Goalie Announcements (Nov 6)

Both Marcie and Stuart earned their wins on Saturday, bringing the total of qualified teams up to 10 for Week Five, but there is no hope for the teams that are left.

We have six games to be played on Sunday afternoon/evening and the three teams without wins are without the possibility of having a goalie in a game tonight, sadly.  Of course, we'll cover this more tomorrow morning with the Newsletter.

So, with six games to be played, we'll quickly run through the starters, hoping that a good portion of them are confirmed for today's action.

The Colorado Avalanche opted not to send their number one out on Saturday night, giving the start and therefore, the shutout, to Calvin Pickard, so they'll send Semyon Varlamov out against the St. Louis Blues on Sunday afternoon (confirmed!), but Kristy & Don might be more interested in him channeling his inner Ron Hextall and help them out with the possible PIM mini-game title.  At the other end, we're expecting to see Jake Allen, since Carter Hutton took the win against Columbus on Saturday.  Mike gets one more start out of Allen, as his team starts the day in 6th place, 5 points back of 3rd.

The lead for Benson's team was up in the double-digits this week, but Saturday night dropped it back down to only 4 points after a quiet night.  He will get a chance to push a couple more points on it, as he gets Jimmy Howard in a start for the Red Wings, likely taking on the non-pool goaltending of Jonas Gustavsson for the visiting Oilers.  Of course, we all know that the Oilers are not the cakewalk that they once were and a couple of points may not be much of a guarantee.

The 8th place team belonging to Stacey C. will get a good opportunity for another win today, as Eddie Lack should be getting the start for the Carolina Hurricanes, as the coaching staff said yesterday that they would likely be using both goalies on the back-to-back and Cam Ward played for them last night.  Lack and the Canes will get a decent match-up against non-pool goalie Keith Kinkaid and the Devils, who dropped a 4-1 decision in Tampa Bay last night.

After a Dallas loss on Saturday night and also playing back-to-back nights, that's more than enough reason to conclude that Kari Lehtonen will get the call for the Stars on Sunday evening in Chicago. This will give Dale C. a big opportunity to slide the Mover & Shaker nod into his grip, as he starts the day 1 point back of the honour.  The Stars will likely have to contend with Scott Darling tonight, which is good news for Scott, as his team could bump up to 2nd place with a win.

Grant's team has dropped back from 7th to 9th this week, but could save a little bit of face with a huge start from Henrik Lundqvist on Sunday evening, with the Jets in town.  Grant is only 2 points out of being in 7th again, but the Jets are not push overs either.  Unfortunately for Grant, he was this close (holding my two fingers really close together) that he could have had both of his goalies going in this one, but Connor Hellebuyck is expected to be in net for the Jets, giving Tony a chance to end the week outside of last place in the standings.

There is some potential for John S. to go from first to worst in the weekly scoring race, but his team could be saved by the sheer number of projected games his team has, but also with a possible start from Chad Johnson, as the Flames play on back-to-back nights in California, Sunday's game against the Ducks.  The Ducks didn't play last night, so there is a good chance that John Gibson gets the start, helping Dale B. to keep pace with the top five in the standings.