Goalie Announcements (Dec 19)

We're kicking off a new week, so let the anxiety begin!

Week Eleven kicks off with five games on the NHL schedule and surviving teams are looking at that schedule and seeing games where their goalies could play, but how many of them will play?

The answer is pretty simple. One.  Pekka Rinne is the only survival goalie going tonight, according to the starting goalies on goaliepost.com this afternoon.  Rinne will go for Stacey M. and the Predators tonight in Philadelphia and they'll get the tough test of Steve Mason, Brenda & Seward's number one goalie this season.  Mason and the Flyers have been playing well of late, so this is a good test.

Mike might have been looking at the schedule and seeing that the Blues will play host to the Oilers, but he won't have the luxury of this home start, as Carter Hutton has been given the nod for the home team, taking on Cam Talbot on the visiting side. This turns out to be a match-up between Stuart and Marcie in the standings and they open the night 5 points away from each other in the standings.

John S. is probably thinking that the Flames have a slam dunk game in Arizona, but it won't be his goalie getting the start tonight, rather Derek B.'s goalie will get the nod against Marcie's other goalie tonight.  It will be Brian Elliott against Mike Smith in the desert and Derek trails Marcie by 9 points and could really use a win from a rare start.

It's a top tier goalie match-up in Raleigh tonight, as Benson's Jimmy Howard will start for the Red Wings and Brian will have Cam Ward in the opposite net.  Brian trails by 8 points to start on Monday afternoon and this isn't his only action tonight, as the last game in the post will offer up some points.

Frederik Andersen has the start for the Toronto Maple Leafs, when they play host to the Anaheim Ducks tonight, Andersen's former team.  John Gibson will get the nod for Dale B. and the Ducks, trying to prove why Anaheim chose him over the Dane for the starting role moving forward.

With only four more days worth of action this week, how many possible survival games will go to the wayside because of the holidays coming up?