Goalie Announcements (Dec 16)

What's the status of our money teams tonight, you ask?

Well, let's have a look.

The marquee game in the money race belongs to the 1st place team in the pool, where Benson will see Carey Price get a big start against the visiting San Jose Sharks. Wes' Martin Jones will get the nod at the other end of the rink, making for a pretty high profiled goalie game, but not quite the same sort of marquee match-up in the pool. Benson opens the night with a 12-point lead, while Wes currently holds a 4-point lead over Troy, just out of last place.

Not to be outdone, Brian moved back into 2nd place on Thursday night and he'll have a goalie going on Friday night, when the Carolina Hurricanes host the Washington Capitals. Brian will get the goalie on the home side as well, as Cam Ward has been tapped for the start against the divisional foes tonight, as Brian not only tries to catch Benson, his team tries to fend off John's team, which is only 1 point back.  At the other end, it will be non-pool goalie, Philipp Grubauer, as the Capitals save their number one for a bigger game on Saturday night in Montreal.

Let's not forget about dear ol' Scott, who may have dropped out of 2nd place, if only temporarily, as he'll have a goalie going tonight in the Los Angeles/Pittsburgh game tonight. All the money team are rocking home team goalies, as Matt Murray gets the call for the Penguins and he'll most likely (yet unconfirmed) face Peter Budaj. Jeff Zatkoff got the start for the Kings last night on the first half of back-to-backs, so Wes should get a start here as well, making that two starts for him tonight.

Friday night is a party and all the top four teams have their goalies invited! John S. will get yet another start from Chad Johnson, when the Flames host the Blue Jackets. Johnson has assumed the role of the number one guy in Calgary and that has been a giant boost to John's team, because he needed to start winning to do so.  It is also expected that Sergei Bobrovsky will be in the Columbus net, giving Mike a key start as well.  Mike's team is only 16 points off of the money and 13 points back of John.

And then we jump a couple of the top teams, all the way down to 7th place, where Brenda & Seward will get a start out on the West Coast, as Ryan Miller gets the call for the Vancouver Canucks, with the Tampa Bay Lightning in town.  The pool's top duo is only 11 points out of the money and they are not running quite as hot as they have been over the last couple weeks, but a win here would be a nice boost.  Ryan will get a start tonight, as the Lightning play the first half of a back-to-back, they'll send Andrei Vasilevskiy to the crease, now 14 points back of the duo.

Jeremy's team is the front-runner for the Mover & Shaker nod for the current week and he has a goalie going, trying to pad that lead. He'll have Robin Lehner going tonight for the Sabres, with the Islanders in town. The Islanders will give J-F Berube his first start of the season, putting both pool goalies on the team on the sidelines for this one. I would think Jeremy would be pretty pleased with that turn of events, in theory.  Jeremy's team opens the night only 18 points back of the money.

Eric's team is in 13th, Derek B.'s team is in 19th and their goalies will go head-to-head in Denver tonight, with the Panthers taking on the Avalanche.  The 6-point gap will be contested by both James Reimer and Calvin Pickard tonight, not quite making a swing game in the standings, but it's certainly one that could tighten the standings moving into the weekend and keep things rather interesting in the middle of the pack.