Around the NHL: Predictions for February 19th

Happy Friday, everyone. There are five games to kick back and relax with at the end of your day, so let’s go around the NHL and look at the top picks, plays and predictions.
 

Here are tonight’s starting goaltenders, courtesy of LeftWingLock.

Play of the Day: Flyers over Canadiens.
The Canadiens have hit rock bottom. They were utterly embarrassing in their three-game roadtrip against some of the weakest teams in the NHL. In three games against Arizona, Buffalo and Colorado they were outscored 15-8. The closest they came to extracting so much as a point on their road trip of the damned was their last game against Colorado. With two minutes remaining the game, Jarome Iginla capped off a play initiated by Mikhail Grigorenko to put the Avs in front 3-2.

After the game, Michel Therrien said, “It’s too bad an individual mistake cost us the game late in the game.”

“We play as a team,” Therrien elaborated. “When we don’t we could be in trouble and this is what happened.”

Therrien has every right to be disappointed following the loss given the team’s ineptitude. But ripping Subban and entirely blaming him for the loss is insanity. Subban has the puck at the near point, and rather than dumping it down deep, he elects to sprint across the ice to the far boards. He has a man on him but some open space if he can get around him. In fact, if he can just get around Grigorenko, Subban will have the puck on his forehand in the high slot to either shoot through traffic or pass across Royal Road to an open Jacob de la Rose. It may not be the robotically systematic play, but that does not make it inherently wrong or selfish. When your team stinks, you pull out all the stops. Subban was going for the win, not to kill two minutes and hope for a loser point.

Grigorenko forced the puck off Subban’s stick with a hard poke check, then forces him down to the ice. Players blow a tire all the time. Since Subban was creating his own play, the Habs were out of position and the Avs went tic-tac-toe on a 3-on-1.

It’s an unfortunate play that had the best of intentions. Openly ripping one of the only positive aspects of your team is probably not a good idea. Perhaps if there’s someone to blame, Michel Therrien ought to look in the mirror at the face of a man who is, and always has been, incapable of winning without Carey Price bailing out his team.

Also, a new development from Louis Jean indicates that Subban’s name has “come up” in trade negotiations. What an unmitigated disaster.

To the game- the Flyers finally got their offense going with a 6-3 win over the Devils. The game was actually 2-2 with under eight minutes remaining. Brayden Schenn, Wayne Simmonds and Claude Giroux all had multi-point games. Shayne Gostisbehere’s point streak has reached 13 games. The man is a fantasy hockey god.

Prediction: Take the Flyers to win at +104. Play the over, which is 4-1 in the last five meetings between these two teams.

The Game to Watch: Islanders vs Devils.
Slim pickings for a “headliner” game tonight. Sharks-Hurricanes at least features some playoff-caliber talent, but the other two games? No thanks.

The New Jersey Devils are trying to scratch and claw their way into the postseason this year, sitting a point out of the Wild Card. The one thing that works against them is their schedule. Both Tampa Bay and Pittsburgh have games in hand, which makes every game all the more important for the Devils. They just had a three-game winning streak halted by the aforementioned 6-3 loss to Philly.

New Jersey has not scored more than three goals since January 21st, and have only done so 10 times this entire season. It has happened twice since December 22nd (23 games). Their conservative style of play seems to work for them, even in the absence of Mike Cammalleri.

The Islanders have won eight of the last nine meetings against the Devils. New Jersey’s lone win came in the skills competition back in October. Since then, the Isles have outscored the Devils 6-1 in their two contests.

Jersey has an 8-9-2 record against Metro division opponents this year. Even if the Isles are on the tail end of a back-to-back, they are 5-1 in these types of games.

Prediction: The under is 6-0-1 in Islanders games following a game that went to overtime. Take the Isles to win, and play the under.

Other Game Notes Around the NHL

Sabres vs Blue Jackets: John Tortorella is doing John Tortorella things in Columbus. The Jackets are 6-1-3 in their last 10 games, and Torts is making sure that the lines of communication are open and honest…even if he isn’t.

“I even try to manipulate situations to try and cause an argument,” Tortorella told Aaron Portzline of BlueJacketsXtra. “I want an argument. I want the conversation. If they’re not going to come in and talk to me, I’m going to cause something so you have to talk to me.”

What Torts is referring to is the tally sheet of scoring chances for and against he keeps on players, which he shares after games. This is actually a pretty good way to hold players accountable for their performance, and a pretty progressive one too.

At least, it would be if Torts didn’t fudge the numbers to intentionally make players fight with him.

At least he’s open a little bit to shot tracking when he has denounced it in the past, but it is kind of funny to see John Tortorella reduced to being Regina George from “Mean Girls.” Maybe he makes his players wear pink in Wednesday practices.

Prediction: Take Columbus to win tonight. Play the over, which is 8-1-1 in their last 10 meetings.

Canucks vs Flames: The Canucks and Flames are both starting to fade into oblivion in the Pacific Division. Calgary will be without Dennis Wideman for the entirety of his 20-game suspension as upheld by Gary Bettman, and they may also be without Ladislav Smid, who is a game-time decision.

Calgary has allowed 20 goals in their last four games, going 1-3 in that stretch. Vancouver has been equally bad, allowing 15 goals in their last three games.

Prediction: Take the over in this game. Take the Canucks to win at +134.