Down the Frozen River

Tag: Blue Jackets

  • October 27 – Day 16 – Bunches of animals are showing up in St. Louis this week. Today it’s Otters.

    It’s a busy Thursday, just the way we like them. Per usual, the action gets started at 7 p.m. with three puck drops (Minnesota at Buffalo, Arizona at Philadelphia and the New York Islanders at Pittsburgh), followed half an hour later by two more (Florida at Toronto and Tampa Bay at Montréal [RDS/SN360]). The top of the hour marks the start of two contests (Detroit at St. Louis and Dallas at Winnipeg), while this evening’s co-nightcaps wait until 10:30 before starting (Nashville at Los Angeles and Columbus at San Jose). All times eastern.

    It’s goin’ be lit.

    Short list:

    • Arizona at Philadelphia – Ryan White returns to the Wells Fargo Center, his home for the previous two seasons.
    • New York at Pittsburgh – I don’t need to dress up this rivalry.
    • Florida at Toronto – James Reimer only played eight regular season games with San Jose, so the Panthers are effectively his second team after six seasons with Toronto.
    • Tampa Bay at Montréal – Michael Bournival used to call the Bell Centre home. Now his office is in the Sunshine State.
    • Detroit at St. Louis – In addition to being a vintage rivalry, Steve Ott returns to Scottrade Center.

    If Reimer were expected to play this evening in Toronto, we’d certainly focus there. Instead, we head to St. Louis with Otter for an old-timey rivalry.

    UnknownUnknown

     

     

     

    Center Ott arrived in St. Louis with Ryan Miller when the Blues traded William Carrier, Jaroslav Halak and Chris Stewart to Buffalo at the 2013-’14 trade deadline. Miller departed for Vancouver after that postseason, but Ott remained until this offseason.

    Ever since he entered the league in 2002, Ott has had a reputation for being one of the biggest pests in hockey. His penchant for getting into even the coolest of heads is well-known, as is his ability to cuss out any player in the arena in his native tongue.

    It’s an ability that doesn’t show up on his stat sheet. The NHL doesn’t track “Caused Penalties in Minutes,” but if they did Ott would be a league leader. Some of the most recent Blues memories of Ott were against the Blackhawks during last season’s Western Quarterfinals. Ott was regularly getting into it with Jonathan Toews, a player that spent only 62 minutes in the penalty box during the regular season (.775 minutes, or 46.5 seconds, per game). In those seven games, he served 10 minutes – over 1.4 minutes per contest!

    But it’s not simply his quick wit and abrasive behavior that has made him a fan favorite with every team he’s played for. During the 2014-’15 season, his first full campaign in St. Louis, he scored 12 points (including nine assists) while throwing 182 hits and 14 blocks. He was also effective at causing turnovers that season, forcing 21 giveaways.

    This year, Ott dons the sweater of the Blues‘ former rivals: the 5-2-0 Detroit Red Wings. Before Detroit swapped conferences in 2013, the Blues and Wings shared the same division since 1981, which led to some fantastic matchups when they were both playing well (also read as when St. Louis was playing well).

    The Wings enter tonight’s game on a five-game winning streak, tying Arizona for the longest active streak of any variety – except that the Coyotes have been on the losing side of things.

    Much of that success has been due to some serious offensive firepower. They’ve scored 24 goals already this year in only seven games played (they average over 3.4 goals per game). Gustav Nyquist and Thomas Vanek take equal responsibility, as they both lead the team with eight points to their credit. Completing the scores have been Darren Helm and Vanek,  each of whom have a team-high four goals to their name.

    The 4-2-1 Blue Notes have a .667 winning percentage in the Scottrade Center, and they’ll be looking to improve that to a .750 this evening. Although they play a more well-rounded game than their opposition, St. Louis also prefers to have the puck on their stick.

    Just like he’s been the last three seasons, Vladimir Tarasenko has been the star of St. Louis so far this season (that’s why I have him on my fantasy team!). He has eight points to his credit already, four of which are goals – both totals lead the team.

    Some players to keep an eye on this evening include Detroit‘s Helm (+9 [second-best in the NHL]) and Jimmy Howard (.5 GAA [leads the league] on a .984 save percentage [leads the league] for one shutout) & St. Louis‘ Jake Allen (2.39 GAA for three wins [both best on the team]) and Tarasenko (eight points [best on the team]).

    The Blues barely had the upper hand last year, going 1-0-1 against the Wings by forcing overtime in their first meeting. Vegas predicts St. Louis will keep that run going tonight, as they’re favored at -155. I think that’s a safe assumption. The Blues should win this evening.

    Hockey Birthday:

    • Sergei Samsonov (1978-) – This left wing played exactly 888 regular season games, over 500 of which were with Boston. He was drafted eighth overall in the 1997 NHL Entry Draft, seven picks after fellow Bruins-pick Joe Thornton, and a year later the Russian earned the Calder Memorial Trophy.
    • Brandon Saad (1992-) – This is Saad’s second season in Columbus after spending four seasons with ex-division rival Chicago. He’d already scored 179 points before this season started. Maybe he’ll score another tonight in The Tank.

    With three goals in the second period, the New York Rangers bested the visiting Boston Bruins 5-2 in yesterday’s Game of the Day.

    Boston actually jumped out to a 2-0 lead, starting with David Pastrnak‘s (Brad Marchand and Zdeno Chara) wrister only 10 seconds into the contest. With 5:16 remaining in the opening frame, the Bruins‘ Austin Czarnik (David Krejci) doubled the visitor’s score with the first goal of his young career.

    New York‘s comeback began 44 seconds before the midway point of the game when Second Star of the Game Rick Nash (Derek Stepan and Jimmy Vesey) connected on a power play wrister. 7:19 later, Kevin Hayes (Jesper Fast and Ryan McDonagh) scored his second goal of the season on a wrister to draw the Blueshirts even. 36 seconds before the final horn of the second period, First Star Brandon Pirri (Third Star J.T. Miller and Mika Zibanejad) buried the Rangers‘ second power play goal of the game. That tally ended up being the game winner.

    Pirri (Marc Staal and Miller) and Vesey (Nash and Stepan) both scored insurance goals in the final frame to put this game away.

    Henrik Lundqvist earns the victory after saving 27-of-29 shots faced (93.1%), while Zane McIntyre takes the loss, saving 26-of-31 (83.9%).

    With another home victory, the DtFR Game of the Day series favors the home sides by six points with a 11-6-1 record.

  • October 22 – Day 16 – Welcome back, buddy!

    After a total of eight goals were scored in regulation, last night’s Game of the Day between the Philadelphia Flyers and the Boston Bruins ended with a Flyer power play goal from Claude Giroux to seal the win.

    The first goal was witness to four goals, but ended in a two-all draw. Pierre-Edouard Bellemare began the scoring at the 9:28 mark of the first to give Philly a one-goal lead.  However, it was short lived, as Brett Connolly scored his first of the season exactly four minutes after.  Philadelphia again took the lead with a goal from Sam Gagner at the 15:04 mark, but the Bruins struck back again 2:20 later with a power play goal from new father Patrice Bergeron.

    The second period was all Boston, who scored twice and held the Flyers scoreless.  Chris Kelly fired a shorty at the 4:31 mark to give the Bruins their first lead of the evening, followed 4:18 later by Jimmy Hayes’ second score of the year.

    Just as it was a perfect second for Boston, it was a mirror in the third for Philadelphia.  Giroux narrowed the deficit to one at the 7:48 mark, followed by Wayne Simmonds’ game-tying tally at the 10:24 mark.

    Tuukka Rask earned the loss (or was it Ryan Spooner and his hooking penalty?) after making only 32 of 37 saves on the night (86.5%), while Steve Mason earned the win after replacing Michal Neuvirth (10 for 12, 83.3%) after the first period.  He stopped 16 of 18 (88.9%)

    After the loss, the DtFR Game of the Day series still favors the home squad, standing at 8-5-2.

    Tonight’s NHL schedule is full of excitement as there are eight games being played.  The evening gets started at 7 p.m. eastern when Arizona visits the New York Rangers and Dallas visits Pittsburgh (SN360), followed half an hour later by New Jersey at Ottawa.  At 8 p.m. eastern, two more games get started (Anaheim at Nashville and Columbus at Minnesota), followed half an hour later by Florida at Chicago.  At 10 p.m. eastern, Washington pays their yearly visit to Vancouver (SN360), followed half an hour later by the final game of the night: Los Angeles at San Jose.

    Before yesterday, the most exciting thing happening pertaining to a particular game was the return of Mike Santorelli to Nashville… where he played 54 games over two seasons… yeah…  Other than that, it was the lone divisional rivalry of the night between the Kings and Sharks.

    Luckily for us, the Blue Jackets decided to add a little bit of drama and fire Head Coach Todd Richards, a day after his own birthday no less, and hire everyone’s favorite loose cannon coach: John Tortorella!  That makes Columbus at Minnesota our Game of the Day!

    Columbus Blue Jackets LogoUnknown-4

     

     

     

     

    Hey buddy, how’ve you been?  Missed you! .Gif compliments of Sean Gentille at SportingNews.

    Anyways, our buddy Torts is taking over the worst team in hockey currently, as the Blue Jackets have yet to even take a game to overtime in seven tries.  The Jackets have two goals less than the league average, which isn’t terrible in the grand scheme of things, but have given up 19 more goals than the average team.  That one there is bad news.  Seven of those goals have been a result of being a man-down, which is three higher than the rest of the league.  Due to this, the Jackets are only killing two-thirds of the opposition’s power play, a rate almost 20% below average.

    There are a few good things going on in Columbus though, one of which being the power play.  Teams are averaging only four power play goals so far this season, but the Jackets have six to their credit (of course, half of those belong to Brandon Saad) and have earned nine more power play opportunities, giving them a 2.4% better power play than the average team.  They are also not committing too many penalties, as they’ve only been a man down an extra time over the league average.

    They have also accounted for a ton more shots than everybody else (52 more, to be exact), but they haven’t been able to sneak any past the opposing goaltender.  The Jackets‘ shot percentage is only 5.8%, compared to the league average 8.9%.  That stat comes with a grain of salt, though, as they’ve also given up 32 more shots than the average team, and only saving 85.2% of them (compared to the 91.7% league average).

    Lucky for them, their new master commander will lead them into battle for the first time against the team that currently occupies the final wild card spot in the Western Conference with seven points: the Minnesota Wild.

    Some players to watch in this one include Minnesota‘s Zach Parise (five goals [tied for second in the league],

    And, of course, Torts.

    Feeling is mutual, buddy.  Thanks to Reddit user MixtapeNostalgia for supplying the .gif here.

    The Wild are favored at -200 at home, which only further convinces me that Minnesota should run away with this one.

  • October 17 – Day 11 – Chicago’s so Saad he’s gone

    Yesterday’s Game of the Day between the Colorado Avalanche and the Anaheim Ducks ended poorly for the home squad, as the Avs earned the three-goal shutout victory.

    Nathan MacKinnon, 2013’s first round pick, scored the opening and winning goal of the game before a full minute was off the clock with a slapshot to beat Frederik Andersen.  The two insurance goals were scored by Jack Skille and John Mitchell (an empty netter), in the second and third periods respectively.

    Reto Berra stopped all 35 shots he faced to earn his first victory of the year, while Andersen’s record falls to 0-2-1 after stopping 22 of 24 (91.7%).

    This was the fourth straight shutout victory in the DtFR Game of the Day series, which now stands at a five-all tie.

    Tonight’s schedule features a full 10 games, meaning a third of the league is dormant tonight.  As usual, the evening gets started at 7 p.m. eastern with six fixtures (Detroit at Montréal [NHL Network], Nashville at Ottawa, Buffalo at Tampa Bay, Dallas at Florida, Toronto at Pittsburgh and Carolina at Washington).  At 7:30 eastern, San Jose and the Islanders drop the puck in the Barclays Center, followed an hour later by Columbus at Chicago.  Finally, at 10 p.m. eastern, the final two matchups get started when Edmonton visits Calgary and Boston plays Arizona.

    While there are four divisional rivalries being played tonight, there’s one game that sticks out because of the return of a player to the franchise that drafted him.  This skater won two Stanley Cups in three years and scored 52 regular season goals and 74 regular seasons assists, much less 15 goals and 19 assists in the playoffs, while playing for the team.

    That man is none other than Brandon Saad, which is why Columbus at Chicago is today’s Game of the Day.

    Columbus Blue Jackets LogoUnknown-2

     

     

     

     

     

     

    During his time with Chicago, he never had a Corsi rating poorer than the +7 he earned last season (with the exception of the two games he played with the Hawks in 2011-’12), and increased his scoring contributions each year.  He scored 27 points in the 2012-’13 season, 47 in 2013-’14, and 52 last season.

    During last season’s Stanley Cup run, he scored eight goals (third on the team) (seven of them at even-strength, a stat he placed second best in), a +5 Corsi rating (tied for sixth best on team), 11 points (tied for eighth on team) and three assists (tied for 13th on team).

    The left winger has scored three goals so far this season (12th best in the league) for the 0-4-0 Jackets, all of them on the power play (he’s best in the league in that category).  He is also the proud owner of the 53rd best shot percentage in the NHL after cashing in on three of his 11 shots (27.3%).

    The spread currently reads -190 for the Hawks.  I’ve said it before this season and been wrong, but it should be two points for the Chicago.