It looked like it was quite the battle, but John S. got his win last night, thanks to the Minnesota Wild scoring in overtime for a 5-4 win over the Kings. Devan Dubnyk was huge in that one, making 26 saves and bringing John to safety for this week.
Now the focus shifts to Stacey M.'s team and her chances to get into Week Twenty-Two, as this week only begins to really kick off tonight. The NHL schedule is 12 games deep, but we'll only focus on Stacey's team in this post today.
Braden Holtby (Jeremy) versus Henrik Lundqvist (Grant)The New York Rangers are comfortable in a wild card spot in the East, but they could be back in the top three of the Metropolitan Division with a win tonight, but they will go up against the division leaders to do so, which is no tough task. Should be the number ones here tonight, expecting Holtby versus Lundqvist, keeping Stacey's goalie on the bench as a back-up.
Pekka Rinne (Stacey M.) versus Linus Ullmark (N/A)Between an injury to the number one guy and their number two a prime target at the trade deadline, the Buffalo Sabres are going with their current number three, Linus Ullmark and he'll be the opposition of Stacey's only shot at a win tonight, as Pekka Rinne will be in net for the Predators when they visit those same Sabres.
The mumps outbreak is a real thing again, but unlike the Vancouver Canucks, the Minnesota Wild have had it happen to some of their key players. On Monday night, both Zach Parise and Jason Pominville were held out, because of the outbreak and they will be sitting out for an undetermined amount of time. The last big mumps outbreak was a couple of years ago and that caused players to miss upwards of a week of time, some even a bit more, so it will be interesting to see how quick these two recover and if anyone else comes down with it.
On Monday, the Vancouver Canucks were not in action, but they did call up goalkeeper Richard Bachman, as Jacob Markstrom is currently suffering from a lower-body injury, believed to have been suffered over the weekend at the team's SuperSkills day. There's no word on the severity of the injury and it was confirmed that it isn't the mumps that he is dealing with, but he will miss some time, starting tonight, when the Canucks host the Red Wings.
The television pundits and NHL beat writers are beginning to wonder if there is going to be anything left for Wednesday's trade deadline shows and they might have reason for concern, now that one of the biggest pieces has now been traded, a couple nights early.
For Kristy & Don, this is already their third player dealt in the last few days, as they have also seen Ryan White dealt to Minnesota and Alex Burrows dealt to Ottawa and now Shattenkirk to the Capitals. This trade here could very well upgrade Shattenkirk's pool value down the stretch, but at best,
Al Montoya (Marcin) versus Cory Schneider (Stuart)
Mike Condon (Stacey C.) versus Andrei Vasilevskiy (Ryan)
The Ottawa Senators are right in the thick of the Atlantic Division title race with the Montreal Canadiens, so they are out for a playoff upgrade and they may have found one in Alex Burrows, as they have acquired him from the Vancouver Canucks on Monday, a couple days ahead of the trade deadline.
It's somewhat surprising that this trade is hockey pool relevant, but it is. The swap that sees Jordie Benn join the Montreal Canadiens is relevant and actually has some value to it as well. The Habs acquire a fairly sturdy defender, who has posted some scoring numbers this year, adding some quality depth to their blueline.
The Philadelphia Flyers will be down a man for their next couple home games, Tuesday against Colorado and Thursday against Florida, now that defenseman Brandon Manning has been suspended for two games.
This was an excellent week for scoring forwards, as there were three players that could have won the Player of the Week nod in most weeks this season, but only one stood above them. Filip Forsberg has a week for the ages, finishing off with 10 points, thanks, in part, to a pair of hat-tricks. Jonathan Toews of the Blackhawks had 9 points and Johnny Gaudreau of the Flames had 8 points this week, both finishing a shade short of the Predators forward, just to show how good this week was.
It was a runaway win for Eric and his team in the Mover & Shaker race in Week Twenty. Eric's team was the only one that topped the 30-point mark in the week, finishing with 33 points and his team saw a very promising gain, moving up from 10th to 6th in the process. The big week means he slides his way into the money conversation, but his team still sits 19 points back of the money, but he's much closer than he was a week ago.
Eric's investment into the Nashville Predators really paid off in the week, as Ryan Johansen led the way with 7 points in the week, while both Viktor Arvidsson and P.K. Subban each had 5 points. All three were taking advantage of the hot streak of the Player of the Week above.
Troy has some company down in the basement this week, as Grant's team was tied for the dweller nod this week, with 11 points, but did Grant's team score enough goals to stay out of the honour?
Dale B. increased his overall lead to 4 points, as his team outscored Brian's by a couple points in Week Twenty. Both teams, however, both dropped points to Marcie's 3rd place team, as her team was 4 points better than Dale's in the week and she sees the gap shrink to only 6 points to Brian's team to start Week Twenty-One.
There's something about being the Mover & Shaker team and being the goon team of the week, I'm seeing lately. Eric's team was also their pugilistic best to move up the standings in the PIM pool in Week Twenty as well, topping out at 27 minutes, but Marcie's team was still pretty good, at 26 minutes. Eric's team is now trailing Kristy & Don by 7 minutes, which is becoming more of a technicality than an obstacle.
The goalie survivor pool didn't quite make it to the weekend for elevated anxiety levels. Both Stacey M. and John S. survived the week and that was going to be the toughest week on the third segment's schedule, as we made it through a pretty weak portion of the NHL schedule, with only 39 games played. The schedule ramps back up to 50 games, so there will be lots of games and likely lots of starting chances for both of their goalies, there is a fine chance that they might split the pot in the end.
The first mini-game to be decided is the outdoor games pool, to which Marcie's 6 points was tops, thanks to the Heritage Classic game, where her goalie, Cam Talbot, posted a shutout to help lead the way. No matter which way you sliced it this season, it seemed like her team was destined for at least one prize and there are still some more prizes to claim. You can see her team's name across the board in the Newsletter already, so there's still potential in there for more money.
The Blackhawks likely had Corey Crawford penciled in to start against the Blues yesterday, like we did on the blog, but the Chicago number one came down with that ugly flu bug and that nixed his start in a hurry, leaving Scott Darling to fill in and it was a race to try and get Lars Johansson in to back-up, as the AHL affiliate was on the other side of the country.
The New York Islanders could be getting a boost to their blueline this week, as it is expected that defenseman Travis Hamonic will return to practice today and that could mean he'll be working his way back to game shape and help the islanders try and reach the playoffs down the stretch. Hamonic has been on the shelf since the beginning of January with a lower-body issue and has missed a big stretch of time.
The Minnesota Wild won't have a draft pick in June until the 3rd round, thanks to the deal that brings them both forwards Martin Hanzal and Ryan White from the Arizona Coyotes. The Wild were not shy in this deal, sending their 1st round pick, as the highlight of the deal, not to mention their 2nd round pick in 2018 and if conditions are met, they could lose a 2nd round pick in 2019 as well. The conditions on the 2019 are as follows, thanks to Bob McKenzie: if the Wild win a playoff round this year, it will be a 3rd round pick and two rounds (or more) will make it a 2nd round pick.