Down the Frozen River

Tag: Emelin

  • December 16 – Day 65 – Gargantuan goalies

    Happy Friday. Kick back with some hockey tonight, starting with two games at 7 p.m. (the New York Islanders at Buffalo and Los Angeles at Pittsburgh [NBCSN/SN/TVAS]) and another pair half an hour (San Jose at Montréal [RDS] and Washington at Carolina). 9 p.m. marks the puck drop of two more contests (Florida at Colorado and Columbus at Calgary), with tonight’s nightcap – Tampa Bay at Vancouver – waiting an hour before starting. All times eastern.

    Two division leaders meet up in the Bell Centre this evening, so even though both clubs have already been featured once this week, we have to make the trip to The City of a Hundred Steeples.

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    The Sharks make their yearly visit to the Bell Centre with an 18-11-1 record, and winners of their last three contests. They’ve been able to attain that Pacific Division lead with an impressive defense and goaltending, which has only allowed 66 goals so far this season – the fifth-fewest in the NHL.

    Martin Jones has made 26 starts for the Sharks this year, and has made good use of his time. To earn his 15-10-1 record, he’s earned a .92 save percentage and 2.1 GAA, the 14th and ninth-best effort in comparison to his 40 peers with 13 or more appearances.

    A lower save percentage in comparison to a good GAA is always indicative of a solid defense, and the Sharks are no different. Led by Brent Burns‘ 56 blocks, San Jose has allowed only 26.6 shots per night to reach Jones’ crease, the second-best rate in the league.

    Hosting that impressive defense are the 19-6-4 Canadiens, the leaders of the Atlantic Division. Although the have an impressive offense, they have also been led by a dominant netminder this season, who has led his team to allowing only 63 goals – the fourth-best total in the league.

    16-3-2 Carey Price has been having a career season , as his .94 save percentage and 1.8 GAA are both third-best in the NHL among goalies with 11 or more appearances.

    Price’s play has been necessary, as his defense has allowed 30.7 shots per game to reach his crease, the 13th-highest average in the NHL. Shea Weber has done all he can, as his 61 blocks lead the team, but him, Alexei Emelin and Jeff Petry are the only three skaters with more than 40 shot blocks to their credit. If others do not improve their effort, Canadiens fans could have concern Price is overworked as the playoffs roll around.

    Montréal has already played made their dive into The Tank for the season, but like most teams that visit Northern California, they could not escape with even a point two weeks ago. The Sharks won 2-1, with Joe Pavelski taking credit for the winning goal in the first period.

    Some players to keep an eye on include Montréal‘s Price (16 wins [second-most in the NHL], including two shutouts [tied for seventh-most in the league], on a .94 save percentage and a 1.8 GAA [both third-best in the NHL]) and Weber (+18 [tied for second-best in the league]) & San Jose‘s Jones (15 wins [tied for third-most in the NHL], including two shutouts [tied for seventh-most in the league], on a 2.1 GAA [ninth-best in the NHL]).

    Just like their first meeting, this game will most certainly star Jones and Price. Since Montréal has the more explosive offense to go with their home-ice advantage, I like the Habs to take tonight’s victory.

    Hockey Birthday

    • Eric Belanger (1977-) – Drafted by Los Angeles in the 1996 NHL Entry Draft, this center played exactly 820 games over his 12 seasons in the greatest hockey league in the world. By the time he played his final contest in the NHL, he’d notched 358 points, including 220 assists.

    A second goal in the second period was the deciding factor in the Ducks‘ victory over Boston in yesterday’s DtFR Game of the Day.

    Continuing the theme of the number two, Zdeno Chara (Second Star of the Game David Backes and Brad Marchand) scored his second goal of the season with 7:53 remaining in the first period to give the Bruins the lead, followed only 13 seconds later by an Austin Czarnik (Ryan Spooner and Riley Nash) snapper to double it to 2-0. Only 24 seconds after Czarnik’s tally, Andrew Cogliano buried an unassisted wrister to pull Anaheim back within one. Scoring subsided until 2:10 remained in the period, when Kevin Bieksa (Ryan Getzlaf) leveled the game at two-all with a wrister. That score lasted into the first intermission.

    Anaheim took their first lead of the game 55 seconds after returning to the ice when Josh Manson (Jakob Silfverberg and First Star Rickard Rakell) buried his first goal of the season. That lead lasted only 71 seconds though, as David Krejci (Backes and Torey Krug) scored a power play wrister to level the game at three-all. The Ducks earned the game-winning score at the 5:02 mark when Rakell (Sami Vatanen and Cam Fowler) potted a wrister that proved to be the final tally of the night.

    Jonathan Bernier earned the victory after saving 31-of-34 shots faced (91.2%), leaving the loss to Anton Khudobin, saving 23-of-27 (85.2%).

    The fourth-straight win by the teams in white sets the DtFR Game of the Day record at 36-21-10, but the series still favors the hosts by nine points.

  • December 19 – Day 73 – Texas-sized showdown

    Yesterday’s Game of the Day saved all the action for the final period, as Ottawa scored three goals in the final 11:38 to secure the 4-2 victory over San Jose.

    The Sharks struck first, but not until the beginning of the second period.  Ottawa‘s Mark Stone was still serving time in the sin bin from a first period penalty when Brent Burns and Joe Pavelski assisted Joe Thornton to a power play goal at the 29 second mark.  San Jose‘s lead held only 4:17 though, as Third Star of the Game Bobby Ryan scored his 11th tally of the year to level the game at one-all, which held into the second intermission.

    Things really started heating up in the third.  Ottawa broke the tie at the 8:22 mark when Dave Dziurzynski and Cody Ceci assisted Jean-Gabriel Pageau to his ninth of the season.  The eventual game-winner came from First Star Chris Wideman at the 13:06 mark, assisted by Curtis Lazar and Shane Prince.  The Senators‘ onslaught continued 2:45 later, when Second Star Erik Kalrsson set the score at 4-1, assisted by Mike Hoffman and Ryan.  The Sharks tried to mount a comeback with a goal at the 17:36 mark, courtesy of Burns, but it was too little too late.

    15-9-3 Craig Anderson earns the win after saving 31 of 33 (93.9%), while Alex Stalock’s record falls to 2-5-0 after saving 31 of 35 (88.6%).

    The DtFR Game of the Day series now stands at 27-10-6, favoring the home squad by 26 points.

    Today’s schedule consists of 10 games, with the action getting started at 1 p.m. eastern when Buffalo hosts Chicago (SN).  The other matinee game gets begins at 3 p.m. eastern when Calgary visits St. Louis.  The evening’s action gets started at the usual 7 p.m. eastern with five matchups (Los Angeles at Toronto [CBC], Anaheim at New Jersey, Carolina at Pittsburgh, Philadelphia at Columbus and Montréal at Dallas [NHLN/TVAS]), followed an hour later by Minnesota at Nashville.  The New York Islanders visit Arizona at 9 p.m. eastern, trailed an hour later by this evening’s nightcap: Edmonton at Colorado (CBC).

    Three of tonight’s games feature divisional rivalries (Carolina at Pittsburgh, Philadelphia at Columbus and Minnesota at Nashville), and a total of three are between current playoff qualifiers (Calgary at St. Louis, Montréal at Dallas and Minnesota at Nashville).  Since most throughout North America should be able to watch two division leaders square-off, let’s focus in on the American Airlines Center.

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    So far this season, Montréal is a perfect 5-0-0 when being featured in the Game of the Day series, but they aren’t the only ones unblemished – Dallas is also undefeated, but has only played in two games.

    The Canadiens enter tonight’s game riding a two-game losing skid, with their most recent game occurring Thursday against the Kings, who beat them 3-0.  Don’t let that shutout give you the wrong impression, though.  The Habs play a strong game on both ends of the ice, but they are particularly deadly when they have the puck on their stick, which has led them to first place in the Atlantic Division and second in the Eastern Conference.

    Montréal has put 1048 shots on goal this season (led by Captain Max Pacioretty’s 138), well above the season average with only one more game played than most.  Exactly 100 of those attempts have found the back of the net (9.5%), 16 more than the league average (led by Pacioretty’s 14).  While not an extreme strong suit of the Canadiens‘, their power play is still a force to be reckoned with.  On 113 opportunities, they’ve scored 22 times.  While the 19.47% success rate is impressive, what should be more alarming for the Stars is earning 113 opportunities.  If Dallas wants to win, it will be necessary to not give Montréal these easier opportunities.

    Even when defending, the Canadiens have still been one of the best in the league.  10-2-0 Mike Condon and the defense have only allowed 75 goals so far this season.  While this is an impressive number (it trails the league average by nine), it has come on only 908 shots.  The reason backup Condon has found success has not entirely been his quality play, but also that his defense, particularly Tom Gilbert and his 58 blocks, have stepped up to lighten his workload.

    One of the better penalty kills in the league will be on display this evening in the Habs.  On 107 opposing opportunities, they’ve allowed only 14 tallies – that 86.92% kill rate leads the league average by 5.78%.

    Montréal is good, but they are going up against what is currently the best team in the NHL in the Dallas Stars.  Similar to Montréal, Dallas employs solid play on both ends of the ice, but definitely prefers to play offense.  Their most recent showing was a 3-1 defeat at the hands of the Flames on Thursday.

    Per the usual, more shots usually equals more goals.  It’s no different in the Lone Star State, where Dallas has put the puck on net 1035 times so far this season, led by Tyler Seguin’s 130, for a league-leading 107 tallies (led by Captain Jamie Benn’s 20).  Especially potent for the Stars has been their power play.  They’ve scored 22 goals (led by Benn’s eight) on 102 opportunities, for a 21.57% success rate that leads the league average by 2.71%.

    Defensively, the Stars haven’t been as strong as Montréal.  So far this year, 12-5-2 Antti Niemi and co. have given up 82 goals on 915 shots.  Fortunately for Niemi, who’s 90.9% save rate isn’t exactly on par with most of the league, Johnny Oduya’s team leading 67 blocks has done wonders to keep his workload as light as possible.

    Some players to watch in tonight’s game include Dallas‘ Benn (20 goals [tied for the league lead], 41 points [third in the league], 21 assists [tied for seventh in the league] and +13 [tenth in the league]), Jason Demers (+14 [tied for sixth in the league]), John Klingberg (26 assists [third in the league]) and Seguin (42 points [second in the league], 25 assists [fourth in the league] and 17 goals [tied for fourth in the league]) & Montréal‘s Alexei Emelin (91 hits [leads team]), Pacioretty (138 shots and 14 goals [both lead team]), Tomas Plekanec (27 points [leads team]) and P.K. Subban (21 assists and +9 [both lead team]).

    This should be an exciting matchup, probably one of the best we’ve had in the series in a while.  Although they are slumping and on the road, I’m picking Montréal based on their stronger defense and emotionally using this game against a tough opponent to rejuvenate their squad.