There were quite a few players mentioned last night that did end up getting points... Don is now six up on Dieter for the week and now only 13 points behind. Dale has also made some splashes and could be making Jeff a little warmer under the collar. He's only 23 points behind and has gained 16 points on him, just this week.
Tonight (Thursday), there are ten games on the schedule. Hopefully this will drum up some much needed offense in the pool. There has been a severe lack in production, if you ask me. I would like to make it in the Top 20, but guys are gonna have to score to do that!
The Devils cannot seal a playoff spot tonight, but they could leave their immediate fate to the Maple Leafs for the weekend if they were to win. New Jersey would have to beat Tampa Bay to bring them to 96 points and Toronto, if they were to lose could only max out at 96 points, but by way of tie-breaker, the Leafs wouldn't be able to pass the Devils in wins, so New Jersey would clinch. Toronto is in Buffalo tomorrow night.
Pool-wise, this isn't a game where you'd bet that Martin Brodeur (Box 18) would get a shutout. Especially not with the dynamic duo of Vincent Lecavalier (Box 20) and Martin St. Louis (Box 15) present.
The Senators are in the same boat as the Devils tonight, with the same amount of points and wins. Tonight, they'll face Florida to try and help themselves out with a couple more points. The magic number for both the Senators and the Devils is 2.
Dieter will need Dany Heatley (Box 15) to help him pad his lead tonight... Don & Jeff are hoping that Tom Preissing (Box 22) will hand out assists to all his friends tonight... and Jeff hopes that it's all in a losing cause, 'cuz he doesn't have Ray Emery (Box 24).
Detroit needs a win tonight to clinch their playoff spot and give them a chance to reclaim first spot in the West. And lookie here, the Blue Jackets are in town tonight. Well I'll be darned. How convenient. This should be a Central Division drubbing, but the Blue Jackets have been playing somewhat decent hockey, going .500 in their last 10 games. The Blue Jackets have taken 2 out of 5 games from Detroit this season, sadly, none of them were in Joe Louis Arena.
Dieter is hoping for big things for Columbus... namely, Rick Nash (Box 1). With Henrik Zetterberg (Box 1) being out still, both Jeff and Dale are without a key player to help gain them some points. Jeff also has the benefit of holding Mathieu Schneider (Box 5) in his hand tonight... he's usually good for a point or maybe two. Those are the key guys for that game tonight.
And let's not forget... Todd Bertuzzi's (Box 15) return to the ice tonight!!
After losing to the Canucks last night, the Predators get another helping of Northwest Division hospitality against the Flames tonight at the Dome. Tonight, the Predators could claim their playoff spot by an overtime or shootout loss and the Flames need to cushion their spot in 8th place back up to six points. The Flames, this season, are 0-3-0 against the Predators, including a 3-2 loss in Calgary back in October. Their last meeting was two weeks ago in Nashville and the Preds gave them a 6-3 drubbing. The Predators are somewhat depleted in manpower, as the Flames are getting their's back... so things do look good for Calgary to take two points here. I have a feeling that Nashville will be playing for overtime tonight.
Tonight's game will be on Sportsnet tonight... for all you watching at home.
Key players in the pool (for the top 4)... Dieter's big weapon tonight is Kristian Huselius (Box 7). If he starts scoring then there's a good chance that Dieter and Don will pull a little further away with a Miikka Kiprusoff (Box 6) win. Don & Dale are both sitting without Jarome Iginla (Box 3) tonight as well... so, there's a good chance, if it's high scoring, that Dale may lose out a bit on Jeff due to this game. But... he does have Kimmo Timonen (Box 6), so a big Nashville power play night could develop some results the other way.
Anaheim could move within one point of clinching tonight in the desert. The Ducks can reach 100 points tonight with a win in Phoenix and leave their fate to the next Colorado/Edmonton game. Somehow, this really doesn't seem to be much of a match-up at all... the Ducks, 2nd in the West... the Coyotes, last in the West... c'mon... not rocket science here. Phoenix is 1-8-1 in their last 10... and they're 1-5-1 against the Ducks this season. The Coyotes only win came in the desert on my birthday (Dec. 23). Let me tell you... it's not my birthday today.
Key players in this game... with Chris Pronger (Box 5) still out for another week, he won't play into anyone's hands. Both Dieter and Jeff will look to J-S Giguere (Box 12) tonight... he should get the start for Anaheim tonight and may equal Evgeni Nabokov's (Box 12) performance last night. Dieter will bank on Francois Beauchemin (Box 10) tonight, while Don has Teemu Selanne (Box 3) to keep him company.
Just in case you were wondering, there is one game on TSN tonight... Montreal is in Boston to take on the Bruins and they'll try to help themselves out in the battle for the last playoff spot. If Carolina loses in regulation to Washington tonight and the Habs beat the B's... then Montreal will have 8th position for the time being. A win would get them past Toronto, but the Leafs will have two games in hand on the Canadiens, which doesn't bode well for Montreal. All they can do is keep winning to keep their hopes alive.
Both Jeff and Dieter have Marc Savard (Box 20) in tonight's game... and if the Bruins play spoiler tonight, you'll know Savard had a hand in it.
Technorati Tags
NHL, Hockey Pool, Injuries, Trades, Scores, Hockey
Go to the Hockey Pool standings Page
No comments:
Post a Comment