Goalie Announcements (Mar 9)

Yeah, I missed a day on the schedule, but Swanny Watch wasn't very applicable to the three games on Wednesday night.  Thursday night, however, could be a bit of a different story, as it is a fairly busy night on the docket.

Let's see what the evening has in store for us, both in Swanny Watch and the money.  Hey!  I think a couple teams are wearing their alternate jerseys tonight too.  Nice.

Devan Dubnyk (John S.) versus Andrei Vasilevskiy (Ryan)
We'll start with Swanny Watch, as his number one goalie gets the call tonight in Tampa Bay, where Dubnyk will try and secure the move on to Week Twenty-Three with a win.  This is also a money game, as Ryan's team is still moving on up against Marcie's 3rd place team and his team is one of four teams within 3 points of moving into the money.  There's lots going on here, this should be a great game.

Antti Raanta (Stacey M.) versus Cam Ward (Brian)
With Henrik Lundqvist on the shelf with an injury, it looks like the Rangers are going to turn to the excellent road record of Antti Raanta and Stacey's already-qualified goalie will get to try and play spoiler against Brian's goalie, trying to defend his 2-point lead heading into the evening's action.

Michal Neuvirth (Clayton) versus Frederik Andersen (Brian)
Brian isn't short on starts tonight, as he gets his second start among the early games, with Andersen getting the call for the Leafs at home tonight, as they are trying to climb back into the wild card spots and keep the Flyers from leaping over them in the standings.  Both are definite possibilities by the end of the night.

Thomas Greiss (Dale B.) versus Ryan Miller (Brenda & Seward)
The leader has two starts, the team chasing the leader down, has one.  Dale gets his only start from the Islanders, as they visit the Canucks in one of the late games tonight.  The duo, who will have the home goalie tonight, are only 3 points back of the money again, so a Canucks win could tighten that gap and make things very interesting.

Mike Condon (Stacey C.) versus Mike Smith (Marcie)
The Senators are in the desert tonight to take on the Coyotes and this game has a good pool match-up, as Stacey C. is 15 points back of Marcie, still within range, and their goalies go head-to-head in this one.  Stacey hasn't had a lot of love from his goalies this season, as his team is tied for 18th in goalie points with a combined 68 points this season.  Marcie's team sits 5th with 112.

Jonathan Bernier (Eric) versus Corey Crawford (Marcin)
If everything fell his way tonight, Eric could move into the money for the first time this season, as his team stands 1 point out of 3rd place and he has the first tie-breaker too.  He gets another start from the Anaheim Ducks tonight, as they continue to play with Bernier.  Marcin's team is now 32 points behind Eric's, which is getting to be too big of a mountain to climb before the end of the season.

Braden Holtby (Jeremy) versus Martin Jones (Wes)
We move onto Jeremy's 5th place team, which is tied with Eric's team, 1 point behind Marcie's team for 3rd place, but Jeremy doesn't have the tie-breakers, so he would need the outright lead, if he was to move into 3rd place.  His goalie, Holtby, will have a tough test from the Pacific Division-leading Sharks and their number one.  This one isn't a given, but Holtby does have a good record after being pulled the game before.

Cory Schneider (Stuart) versus Calvin Pickard (Derek B.)
The Avalanche are in their 3rd jerseys tonight, so they get their logo splashed on the blog, because of that.  Just because I said so.  The goalie match-up in the pool is 11th versus 22nd, respectively, 45 points difference between the two teams in the standings.

Carey Price (Benson) versus Brian Elliott (Derek B.)
The Montreal Canadiens usually bring out the retro duds on most nights through Western Canada and the Flames are also wearing their gawd awful retro jerseys tonight.  Derek gets a second start, as his team tries to work their way up towards 20th overall in the standings.  Benson's team is only 34 points better in 14th.

Pekka Rinne (Stacey M.) versus Jonathan Quick (Kristy & Don)
Well, I guess I can't do all the other games and just leave one out.  Rinne versus Quick has some value in the NHL standings, as the Kings fight for a wild card spot, while the visiting Predators are looking to pad their spot, holding the third Central Division spot right now.