In "The Night Ahead" we take a look at a selection of the upcoming games for the evening (early hours here in the UK) and add a preview and opinion on the match ups.
NEW YORK ISLANDERS @ PITTSBURGH PENGUINS
The recently tumbling Isles face the Penguins for the second time this season. They won the first meeting, in Pittsburgh, 4-3 in regulation. Frans Nielsen, 1 goal & 2 assists, including an assist on the game winner, and Radek Martinek, 2 assists, had a big hand that night. They also had a large contribution from Evgeni Nabakov, who recorded 39 saves. The win put the Islanders comfortably in the Metropolitan top three places (a guaranteed playoff berth), but since then the Isles have accumulated just EIGHT points in the twelve games since and dropped to bottom in the division.
Pittsburgh on the other hand were top of the division back then and that loss didn't do much to halt their season. They've gone 6-5-0 since and are joint second in the conference at the quarter way point of the season. In no surprise it's yet again Crosby, Malkin, Kunitz and Dupuis who are amongst the Pens top scorers this year combining for 24 of the teams 55 goals, and 48 of the teams 97 assists. Marc Andre Fleury is also back to his regular season best. Posting a .924 save percentage and a 1.90 GAA.
I'm taking the Penguins in this one. There's been a lot of shocks recently with Vancouver, Colorado and other early leaders falling to bottom feeders, but this one has to be a home win for one of the East's perennial best teams.
MONTREAL CANADIENS @ WASHINGTON CAPITALS
The Montreal Canadiens march in to the Verizon Center tonight to face a side who were blown away by the Penguins on home ice Wednesday night, so expect some sort of response from the Caps.
After a difficult October, the Capitals entered the second month of the season 5-7-0. In November they've won all but three games and currently sit 12-9-1 in second in the Metro behind Pittsburgh. Alex Ovechkin has continued his hot form from last term notching up 17 of the teams 69 goals. They also have Backstrom, Grabovski and Johansson putting up 19, 11 and 16 assists respectively.
Montreal come into tonight on a somewhat opposite track to Washington. They enjoyed a very successful October but haven't kept it up this month only recording 3 wins so far. But might have once again pushed up a gear after beating Minnesota 6-2 in their last outing. Carey Price, like Fleury, has returned to form after a playoff meltdown last spring and has a .935 save percentage and a 2.05 GAA. It's hard to pinpoint a true dangerman in the Habs ranks as none of their 13 goal scorers have scored more than eight.
This is probably the toughest game of the night to call as the case for both teams is that you never which version will turn up.
I'll go for a narrow Caps win.
FLORIDA PANTHERS @ CALGARY FLAMES
This is one of those games that will probably get ignored by the casual fan. To put it in Premier League terms this would be like watching Reading vs QPR last season.
The Panthers changed coach after going 3-9-4 in their first 16 games and have limped to 6-13-4 since, although those three wins did come against Anaheim, Colorado and Vancouver. The latter two on the road. Similar to the Canadiens, none of their goal scorers have topped the 8 mark but it's the back end that suffers the most. They have Stanley Cup winner Tim Thomas between the pipes, ahem, and despite him being in better form than most expected it's still not his Boston Bruins cup winning form. He could be playing that well but with the players in front of him they'd still be in a similar position because with Thomas, Markstrom and Clemmenson combined the Panthers have shipped 76 goals in 23 games this season.
It's fair to say that Calgary are the Western conference equivalent to the Panthers. Both sit 2nd bottom in their respective conferences, and at 7-11-4 Calgary have given up 81 goals, 2nd to Provincial neighbours Edmonton on 84. In a hard to watch season for Flames fans they do have hope in the form of Jiri Hudler and rookie Sean Monahan. The teams top contributors with 21 and 14 points.
There's not much to say about these teams. They are terrible. I would usually go for the home team in this scenario but as mentioned above Florida have beaten Colorado and Vancouver on the road already.
I'm going for a Panthers win.
COLUMBUS BLUE JACKETS @ VANCOUVER CANUCKS
This season has been a coming down to Earth with a bump for Columbus. Last season's surprise package they nearly made the playoffs for the first time in their history, on the back of some excellent goalie play from Sergei Bobrovsky. Now in the Eastern conference and, like many suggested towards the end of the last season, they are having rather a hard time. The player they made a huge "win now" trade for, Marian Gaborik, is out for the foreseeable future and big free agent acquisition Nathan Horton has yet to even play after having shoulder surgery in July. They currently sit on a 8-11-3 record that puts them four points off of a playoff place. With Gaborik out they still have four skaters who are ahead of him on the scorers list. Wisniewski, Dubinsky, Johansen and Umberger on 16. 15. 13 and 12 points.
The "struggle after realignment" tag was also lumped on the Vancouver Canucks. Coming out of a Northwest Division that they yearly won at a canter, and entering the fiercely contested Pacific Division. A bigger change some might say has been adapting to the style of John Totorella, and his more defensive game plan compared to previous coach Alain Vigneault. The Sedin twins have racked up huge minutes this year and have struggled immensely in the last couple of weeks. Daniel more than Henrik. One positive from the new style is the resurgence of Ryan Kesler who has 9 goals and 6 assists, but like the Sedins is playing an awful lot of minutes. At 11-8-4 they have dropped out of the playoff spots in the significantly stronger West.
The Jackets beat the Canucks on home ice a month ago, in a 3-1 win with goals coming from Gaborik, Johansen and Umberger. With backup netminder Curtis McElhinney putting up 38 saves. The Canucks goal was scored by Henrik Sedin and an assist awarded to Kesler.
Despite the recent struggles I'll go for a Canucks win.
TAMPA BAY LIGHTNING @ ANAHEIM DUCKS
This is another potentially great match up tonight. Both have very similar records. Tampa 14-8-0, Anaheim 15-6-3, and both are amongst the top scorers in their conferences.
A big moment came when Tampa's star and leading scorer, Steven Stamkos, broke his leg in Boston 11 days ago. But Tampa have pressed on unfazed and one of the seasons big surprises are continuing to go on well despite fears the Stamkos injury would derail the team. Martin St Louis continues to put up good numbers season after season, and the void left by Stamkos has been filled nicely by free agent signing Valtteri Filppula adding 9 goals and 7 assists to the teams totals.
Anaheim are coached by perennial regular season great Bruce Boudreau. They won the Pacific last year and looked good in a seven game series lost to Detroit. As of now they're tied for the divison lead with California rivals the San Jose Sharks. You wouldn't be shocked to see Corey Perry and Ryan Getzlaf lead the way for the Ducks, and despite trading away 30 goal a year man Bobby Ryan, they have enjoyed excellent play from Dustin Penner, Nick Bonino, Matthie Perreault and Andrew Cogliano.
Tampa beat Anaheim 5-1 in Florida last week but on their current West road trip have suffered three straight losses. Anaheim have also lost their three games since these sides last met but once in a shootout to Carolina, once in OT after scoring an own goal to win it for the Devils, and only once in regulation to the brilliant Penguins.
I'll go for a high scoring tight home win.
Tonight's picks: Pittsburgh, Washington, Florida, Vancouver, Anaheim.
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