home twice for a combined 9 seasons (approximately) of his 14+ year career.  Because of this, Colorado at Anaheim is today’s Game of the Day.