Down the Frozen River

Tag: Rantanen

  • December 3 – Day 60 – Make it a Dallas double

    I don’t mean to be a Negative Nancy, but Sundays during football season can be a real struggle for a hockey blogger.

    The problem is the league doesn’t schedule too many games while they have major competition. The NHL is used to working with the NBA (heck, 11 arenas are used by both leagues, and Carolina’s PNC Arena is also N.C. State’s home court), but the NFL has a special talent for attracting everyone’s attention (just ask your preacher!).

    Oh well, there’s only 10 more Sundays until the Super Bowl, then it’ll all be behind us. Thanks for reading my tangent.

    Anyways, there’s four games on today’s schedule, starting with a pair (Los Angeles at Chicago [NHLN] and Ottawa at Winnipeg [SN/TVAS]) at 7 p.m. Tonight’s co-nightcaps (Arizona at Vegas and Dallas at Colorado) don’t wait long to drop the puck, as they’re slated to get underway an hour later at 8 p.m. All times Eastern.

    Folks, we have a problem: since I try my hardest to not repeat teams within the span of two or three days, that technically would leave us with only two games to choose from tonight.

    Except, the Senators-Jets and Coyotes-Golden Knights games don’t look like they’ll be very… good. At least 12 points separate the competing clubs in both these matchups.

    Therefore, it looks like we’re going to have to break my rule, but are we going to watch the Kings-Blackhawks rivalry or what looks to be the most competitive game of the day according to the standings?

     

    I just don’t have it in me to feature Chicago for the 11th time this season – especially while it sits outside playoff position. Maybe Probably next Sunday, Hawks fans.

    Like I said yesterday, a big part of 15-10-1 Dallas’ four-game winning streak is its success on the defensive end. Since November 24 (a.k.a. since American Thanksgiving), the Stars have allowed only nine goals against, the (t)third-fewest in the NHL in that time.

    Let’s jump a little deeper into this topic and talk about Dallas’ penalty kill.

    For the entire season, the Stars have already stopped 84.2 percent of opposing power plays to be ranked (t)fourth-best in the NHL, but they’ve been even better over this four-game run by killing 86.7 percent of penalties (the [t]sixth-best effort since November 24).

    Even though G Ben Bishop‘s .882 save percentage while the Stars have been shorthanded since American Thanksgiving has been only average, he’s been aided by the stellar play of D Greg Pateryn, who leads the team during this run with four shorthanded blocks, and the entire kill team. With the Avalanche converting only 19.8 percent of their power plays for the season (15th-best in the NHL), the Stars should be able to keep Colorado’s special teams contained.

    Of note for the Stars is that Bishop will probably not draw the start this evening having led Dallas to a 3-2 shootout victory last night against the Blackhawks. Instead, 2-3-1 G Kari Lehtonen and his .897 save percentage will probably earn his sixth start of the season.

    Speaking of the 12-10-2 Avs, it seems like the wheels are starting to come off like many prediccted this preseason. Since trading F Matt Duchene on November 5, the Avs have earned a measly 4-5-2 record that falls squarely at the feet of the offense, which has managed only 33 goals in 11 games played (the [t]10th-fewest in the league in that time).

    What’s frustrating about this slump for the Avs is they know they’re capable of so much more. After all, Colorado does average an eighth-best 3.17 goals-per-game.

    The problem is that all of Colorado’s depth scoring has absolutely disappeared since making the trip to Stockholm, Sweden. Even though rookie F Alexander Kerfoot (5-6-11 since November 5), suspended LW Gabriel Landeskog (5-4-9 since then) and F Nathan MacKinnon (5-11-16 in that time) have all performed spectacularly in the past month, the biggest contributors behind them are two defensemen with a combined 13 points.

    You might try to argue that this is what happens when a team trades away a former third-overall pick that has scored 430 points in his career, but the fact of the matter is Duchene provided only 4-6-10 totals before being shipped from the state capital of Colorado to the national capital of Canada, only the fourth-best effort on the squad at the time.

    Instead, I point to RW Mikko Rantanen‘s drop-off as a reason for the Avalanche’s decline. In his opening 13 games of the season, Rantanen managed 5-7-12 totals – including a whopping eight power play points evenly split between goals and assists.

    Though he’s still producing points on the top line with MacKinnon and W Nail Yakupov, only two of his eight points in the past 11 games have been goals, with both of them coming with the man-advantage. While I don’t think it will be a cure-all for Colorado, the sooner Rantanen rediscovers his scoring touch, the sooner it will get back to improving on last year’s debacle of a 22-56-4 season.

    Regardless of depth scoring, we should also probably have a discussion about how averaging three goals-per-game for nearly a month isn’t enough to earn Colorado more wins, but I suppose that’s a discussion for another day.

    Considering defense has been the backbone of the Stars’ recent run of success, I have a hard time believing they’ll allow the Avs offense much room to operate tonight.

    By winning yesterday’s DtFR Game of the Day at the American Airlines Center 3-2 after a shootout, the Dallas Stars have beaten the Chicago Blackhawks twice in three days.

    It seems both planes traveling from O’Hare International Airport to Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport chose to play Annie as their in-flight entertainment, because the theme of “Anything You Can Do, I Can Do Better” seemed to be on the minds of both clubs.

    RW Alexander Radulov (F Tyler Seguin and LW Jamie Benn) got the exchange of goals started 5:57 into the game when he buried a power play wrist shot, but the Blackhawks leveled the game at one-all only 2:34 later courtesy of D Cody Franson‘s (F Ryan Hartman and D Duncan Keith) first goal of the season.

    Scoring subsided until 7:45 remained in the second period; that’s when C Radek Faksa (LW Remi Elie and F Tyler Pitlick) bagged a snap shot to return a one-goal advantage to Dallas. Though it took them a little bit longer to tie the game, W Brandon Saad (D Connor Murphy and C Jonathan Toews) was able to set the score at 2-2 with 41 seconds remaining before the second intermission. Ironically, the Annie theme involved even season goal counts, as both Faksa and Saad registered their 10th goals of their campaigns.

    Neither squad could break the tie with the remaining 20 minutes of regulation, nor could Chicago or Dallas take advantage of five minutes of three-on-three overtime. Since somebody has to win, the game advanced into the shootout.

    1. As hosts, the Stars elected to shoot first. Head Coach Ken Hitchcock sent Radulov onto the ice, who proceeded to beat G Anton Forsberg.
    2. In attempts to hold serve, Head Coach Joel Quenneville deployed Toews, but Bishop was there to save the wrister.
    3. Next up for Dallas was Seguin, who matched Radulov’s effort to force a miss-and-lose situation for the Hawks.
    4. There’s few on Chicago’s roster more clutch than F Patrick Kane, but his snapper fell victim to the same fate as Toews’: saved by Bishop.

    Bishop earned the victory after saving 32-of-34 shots faced (.941 save percentage), leaving the shootout loss to Forsberg, who saved 33-of-35 (.943).

    Home teams in the DtFR Game of the Day series have been absolutely rolling of late, as they’ve won 14 of the past 19 matchups. As such, their 34-20-6 record is 16 points better than the roadies’.

  • November 10 – Day 38 – Duchene’s Stockholm syndrome cured

    In a league that already features players from all around the world,  today’s schedule has an especially international flavor as the Avalanche and Senators square off at the Ericsson Globe in Stockholm, Sweden.

    To ensure it takes place during prime time in Sweden, that game is scheduled for 2 p.m. Eastern time (NHLN/RDS). Back on our side of the Atlantic Ocean, the action begins at the usual time of 7 p.m. with four tilts (Florida at Buffalo, Boston at Toronto, Pittsburgh at Washington [NHLN/SN/TVAS] and Carolina at Columbus) followed by the New York Islanders at Dallas 90 minutes later. Finally, this evening’s nightcap drops the puck at 10:30 p.m. when Winnipeg visits Vegas. All times Eastern.

    Yes, there’s an Original Six rivalry taking place in Ontario tonight; and yes, the Penguins and Capitals will meet up for the second of four times this season. But there’s something really exciting happening in Europe – and it’s not just the fact that the NHL is in town.

     

     

     

     

     

    I’m always intentional about the order logos are presented in this column, and today is no exception: the Avs are designated the home team for today’s contest and they’ll swap benches for tomorrow’s game. Does that make them the Stockholm Avalanche today?

    Obviously.

    A few fun facts about today’s venue (all research from this Wikipedia article unless otherwise noted): the Ericsson Globe, located in southern Stockholm, opened in 1989 and “is the largest hemispherical building on Earth.” The design is no accident, as The Globe “represents the Sun in the Swedish Solar System, the world’s largest scale model of the Solar System.”

    Huh. That’s neat.

    The home arena of both Djurgårdens IF and the Swedish Men’s National Hockey Team, The Globe can hold 13,850 hockey fans. Though that would make it the smallest arena in the NHL by nearly 1500 seats, that hasn’t stopped it from hosting some major events in the past.

    Limiting our list to just hockey, it has hosted the Ice Hockey World Championships four times (most recently in 2013 when host Sweden, led by C Henrik Sedin, took gold and F Alex Galchenyuk‘s Team USA won bronze in a shootout), the World Cup of Hockey twice (most recently the 2004 quarterfinals when Sweden fell 6-1 to the Czech Republic), five NHL Challenge series games (the most recent of which were two Maple Leafs games against Djurgårdens IF and Färjestad BK in 2003) and eight previous regular season NHL games, the last of which was during the 2011-’12 season.

    Some famous Swedes participating in today’s contest include Senators defensemen Fredrik Claesson, Erik Karlsson and Johnny Oduya and the Avs’ LW Gabriel Landeskog. Of the four, three – Claesson, Landeskog and Oduya – are Stockholm natives.

    Anton Lindholm, a rookie defenseman for Colorado, also would have been one singing “Du gamla, du fria” before today’s game, but he joined four other Avalanche players on injured reserve after breaking his jaw Saturday in Philadelphia. D Patrik Nemeth (undisclosed) and F Carl Soderberg (paternity leave) also did not make the trip back to their homeland.

    While those are the names that will attract the most attention from Swedish hockey fans, those of us on this side of the ocean are far more interested in the play of F Matt Duchene, who will be making his Senators debut against the very team he was playing for only five days ago.

    Though it’s been expected since last season’s trade deadline that Duchene would eventually play against the Avalanche during the 2017-’18 campaign, few could have predicted the events that took place Sunday night in Brooklyn. Instead of trading the 27-year-old during the offseason, General Manager Joe Sakic had Duchene stick around Denver for an awkward photo shoot, 13 games and two shifts before concocting a three-team trade to send him to Ottawa.

    That’s right, Duchene was traded right in the middle of a game. Not before. Not after. Perhaps it was D Scott Mayfield‘s goal that Duchene was on ice for that was the final straw. Who knows?

    It seems humorous and unlikely, but given how the Avalanche have been run of late, it just might be a safe assumption.

    You can find a more in-depth analysis here courtesy of @nlanciani53, but I got all the information I needed from F Nathan MacKinnon‘s interview with Adrian Dater following the Islanders game:

     

    All-in-all, it seems the squad would have still loved to have Duchene in the fold, but seeing him return from the offseason frustrated was enough to convince them that his heart was no longer in Colorado – no matter how much of “a real pro” MacKinnon says he was about the situation.

    With that in mind, I’d figure it won’t be too tough – emotionally, at least – for the 8-6-0 Avalanche to square off against their old pal. As far as playing against the 6-3-5 Senators, though? That might be a taller task.

    Though we’re used to saying it about every game the Avs play for the past year or two, it’s certainly true here: they’re just a bad matchup against the Senators, as it’s a situation of “anything you can do, I can do better.”

    MacKinnon’s 4-10-14 totals might be good enough to lead Colorado to a seventh-best 3.36 goals-per-game, but Karlsson and his 1.44 points-per-game simply looks at that and scoffs, as his Senators have managed a superior 3.57 goals-per-game.

    Well, maybe the Avs might have an advantage on defense.

    Think again. D Erik Johnson might be managing 2.1 blocks-per-game, but that’s not enough to keep goaltenders Semyon Varlamov or Jonathan Bernier from facing a seventh-worst 33.6 shots-per-game. Meanwhile, although the other end of the ice is no brick wall, the efforts of D Cody Ceci (2.5 blocks-per-game) and co. has limited netminders Craig Anderson and Mike Condon‘s nightly workload to only 31.7 shots against.

    Even the special teams skew Ottawa’s way. Led by F Mike Hoffman‘s five power play points, the Sens are converting 20 percent of their man-advantages into goals, a rate that is (t)11th-best in the NHL. Though RW Mikko Rantanen‘s eight extra-man points are individually more successful, the fact that the Avalanche’s 19.3 percent conversion rate ranks only 14th-best must be discouraging.

    While not exactly successful in comparison to the rest of the league, Ottawa can take solace in the fact that its penalty kill that is successful 80.5 percent of the time is yet another point in its favor when compared to the Avalanche. Colorado plays the (t)10th-worst PK in the league, killing off only 78.6 percent of its infractions.

    If there’s anywhere Colorado does have the advantage, it might be between the pipes. In most cases, you’d expect 5-3-3 Anderson to be superior to 6-3-0 Varlamov, but the Senators’ netminder has had a slow start to this season, managing only a .896 save percentage and 3.13 GAA that bows to Varlamov’s .911 save percentage and 3.09 GAA effort.

    Whether they start today or tomorrow, I expect them to square off against each other. Just in case they don’t assume their spots in crease today, know that Ottawa’s 1-0-2 Condon has a .924 save percentage and 2.6 GAA that is easily superior to 2-3-0 Bernier’s .884 save percentage and 3.63 GAA.

    No matter how you slice it, this weekend’s international series is looking like four points for Ottawa. If the Colorado Stockholm Avalanche can earn any points out of this trip to Europe, they’ll have Varlamov to thank for it.

    By scoring four goals in 2:02 against the defense that entered the game giving up the fewest goals-per-game in the league, the Tampa Bay Lightning beat the Los Angeles Kings 5-2 in yesterday’s DtFR Game of the Day.

    For a California road trip that was supposed to be difficult, the Lightning aren’t having too much trouble finding wins. That was no more apparent than when the Lightning blitzed G Jonathan Quick in the first period. The attack started with First Star of the Game RW Nikita Kucherov (Second Star C Steven Stamkos and D Slater Koekkoek) burying a backhanded shot 9:27 into the contest, and it was followed up 34 seconds later by an F Alex Killorn (D Dan Girardi and C Tyler Johnson) tip-in.

    Coincidentally, only 34 seconds ticked off the clock before Tampa scored yet again. This one, which proved to be the game-winner, was struck by D Victor Hedman (F Yanni Gourde and W Ondrej Palat) – a snap shot to give the Lightning a 3-0 advantage. Stamkos (Killorn and Kucherov) completed the attack with a power play slap shot struck with 8:31 separating the Kings from the safety of their dressing room.

    Los Angeles did eventually have to emerge from its safe haven to play the second period, though probably not before Head Coach John Stevens gave his club a spirited tongue lashing. Whatever he did obviously worked, as F Tyler Toffoli (Third Star C Anze Kopitar and D Jake Muzzin) was the only player on the ice to find the back of the net in the frame, setting the score at 4-1 at the second intermission.

    D Oscar Fantenberg (W Dustin Brown and F Brooks Laich) provided the Kings a plausible chance of a comeback at the 8:39 mark pf the third period with his first goal of the season, but F Vladislav Namestnikov (Hedman and Kucherov) squelched that optimism with a snapper with 7:01 remaining in regulation to set the final 5-2 score.

    G Peter Budaj earned the victory after saving 22-of-24 shots faced (.917 save percentage), leaving the loss to Quick, who saved 38-of-43 (.884).

    There’s a trend that has formed in the DtFR Game of the Day series since Halloween: the road teams win two games, followed by hosts winning one. Well, Tampa Bay’s road win comes on the heels of a home victory Wednesday night, so we’ll see if that pattern continues in today’s game.

    In the meantime, the 19-15-4 hosts in the DtFR Game of the Day still hold an advantage in the series, but it has been trimmed to only two points.

  • November 5 – Day 33 – Rolling Avs vs. a Sandwich

    Last Sunday was spectacular, as there was little to no overlap between the three games, meaning fans could focus in on only one game at a time.

    With this Sunday’s four-game schedule, we get pretty darn close to that similar situation. The action starts in Edmonton at 4 p.m. when Detroit visits the Oilers, followed two hours later by Colorado at the New York Islanders and Montréal at Chicago (NHLN/RDS/SN) at 7 p.m. Finally, this evening’s nightcap drops the puck at 9 p.m. when New Jersey makes its annual visit to Calgary (SN360). All times Eastern.

    If Original Six matchups get you really excited, there’s no doubt the Canadiens-Blackhawks game is the one for you. That being said, we featured Chicago yesterday and I don’t want to feature teams on back-to-back days this early in the season.

    Because of that, let’s feature the only game between two teams that are currently in playoff position (because, you know, that’s super important the first week of November).

     

    That’s right, you read it correctly: if the standings remain the way they are right now, the 8-5-0 Avalanche and the 7-5-1 Islanders are both on their way to extending their seasons by at least four playoff games.

    Even more unpredictable is that Colorado enters tonight’s game riding a three-game winning streak. The Avs offense has been firing on all cylinders since October 28 against the Blackhawks, as it has scored 15 goals (five goals-per-game) for the (t)fourth-most in the league in that time.

    Leading the charge over this stretch is none other than the top overall pick in the 2013 NHL Entry Draft: F Nathan MacKinnon. Though he personally hasn’t been the goalscorer, his 2-5-7 totals in the past three games have undoubtedly been among the top performances in the league over the past week.

    But if MacKinnon isn’t scoring the goals, who is? Answer: RW Mikko Rantanen, who has scored four of his five goals on the season since October 28, including two on that date against Chicago.

    Even though he played for a notoriously bad Avalanche offense last season that scored only 2.01 goals-per-game, Rantanen managed a 20-18-38 rookie season in 75 games played lat year. This Finn is an absolute stud with a nose for twine that should be very exciting to watch for the remainder of his career, whether in Denver or elsewhere.

    In particular, the Avs have been very advantageous, as they’ve converted a (t)second-best 50 percent of their power plays since last weekend; and as you might expect, MacKinnon and Rantanen have been a major part of that effort. Considering New York’s 79.5 percent kill rate for the season is 11th-worst in the NHL, the Isles would be wise to keep D Johnny Boychuk and his team-leading 11 PIM under control.

    Speaking of the Islanders, they’ve also been one of the strongest offenses in the league as their 3.62 goals-per-game is (t)third-best.

    New York’s culprit is just as predictable as Colorado’s, though he’s been a lot better about spreading the puck around to both of his wings. C John Tavares has been one of the brightest stars in the league this season (did anyone say contract year?), as his 12 goals are overshadowed only by RW Nikita Kucherov‘s 14.

    Even though Tavares is a good great goalscorer, he also makes his parents proud by showcasing his ability to share with the rest of what I’ve affectionately named the Sandwich Line. Linemates F Josh Bailey and F Anders Lee have also seen some solid offensive numbers this season, as they both have point totals at or in excess of 15. In particular, Lee has been the most impressive scorer without a “C” on the front of his sweater, as eight of his 15 points are goals.

    With two hot offenses going head-to-head, this contest will almost certainly come down to the defense and goaltender that bend the most without breaking. Though neither blue line is necessarily fantastic, I’m leaning towards New York holding off MacKinnon and Rantanen to earn two points.

    Pitching his second shutout in as many starts, Second Star of the Game G Corey Crawford and the Chicago Blackhawks beat the Minnesota Wild 2-0 at the Xcel Energy Center in yesterday’s DtFR Game of the Day.

    Both Crawford and First Star G Devan Dubnyk were absolutely spectacular in this contest. Both had shutouts through the first two periods, and Dubnyk allowed his lone goal with 5:42 remaining in regulation. Crawford ended the night saving all 24 shots faced, while Dubnyk made 33-of-34 saves (.971 save percentage).

    The goal Dubnyk allowed belonged to Third Star F Artem Anisimov (D Duncan Keith and F Patrick Kane), and he didn’t have much of a chance to make the save. For starters, the Hawks had a power play due to rookie F Luke Kunin committing a double-minor hi stick against D Cody Franson, so the Wild’s defenses were already dropped.

    Chicago made good work of the advantage, as Kane started with the puck at the right point before passing along the blue line to Keith while Anisimov was setting himself up in the crease as a screen. The defenseman snapped a waist-high shot towards the net that Anisimov deflected towards the far post for the first goal of the game.

    F Alex DeBrincat (C Jonathan Toews) tacked on the insurance goal on an empty net with 97 seconds remaining in regulation to secure the win for the Blackhawks.

    The Hawks’ victory is the second-straight by a road team in the DtFR Game of the Day series, pulling the visitors within four points of the 17-12-4 home teams.