Goalie Announcements (Dec 15)

You know, I was two-thirds of the way through this post for yesterday, but all of a sudden, I was sidetracked.

If that post went up yesterday, you would have known a day earlier, that all four surviving teams had gotten their wins by Tuesday night, so there's no anxiety through to next week.  Now, we're just looking at points for the week.

Benson gets a start from Jimmy Howard tonight, when the Red Wings play host to the Kings. Benson opens the night with a 14-point lead in the pool.  His opposition will come from Peter Budaj and the Los Angeles Kings.  Budaj belongs to Wes, who has jumped out of last place this week and would probably feel pretty good to stay above a goon team.

We have a new team in 2nd place, which belongs to Scott, and he'll have a start tonight as well, as Scott Darling goes for the Blackhawks, when they head into the Barclay's Center to take on the Islanders.  At the other end, it will be Thomas Greiss getting a start tonight, likely meaning that Jaroslav Halak will be a healthy scratch, if the pattern remains the same.  Dale B. will get the start from the Islanders and his team is charging up the standings, now in 5th, 6 points out of the money.

Brian's team has been shuffled down to 3rd place in the standings, only 1 point back of 2nd place, and his team will get one start tonight. His goalie, Frederik Andersen, will get the start for the Maple Leafs, when they play host to the Arizona Coyotes tonight at the ACC.  Mike Smith should be the goalie of record for the Coyotes tonight, giving Marcie a start down in 14th place.

John S. is still hanging around in the money conversation, opening the night in 4th place, only 2 points out of 3rd place, looking for a win. He'll have Devan Dubnyk going for the Minnesota Wild, when they are in Nashville tonight.  The Predators have another surviving goalie going tonight, as Stacey M. will have Pekka Rinne going tonight.  It's too bad this isn't a survival game, it would have been a good one, especially if it was a Sunday.

Being 8 points out of 2nd place should have Cam pretty excited, especially with a start from Roberto Luongo on the way tonight.  The Panthers are in Winnipeg to take on the Jets and they'll go with their assumed number one, Connor Hellebuyck, at the other end.  Luongo appears to be Cam's only regular goalie and if his team is going to get into the money conversation, they have to get a win over Tony's goalie to start.

Mike is probably still the favourite for the goalie survivor pool money today and he'll get another start tonight, as Jake Allen will go for the St. Louis Blues, trying to stay sharp for next week.  He'll get a workout from the New Jersey Devils, who will go with Stuart's goalie, Cory Schneider tonight.  Stuart's team is only 3 points back of Mike's, so this game has some swing potential to it.

The Ducks are in Boston tonight and they are going to throw Jonathan Bernier to the bears tonight, a much-needed start for Eric in the pool.  Troy, already qualified in the survivor pool, will get a sharpening game for Tuukka Rask.  Troy is 35 points behind Eric in the standings, so there is a lot more than one game to worry about in this part of the standings.

Well, well, well... look who it is! Henrik Lundqvist appears to be getting a start again for the New York Rangers and now he has some real work to do. Firstly, he has the Dallas Stars and Antti Niemi tonight, which could be a pretty good test, depending on which Stars team shows up. Secondly, he has to convince the coaching staff to go back to him, because Antti Raanta has been running pretty hot, as of late.  If you ask me, that's a pretty good story line for the middle of the season.  Oh yeah, the pool match-up is Grant versus Wilton.