Down the Frozen River

Tag: Dubnyk

  • December 21 – Day 75 – The Stars head home

    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 Winnipeg at Edmonton).

    Three of tonight’s games are between divisional rivals (Columbus at Pittsburgh, Washington at Carolina and Dallas at 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.

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    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.

  • November 5 – Day 30 – Let’s keep it in the division

    Last night’s divisional rivalry between the St. Louis Blues and the Chicago Blackhawks was absolutely wild, as the Notes came back from a three-goal deficit to win in overtime.

    Within six and a half minutes, the Blackhawks had a 3-1 lead.  Marko Dano, assisted by Ryan Hartman, scored the opening goal for Chicago at the 2:08 mark, but Colton Parayko and Vladimir Tarasenko assisted Alexander Steen to a game-tying goal only 54 seconds later.  1:35 later, the Blackhawks again took a one-goal lead when Andrew Shaw fired his penalty shot past Brian Elliott, followed 1:58 later by Trevor Teravainen scoring his fourth of the season.

    Three more goals were scored in the first, beginning with Robby Fabbri’s tally, assisted by David Backes, at the 15:12 mark.  Chicago was responsible for the final two scores, as Patrick Kane and Teravainen assisted Brent Seabrook to his fourth of the season at the 17:09 mark, followed 43 seconds later by Seabrook and Shaw assisting Kane to make the score 5-2, which held into the first intermission.

    The second period was all Blues, as they scored three goals to tie the game.  They notched their first of the period at the 3:11 mark when Parayko and Jay Bouwmeester assisted Steen to his second of the night, setting the score at 5-3.  The Notes‘ fourth goal of the game didn’t come until the 17:12 mark, when Troy Brouwer and Scott Gomez assisted Bouwmeester to his first of the year, which was followed 2:14 later when Alex Pietrangelo and Fabbri assisted Backes to his third of the season to tie the game at five-all, which held into the second intermission.

    Although there weren’t any goals in the third period, the Blackhawks certainly gave it their best effort, as they out-shot the Blues 14-7 in the final period.  Although it was a better showing than the second period for the Hawks, they still were not able to break through Jake Allen, and the game went to overtime.

    It took only 3:54 for Pietrangelo to assist Tarasenko to the game-winner, giving the Blues the bonus point.

    6-3-1 Corey Crawford earned his first overtime loss of the season after stopping only 23 of 29 (79.3%), while 5-3-0 Jake Allen earned the victory after stopping 27 of 28 (96.4%).  Brian Elliott was the Blues‘ starter, but was pulled twice (once as a blatant informal timeout, and again for an injury), and only played 17:03.  They were a bad 17 minutes though, as he saved only 11 of 15 shots (73.3%), but earned a no-decision after Allen and the offense’s spectacular play.

    The DtFR Game of the Day series now stands at 18-7-4, favoring the home team at 16 points over the roadies.

    It’s another busy day in the NHL!  As usual, the action gets started at 7 p.m. eastern when two teams drop the opening puck (Tampa Bay at Buffalo [Bell TV] and Boston at Washington), followed half an hour later by two more (the New York Islanders at Montréal [RDS] and Winnipeg at Ottawa [RDS2]).  Nashville at Minnesota gets started at 8 p.m. eastern, followed an hour later by an additional two fixtures (Philadelphia at Calgary [SN360] and Colorado at Arizona).  Finally, this evening’s double-dose of nightcap gets started at 10:30 p.m. eastern when Columbus visits Los Angeles and Florida visits San Jose.

    Two of tonight’s matchups involve divisional rivals (Lightning–Sabres and Predators–Wild), and a total of four games include two teams qualifying for the playoffs (Bruins–Capitals, Islanders–Canadiens, Jets–Senators and Predators–Wild).

    The game that qualifies for both categories sounds like the best one to watch!

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    This is Minnesota‘s fourth time being featured in the Game of the Day series, and are currently a perfect 3-0-0 in such games.  It is Nashville‘s first appearance in the Game of the Day series.

    The 7-2-2 Nashville Predators currently sit in fifth place in both the Central Division and the Western Conference, albeit because of losing the second tiebreaker to tonight’s opponent.  They enter the game riding a two-game losing skid, with their most recent defeat coming at the hands of the Anaheim Ducks on The Pond, falling 4-2 on Sunday.

    While the offense has been on par with the league so far this season, it has been 6-1-2 Pekka Rinne and the defense (specifically Alternate Captain Roman Josi and his 28 blocks) who have really shined.  They’ve allowed only 25 goals so far this season, including only four power play tallies, on 309 shots faced (91.9% save rate) (all of those numbers are under the league average).  Pair that with their 87.1% penalty kill rate, and you find a team that is hard to beat, even when the opposition has the upper hand.

    The offense has accounted for 32 goals this season (Alternate Captain James Neal leads the way with seven), including eight on the power play (21.62% success rate), even though they only have 344 shots to their credit (8.7% shot percentage).  The power play has been potent, made evident by their goal total exceeding the league average even when Nashville has had fewer opportunities.  The Wild would be wise to keep penalties to a minimum.

    The 7-2-2 Minnesota Wild enter tonight’s game after losing to the St. Louis Blues on the road in overtime on Halloween, 3-2.  Their offense has propelled the team to fourth in the Central Division and Western Conference.

    Led by Alternate Captain Zach Parise’s seven goals, the Wild have notched a total of 35 goals on only 306 shots (11.4%), including eight power play goals (21.62% success rate).  As made evident by those percentages, Minnesota has found success scoring the puck, and it will be interesting to see how they handle a team as proficient on the defensive end as the Nashville Predators.

    The offense has had to be good, because the defense has not done them many favors.  7-2-1 Devan Dubnyk and co. have given up 32 goals (league average) on only 300 shots (89.7% save percentage).  Fortunately, Jared Spurgeon’s 26 blocks have kept many pucks from reaching the crease, but Coach Mike Yeo should have reason to worry if Dubnyk is not simply starting his season slowly.

    The biggest struggle for the Wild has been the penalty kill, as the squad has given up six goals on only 25 attempts (76%).  While the team has done all they can to avoid going a man down, this is an alarming number that can affect how the Wild plays going forward in the season.  If this rate cannot be improved, Minnesota will not be able to play as aggressively or check as often has they would like.

    Last season, Minnesota won the season series 3-1-1 with a 4-2 victory on April 9 in Nashville.

    Some players to watch in this one include Minnesota‘s Dubnyk (seven wins [tied for league lead] and one shutout [tied for seventh in the league]) and Nashville‘s Rinne (six wins [tied for third in the league], 1.97 GAA [sixth in the league] and one shutout [tied for seventh in the league]).

    Although the Wild are hosting this game, I don’t think Dubnyk and the defense will be able to prevent Nashville from scoring, especially if the Predators can get under their skin and earn some power plays.  I think you can plan on seeing a Nashville Predators winner.