Saturday, November 10, 2018

Goalie Announcements (Nov 10)



I don't know if any of you have been counting on these posts lately, but it's been some busy days at the office, so I haven't been able to put together many of these.  Some days I would get about halfway, but then the day gets away and I think better of publishing a half-finished post.

Early starts on Saturday mean this is going to be a hurried post, not half-finished, just half (or less) confirmed.

Jacob Markstrom (Chelsea) versus Carter Hutton (Wes)
Both Chelsea and Wes are long since qualified for the goalie survivor pool, so these two are counting on their points today.  Markstrom is unconfirmed, but likely to go, given their injury situation, while Hutton has indeed been confirmed for this game.

Corey Crawford (Benson) versus Brian Elliott (Jeremy)
Neither goalie here has been confirmed, but it does seem like both teams would certainly lead this way.  Two teams both out of the goalie pool, 7 points separating each other in the overall standings, neither really in the conversation for the money or any of the weekly nods... yet.

Pekka Rinne (John P.) versus Ben Bishop (Clayton)
Again, nothing confirmed here for an afternoon game, no morning skate is likely for either, so getting the news on starters might not come until late here.  Clayton's team leads the way for the Basement Dweller nod, but a win could help his team get out.  John's team is 4 points back of the Mover & Shaker and playing the Stars could help close that gap considerably.

Garrett Sparks (Grant) versus Jaroslav Halak (Stacey M.)
Only Sparks has been confirmed, giving Grant a confirmed start from his Toronto number two and it is assumed that Halak will get the nod, given that Tuukka Rask is now away from the team.  Both teams are eerily close to the Basement Dweller, Grant the furthest at 4 points clear, so a win here could go a long ways for either of these teams tonight.

Marc-Andre Fleury (Troy) versus Antti Niemi (N/A)
Troy gets a key start in his defense for the Mover & Shaker spot tonight in Montreal and his goalie will get Montreal's backup as his opposition, as the Golden Knights will try to sneak a couple of points on the road on Hockey Night in Canada.  Troy's team is 4 points clear in the race and a win here could really put the pedal down for him.

Craig Anderson (Mike) versus Andrei Vasilevskiy (Dale C.)
Both Mike and Dale are chasing down the Mover & Shaker nod this week in the pool and they see their goalies going head-to-head, Anderson confirmed before publishing, but Vasilevskiy still on the bubble, of course.  Mike's team is 5 points back, while Dale's is only 7 points back, nothing that a good (possible) goalie result can't settle for them.

Darcy Kuemper (Stuart) versus Casey DeSmith (N/A)
Stuart's team is going to feed on starts, given the injury situation in the Arizona crease these days and it could certainly be to his benefit.  His team has 17 points this week, not really holding onto much hope for the Newsletter at this point, but still not a bad week.  His team does open play in 3rd place, so there is something to defend tonight with his goalie.

Thomas Greiss (Stuart) versus Roberto Luongo (John P.)
Both Stuart and John get their second starts of the night in Florida and we've already read all about both teams in this post.  What more really needs to be said?  Neither goaltender has actually been confirmed, so maybe they don't actually get their second starts of the night and maybe Chelsea or Dale C. gets starts in this game.  They could use a second start on this Saturday too, you know!

Jonathan Bernier (Brenda & Seward) versus Scott Darling (Ryan)
This match-up appeared to be pretty well confirmed at the time of writing this post this morning, which is good news for both pool teams in question.  Both the duo and Ryan are sitting at 16 points in the weekly standings, right in the middle of it all, 10 points back of tops and 6 points clear of the bottom.  Neither have designs on the goalie survivor ranks either.

Alexandar Georgiev (N/A) versus Joonas Korpisalo (Clayton)
Both goalies unconfirmed, but both the Rangers and Blue Jackets each played their number one goalies last night, so there's a good chance that their backups go on Saturday night.  That's good news for Clayton, as you've read before, his team could really use the start... and the win!

David Rittich (Ryan) versus Jack Campbell (N/A)
The only late game tonight is in Los Angeles and Ryan appears to be getting the start here, albeit... you guessed it, unconfirmed.  The Flames are working a quick trip through California and they dropped their last game in Anaheim, so they may look to their number two to see if they can get a boost against the lowly Kings.  Stay tuned!

No comments: