X75 Productions

Blog

  • Gameday Preview – 1/22/2019 – San Jose Sharks v. Washington Capitals

    Gameday Preview – 1/22/2019 – San Jose Sharks v. Washington Capitals

    San Jose Sharks (28-16-7 63pts) v. Washington Capitals (27-16-5 59pts)

     

    Time: 7p EST

    Station: NBC Sports Washington

     

    Preview:

    The Washington Capitals host the San Jose Sharks as they look to end their five game losing streak. The Sharks will be on the back end of their back to back, while the Capitals will be playing their first game of a back to back before the All Star break.

     

    San Jose Sharks:

    Projected Lineup:

    Marcus Sorensen — Joe Thornton — Melker Karlsson

    Timo Meier — Logan Couture — Joe Pavelski

    Evander Kane — Tomas Hertl — Joonas Donskoi

    Lukas Radil — Barclay Goodrow — Kevin Labanc

    Radim Simek — Brent Burns

    Brenden Dillon — Tim Heed

    Marc-Edouard Vlasic — Justin Braun

    Martin Jones

    Aaron Dell

    Scratched: Joakim Ryan, Dylan Gambrell, Jacob Middleton

    Injured: Erik Karlsson (lower body)

     

    Keys to the Game:

    1. Get an early lead

    The Capitals have been struggling for a while, and the Sharks need to get an early goal to establish themselves in put the Capitals in the hole early.

     

    Washington Capitals:

    Projected Lineup:

     

    Keys to the Game:

    1. Play Hungry

    The Capitals spent the past two days doing team meetings to get themselves fired up and ready for these next two games going into the All Star break.

  • January 22nd, 2019 — News and Notes

    January 22nd, 2019 — News and Notes

    This is your NHL recap for Tuesday, January 22nd, 2019.

     

    There were four games on the NHL schedule yesterday.

     

     

    Nashville 4, COLORADO 1

    The Nashville Predators would take on the Colorado Avalanche in a matinee affair and would come away with the 4-1 over the Avalanche.

    With the win for Nashville, Head Coach Peter Laviolette would get his 600th career win.  He would be the third head coach on the season to get his 600th career win this season.

     

    There would be four different goal scorers for the Predators, one of them being Nick Bonino.  Bonino would go on to score his 100th career goal in this contest.

     

    LOS ANGELES 4, St. Louis 3

    The Los Angeles Kings would take on the St. Louis Blues and would come away with the 4-3 win.

    With the win by the Kings, goaltender Jonathan Quick would get his 302nd career win, now the fourth most amongst all United States-born goaltenders in NHL history.

    Also, the Kings would get their second win on the season in which they have been behind by two goals at any point in the game.

     

     

    It would be a back and forth contest between both teams and St. Louis would mount a valiant effort but would not be successful in coming back to beat Los Angeles.

     

    Minnesota 4, VEGAS 2

    The Minnesota Wild would move to a record of 4-0-1 in the last five contests against the Vegas Golden Knights when they would double up Vegas by the score of 4-2.

    With Mikko Koivu’s goal in this contest, he now has 200 goals for his career and joins his brother who has 255 to be the 14th set of brothers to have at least 200 regular-season career goals.

     

    FLORIDA 6, San Jose 2

    The Florida Panthers would win their third straight game as they would score four goals in the third period to defeat the San Jose Sharks 6-2.

    Florida’s Frank Vatrano would be the third player in franchise history to have four points in a contest and the first player to do so in since October 30, 2009 (Steve Reinprecht).

     

     

    The Panthers scored two goals in nine seconds or less in the third period and scored those two goals in nine seconds or less for the fifth time in franchise history.

     

     

    San Jose would have a good first two periods of hockey before everything came apart when goaltender Martin Jones would allow three goals on eight shots before being replaced by Aaron Dell with 12:38 left in the game.

     

     

    In NHL news…

     

    The NHL announced the Three Stars of the Week yesterday for the week ending January 19th.

     

    The Carolina Hurricanes and Teuvo Teravainen agreed to a 5 year/$27 million contract extension yesterday.

     

    The NHL Central Scout released the midterm rankings for the 2019 NHL Draft yesterday.

     

  • Arizona Coyotes vs Toronto Maple Leafs – 20/1/2019 – Game Recap

    Arizona Coyotes vs Toronto Maple Leafs – 20/1/2019 – Game Recap

    Arizona Coyotes (21-22-4 46pts) v, Toronto Maple Leafs (29-16-2 60pts)

    Lineups:

    Toronto:

    Zach Hyman– Auston Matthews –Connor Brown

    Mitch Marner – John Tavares – Andreas Johnsson

    Patrick Marleau – Nazem Kadri – Kasperi Kapanen

    William Nylander – Pars Lindholm – Frederik Gauthier

     

    Morgan Rielly  – Ron Hainsey

    Jake Gardiner – Nikita Zaitsev

    Travis Dermott – Igor Ozhiganov

     

    Frederik Andersen

    Garrett Sparks

     

    Scratched: Justin Holl & Martin Marincin

    Injuries: Nathan Horton (Back),Tyler Ennis (Leg) & Jake Gardiner (Back)

    Suspension: None

     

    Arizona:

    Clayton Keller – Jordan Weal – Christian Fischer

    Richard Panik – Derek Stepan– Vinnie Hinostroza

    Alex Galychenyk – Nick Cousins – Conor Garland

    Lawson Crowse – Mario Kempe – Josh Archibald

     

    Oliver-Ekman Larsson – Niklas Hjalmarsson

    Jakub Chychrun – Ilya Lyubushkin

    Jordan Oesterle – Alex Golgoski

     

    Darcy Kuemper

    Calvin Pickard

     

    Scratched: None

    Injuries: Christian Dvorak, Jason Demers, Antti Raanta, Michael Grabner, Nick Schmaltz and Kevin Connauton

    Suspension: None

     

    Gameday:

     

     

     

     

     

    First Period:

    Toronto Penalty – 02:23 – Martin Marincin, 2 minutes for Tripping

    Toronto Goal – 11:45 – Travis Dermott (3) from William Nylander (3) and Frederik Gauthier (6)

    Toronto Penalty – 20:00 – Nikita Zaitsev, 2 minutes for High Sticking

     

    End of 1st – ARI–0       TOR – 1

    Shots              6                   11

    Faceoffs     4/12              8/12

    Hits               15                     9

    PP                 0/1                  0/0

     

    Analysis

    Leafs come out strong William Nylander finally breaks his pointless streak and gains an assist on the Travis Dermott goal.

    Need to Do:

    Keep using your speed, getting shots to the net and getting to the rebounds.

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

    Second Period:

    Arizona Goal – 02:16 – Mario Kempe (3) from Lawson Crowse (6) and Alex Goligoski (15)

    Arizona Goal – 15:19 – Clayton Keller (11) from Christian Fischer (4) and Oliver Ekman Larsson (20)

    Arizona Penalty – 16:33 –Darcy Kuemper, 2 mins for Tripping

    End of 2nd – ARI– 2          TOR – 1

    Shots              17                    16

    Faceoffs       11/31              20/31

    Hits              20                      13

    PP                 0/2                  0/1

     

    Analysis:

    Leafs fall apart in the 2nd period again. 2 Goals for the Coyotes in the period capped off by a horrible powerplay by the Leafs.

    Need to Do:

    Need a big 3rd period.

     

    Third Period:

    Toronto Goal – 03:12 – John Tavares (30) from Mitch Marner (42) and Zach Hyman (10)

    Arizona Goal – 06:44 – Vinnie Hinostroza (5) from Derek Stepan (12) and Richard Panik (8)

    Toronto Penalty – 09:00 –Connor Brown, 2 mins for Tripping

    Arizona EN Goal – 19:22 – Lawson Crouse (8) from Derek Stepan (13) and Jordan Oesterle (8)

     

    End of 3rd – ARI – 4        TOR – 2

    Shots             31                   27

    Faceoffs     19/50                31/50

    Hits               24                      19

    PP                0/4                   0/1

     

    Analysis:

    Another disappointing effort from the Leafs after a huge win in Tampa Bay. Their last 2 games shown a disgraceful effort

     

     

    Next Up:

    Arizona (22-22-3 47pts) vs Ottawa (19-25-5 43pts)

    Washington (27-16-5 59pts) at Toronto (29-17-2 60pts)

  • January 21st, 2019 — News and Notes

    January 21st, 2019 — News and Notes

    Today is Monday, January 21st, 2019, and these are your news and notes.

     

    There were five contests in NHL action yesterday.

     

    CHICAGO 8, Washington 5

     

    The Chicago Blackhawks would face off against the defending Stanley Cup champion Washington Capitals and would come away with an 8-5 win in Chicago.

     

    This contest would fast and furious for the Chicago Blackhawks and would end the first period with a 3-1 lead, thanks to goals from Brandon Saad and Patrick Kane with the third goal credited to Jonathan Toews.  The third goal would be due to Washington Capitals Dmitry Orlov hitting the puck into his own net.

     

    The second period would get very chippy in the first six minutes of gameplay with six penalties being duelled out within 45 seconds.  Washington would try to get shots in but nothing would hit in the second period, aside from Dmitry Orlov’s goal.  Alex DeBrincat would score for Chicago, making the score 4-2 at the end of the second period.

     

    The third period is when Washington would turn on the jets to make a full comeback and came within a goal to make the contest 5-4, but the comeback would not be enough as Chicago would score three more goals.

     

    Jonathan Toews would score three goals in the contest, giving him his second hat trick on the season.

     

    With an assist from Chicago’s Patrick Kane, he now has sole possession of third place in terms of assists all-time in the long and storied history of the Blackhawks franchise.

    Toews would have his third game in which he registered at least five points in a game.

     

    TXHT has your full recap of the contest at the following page.

     

     

    NY ISLANDERS 3, Anaheim 0

     

    The Metropolitan Division-leading NY Islanders faced off against the slumping Anaheim Ducks and would go on to win this contest 3-0.  With this win by the Islanders, they have now won their last five contests.

     

    This would also be the second consecutive shutout that the Islanders would have in this contest.

     

    VANCOUVER 3, Detroit 2

    Vancouver Canucks rookie phenom Elias Pettersson would return to action in this game and would record one goal and one assist to help lift the Canucks past the Detroit Red Wings by the score of 3-2.

     

    https://twitter.com/Canucks/status/1087139719245230081

     

     

     

     

    Arizona 4, TORONTO 2

    Carolina 7, EDMONTON 4

    Edmonton Oilers Leon Drasital would score two goals for his team but that would not be enough as the Oilers would fall to the Carolina Hurricanes by the score of 7-4.

    For Carolina, the scoring would be often.  Nino Niederreiter would have two goals in the contest and Hurricanes phenom Sebastian Aho would find the score sheet three times with three assists in the start of a road trip for Carolina.  Carolina’s Jaccob Slavin would have three assists of his own in this contest.

     

     

    There are only four games in action today in the NHL.  The first game starts at 3 p.m. with the Nashville Predators visiting the Colorado Avalanche.

     

     

     

     

    NWHL

     

    In NWHL action yesterday, the Minnesota Whitecaps would close out the home portion of the regular season schedule with a win over the Connecticut Whale, sweeping the weekend series.

    The Minnesota Whitecaps would go to throttle the Connecticut Whale by the score of 9-0 in front of another sold-out crowd at TRIA Rink.

    Minnesota’s Jonna Curtis would lead all skaters for the Whitecaps with a goal and three assists in the contest and would once again tie all NWHL skaters for most points on the season.  Curtis has 17 points on the season thus far.

    Kendall Coyne Schofield had two goals and an assist in the contest and Katie McGovern would have two goals of her own.

    Allie Thunstrom would also have a tally and a helper while Emma Stauber had two assists.

    Kalli Funk would go on to net her first career NWHL goal.

    Whitecaps goaltender Julie Friend picked up the shutout in her first career start, recording 18 saves.

    For the Whale, star Meeri Räisänen would leave in the second period due to a collision and Laura Brennan would replace her in net.  Brennan would have 11 saves on 18 attempts while Räisänen had 21 saves on 23 attempts before she had to depart the contest.

    Games coming up for the Connecticut Whale:

    • February 2nd, 2019: at Boston Pride
    • February 24th, 2019: vs. Boston Pride
    • March 2nd, 2019: vs. Buffalo Beauts
    • March 3rd, 2019: vs.  Minnesota Whitecaps

     

    Games coming up for the Minnesota Whitecaps:

    • March 2nd, 2019: at Boston Pride
    • March 3rd, 2019: at Connecticut Whale

     

     

     

     

  • Game Recap – 1/20/2019 – Washington Capitals v. Chicago Blackhawks

    Game Recap – 1/20/2019 – Washington Capitals v. Chicago Blackhawks

    Washington Capitals (27-15-5 59pts) v. Chicago Blackhawks (16-24-9 41pts)

     

    Game Recap:

    The Washington Capitals started the game strong as they drew an early penalty, but despite generating some really good opportunities the Capitals would not be able to capitalize on their first powerplay. But the Chicago Blackhawks would be able to weather the Capitals early surge as a great individual effort by Brandon Saad to break past the Capitals defense to get the first goal of the game. Then 80 seconds later Jonathan Toews would feed Patrick Kane for his 28th of the season and a 2-0 Blackhawks lead. However, the Capitals would respond with a goal of their own as Brooks Orpik throws the puck on net and gets past Collin Delia to cut the lead to one, but then 28 seconds later, the Blackhawks would get their two goal lead back when Dmitry Orlov accidentally batted the puck into the net while trying to knock it out of the air.

     

    The start of the second period would not be kind to the Capitals as another defensive breakdown would leave Alex DeBrincat open to give the Blackhawks a 4-1 lead. However, the Capitals would show some life and with a strong shift from Lars Eller, Tom Wilson, and Jakub Vrana would generate some scoring chances. then some fireworks would take place as both teams would get into some rough stuff with coincidentals being given to both sides. Then after the dust settled, Michal Kempny would be called for hooking, but the Capitals would kill the penalty. Then a bit later, Orlov would throw a shot from a a bad angle and beat Delia to cut the Blackhawks lead to 2.

     

    The Capitals would start the period very well when Orlov would tee up John Carlson for a one timer to give the Capitals their third goal of the game, but the Blackhawks would respond right away as Nicklas Backstrom would take an ill advised penalty that lead to a Patrick Kane powerplay goal. Then on another defensive breakdown Jonathan Toews would score his second of the game to give the Blackhawks a three goal lead. However, the Capitals would not lie down as they would get another goal from Carlson on a great play. Then Matt Niskanen would score off of a great play set up by Travis Boyd as the Capitals cut the Blackhawks lead to one. However, some sloppy play by Orlov agaist Toews one on one would result in Toews netting his third of the game to give Chicago the 7-5 lead. Then Dylan Strome would net the empty netter to ice the game for the Blackhawks 8-5, and giving the Capitals their fifth consecutive loss.

     

    Lineups:

    Washington Capitals:

    Alex Ovechkin — Nicklas Backstrom — T.J. Oshie

    Jakub Vrana — Lars Eller — Tom Wilson

    Andre Burakovsky — Evgeny Kuznetsov — Brett Connolly

    Chandler Stephenson — Nic Dowd — Devante Smith-Pelly

    Dmitry Orlov — John Carlson

    Michal Kempny — Matt Niskanen

    Brooks Orpik — Madison Bowey

    Braden Holtby

    Pheonix Copley

    Scratched: Travis Boyd, Dmitrij Jaskin, Jonas Siegenthaler

    Injured: Christian Djoos (thigh)

     

    Chicago Blackhawks:

    Drake Caggiula — Jonathan Toews — Patrick Kane

    Alex DeBrincat — Dylan Strome — Dominik Kahun

    Brandon Saad — David Kampf — Marcus Kruger

    John Hayden — Artem Anisimov — Chris Kunitz

    Duncan Keith — Brent Seabrook

    Carl Dahlstrom — Connor Murphy

    Slater Koekkoek — Erik Gustafsson

    Collin Delia

    Cam Ward

    Scratched: Henri Jokiharju

    Injured: Corey Crawford (concussion), Gustav Forsling (upper torso), Brendan Perlini (concussion protocol)

     

    First Period:

    Blackhawks Penalty – 1:39 – Erik Gustafsson 2 minutes for Cross Checking

    Blackhawks Goal – 6:36 – Brandon Saad (15) from David Kampf (12)

    Blackhawks Goal – 7:56 – Patrick Kane (28) from Jonathan Toews (25) and Brent Seabrook (14)

    Capitals Goal – 14:25 – Brooks Orpik (2) from Brett Connolly (16) and Lars Eller (15)

    Blackhawks Goal – 14:53 – Jonathan Toews (19) from unassisted

     

    End of 1st – WAS – 1       CHI – 3

    Shots              15                09

    Faceoffs         09                06

    Hits               15                  11

    PP                 0/1                 0/0

     

    Second Period:

    Blackhawks Goal – 2:30 – Alex DeBrincat (25) from Dylan Strome (13) and Duncan Keith (20)

    Capitals Penalty – 4:44 – Alex Ovechkin 2 minutes for Roughing

    Blackhawks Penalty – 4:44 – Connor Murphy 2 minutes for Roughing

    Blackhawks Penalty – 5:23 – David Kampf 2 minutes for Hooking

    Blackhawks Penalty – 5:23 – Duncan Keith 2 minutes for Slashing

    Capitals Penalty – 5:23 – Tom Wilson 2 minutes for Roughing

    Capitals Penalty – 5:23 – Devante Smith-Pelly 2 minutes for Unsportsmanlike Conduct

    Capitals Penalty – 9:24 – Michal Kempny 2 minutes for Hooking

    Capitals Goal – 15:24 – Dmitry Orlov (3) from Matt Niskanen (12) and Andre Burakovsky (5)

     

    End of 2nd – WAS – 2        CHI – 4

    Shots               24                 21

    Faceoffs          15                 19

    Hits                 26                  19

    PP                   0/1                  0/1

     

    Third Period:

    Capitals Goal – 3:09 – John Carlson (7) from Dmitry Orlov (12) and TJ Oshie (8)

    Capitals Penalty – 3:32 – Nicklas Backstrom 2 minutes for Hooking

    Blackhawks PPG – 3:45 – Patrick Kane (29) from Jonathan Toews (26) and Dylan Strome (14)

    Blackhawks Penalty – 4:21 – Artem Anisimov 2 minutes for Delay of Game

    Blackhawks Goal – 7:20 – Jonathan Toews (20) from Patrick Kane (39) and Carl Dahlstrom (6)

    Capitals Goal – 10:38 – John Carlson (8) from Nicklas Backstrom (35) and TJ Oshie (9)

    Capitals Goal – 13:55 – Matt Niskanen (6) from Travis Boyd (10) and Andre Burakovsky (6)

    Blackhawks Goal – 14:57 – Jonathan Toews (21) from Patrick Kane (40)

    Blackhawks ENG – 18:11 – Dylan Strome (11) from unassisted

     

    End of 3rd – WAS – 5         CHI – 8

    Shots              39                   28

    Faceoffs        29                    33

    Hits               35                     29

    PP                 0/2                    1/2

     

    Next Up:

    Washington (27-16-5 59pts) v. San Jose (28-15-7 63pts)

    Chicago (17-24-9 43pts) v. NY Islanders (28-15-4 60pts)

  • January 20th, 2019 — News and Notes

    January 20th, 2019 — News and Notes

    Today is Sunday, January 20th, 2019, and these are your news and notes.

     

    There were 11 contests on the NHL schedule yesterday.

     

     

     

    Anaheim 3, NEW JERSEY 2

     

    In the first contest of the day, the Anaheim Ducks took on the New Jersey Devils in the NHL European Game of the Week.  The Ducks, after getting their first win after losing twelve straight contests on Thursday night, would defeat New Jersey by the score of 3-2.

     

    https://twitter.com/AnaheimDucks/status/1086790317385236481

     

    For the New Jersey Devils, they enter their bye week having lost their last three games and seven out of the last ten.

     

    COLORADO 7, Los Angeles 1

     

    The Colorado Avalanche took on the Los Angeles Kings and would soundly defeat the Kings thanks to six goals in the second period and would go on to win this contest by the score of 7-1.

     

     

    This would also be a heavily-filled penalty contest for the Kings, who amassed eight penalties in the contest.  Five of the eight penalties would come in the third period alone.

     

    NY Rangers 3, BOSTON 2

     

    Philadelphia 5, MONTREAL 2

    There would be four different scores for the Philadelphia Flyers in the contest and two different scorers for the Montreal Canadiens in this contest.

     

    Montreal’s Brendan Gallagher would lead all skaters for the Canadiens with eight shots on goal, but would not score on any of those shots.

     

     

    For the Flyers, goaltender Carter Hart would have 35 saves in the contest.  Hart has a record of 6-5-1 in those 12 contests.

     

     

    TAMPA BAY 6, San Jose 3

    Tampa Bay’s Steven Stamkos would go on to have a two goal, one assist performance and help the Lightning defeat the San Jose Sharks by the score of 6-3.

     

     

    San Jose Sharks Evander Kane would also have a two goal performance and Marcus Sorensen would become the eighth player for the Sharks this season to have at least ten goals.

     

    ST. LOUIS 3, Ottawa 2

    St. Louis Blues goaltender Jordan Binnington would become the sixth different goaltender in Blues history to have at least a point in at least their first five contests.

     

     

    DALLAS 4, Winnipeg 2

    The Dallas Stars would take on the Winnipeg Jets and double up the Jets 4-2.

     

    In this contest for Dallas, there would be four different goal scorers in the contest.

    The Jets would not score until the third period and would fight to come back but it would still not be enough.

     

     

    Florida 4, NASHVILLE 2

     

    Nashville’s Nick Bonino and Auston Watson would score the goals for the Predators in this contest.

     

    MINNESOTA 2, Columbus 1

     

    Minnesota’s Zach Parise would score one of the two goals, his 20th on the season, in a hard fought battle between both teams in the contest.

    Columbus Blue Jackets Artemi Panarin would score the lone goal for the Blue Jackets in this contest.

     

    Calgary 5, EDMONTON 2

     

    Edmonton’s Jesse Puljujarvi would notch two assists, with Ryan Nugent-Hopkins and Milan Lucic notching the only two goals for the Oilers in this contest.

     

     

    VEGAS 7, Pittsburgh 3

     

    Vegas Golden Knights Jonathan Marchessault became the second different player to record hat tricks for the franchise.  Marchessault joins William Karlsson, who has two hat tricks with the franchise.

     

     

    Pittsburgh’s infographic from last night’s game.  Credit of the image goes to the Pittsburgh Penguins Twitter.

     

     

    In the lone NWHL of the day, the Connecticut Whale took on the Minnesota Whitecaps.

     

    MINNESOTA WHITECAPS 2, Connecticut Whale 0

     

    Minnesota Allie Thunstrom and Hannah Brandt scored the two goals for the Whitecaps in a hard fought battle for both sides.

    Minnesota’s win put them back in first place in the NWHL standings with a record of 9-4-0 on the season

     

    The game was scoreless until toward the end of the second period when Allie Thunstrom scored her third goal on the season.  The goals were assisted by  Brooke White-Lancette and  Chelsey Brodt Rosenthal. 

    Minnesota’s second goal was scored by Hannah Brandt, her fifth on the season.  Brandt’s goal would be assisted by Amy Menke and Kendall Coyne Shofield.

     

    Connecticut Whale goaltender Meeri Räisänen would go on to have a 29 save performance in the contest and would have more phenomenal saves throughout the contest.

     

    This contest ended up being the Whitecaps “You Can Play” game in which all Whitecaps players donned jersey with rainbow numbers and accents. The You Can Play Project is an initiative that emphasizes equality and respect in sport, particularly for LGBTQ+ individuals.

     

    Today there is only one contest in the NWHL.  The Minnesota Whitecaps will be hosting their last home game of the regular season.  The game will be available to watch on NWHL.zone/watch

     

    The game that was to take place between the Metropolitan Riveters and the Boston Pride has been postponed to a date to be determined.

     

     

    Today there are five games on the NHL schedule.

     

  • Arizona Coyotes vs Toronto Maple Leafs – 20/1/2019 – Game Day Preview

    Arizona Coyotes vs Toronto Maple Leafs – 20/1/2019 – Game Day Preview

    Time: Sunday January 20th,  2019

    Toronto: 29-16-2 for 60 points

    Arizona: 21-22-4 for 46 points

    The Toronto Maple Leafs come back home as they look to come back from a bad loss to the Florida Panthers on the road.

    Top Scorers/Goalie Matchup

    Mitch Marner –60 points (19 goals 41 assists)
    John Tavares – 52 points (29 goals 23 assists) 54% on face-offs
    Morgan Rielly – 48 points (13 goals 35 assists)
    Auston Matthews – 42 points (20 goals 22 assists) 53% on Face-offs)

    Clayton Keller – 33 points (10 goals 23 assists)
    Alex Galchenyuk – 25 points (8 goal 17 assist)
    Oliver-Ekman Larsson – 25 points (6 goal 19 assists)
    Derek Stepan – 20 points (9 goal 11 assists)

    Frederik Andersen
    21-10-1 2.53GAA .923SV%

    Darcy Kuemper
    9-11-4 2.69GAA .914SV%

     

    Lineups:

    Toronto:

    Andreas Johnsson – Auston Matthews – Kasperi Kapanen

    Mitch Marner – John Tavares – Zach Hyman

    Patrick Marleau – Nazem Kadri – William Nylander

    Connor Brown – Pars Lindholm – Frederik Gauthier

     

    Morgan Rielly  – Ron Hainsey

    Jake Gardiner – Nikita Zaitsev

    Travis Dermott – Igor Ozhiganov

     

    Frederik Andersen

    Garrett Sparks

     

    Scratched: Justin Holl & Martin Marincin

    Injuries: Nathan Horton (Back),Tyler Ennis (Leg)

    Suspension: None

     

    Arizona:

    Clayton Keller – Jordan Weal – Christian Fischer

    Richard Panik – Derek Stepan– Vinnie Hinostroza

    Alex Galychenyk – Nick Cousins – Conor Garland

    Lawson Crowse – Mario Kempe – Josh Archibald

     

    Oliver-Ekman Larsson – Niklas Hjalmarsson

    Jakub Chychrun – Ilya Lyubushkin

    Jordan Oesterle – Alex Golgoski

     

    Darcy Kuemper

    Calvin Pickard

     

    Scratched: None

    Injuries: Christian Dvorak, Jason Demers, Antti Raanta, Michael Grabner, Nick Schmaltz and Kevin Connauton

    Suspension: None

     

    Keys to Winning against Arizona:

    1. Attack the Defence
      1. Young defence and a lot of injuries on the backend. Forecheck hard and furious
    2. William Nylander
      1. It’s time for the scoring drought to end. If it happens it’s going to be now
    3. Powerplay
      1. Been struggling for a while. Gotta get it going again to make the Leafs dangerous
  • Gameday Preview – 1/20/2019 – Washington Capitals v. Chicago Blackhawks

    Gameday Preview – 1/20/2019 – Washington Capitals v. Chicago Blackhawks

    Washington Capitals (27-15-5 59pts) v. Chicago Blackhawks (16-24-9 41pts)

     

    Time: 1230p EST

    Station: NBC

     

    Preview:

    The Washington Capitals head to Chicago to take on the Blackhawks for a 1230p matinee on NBC. The Capitals will be looking to end their four game losing streak, while the Blackhawks will be looking to get themselves back in the win column as well.

    https://twitter.com/CapitalsPR/status/1086665683314896897

     

    Washington Capitals:

    Projected Lineup:

    Alex Ovechkin — Nicklas Backstrom — T.J. Oshie

    Jakub Vrana — Lars Eller — Tom Wilson

    Andre Burakovsky — Evgeny Kuznetsov — Brett Connolly

    Chandler Stephenson — Nic Dowd — Devante Smith-Pelly

    Dmitry Orlov — John Carlson

    Michal Kempny — Matt Niskanen

    Brooks Orpik — Madison Bowey

    Braden Holtby

    Pheonix Copley

    Scratched: Travis Boyd, Dmitrij Jaskin, Jonas Siegenthaler

    Injured: Christian Djoos (thigh)

     

    Keys to the Game:

    1. Smarter decisions

    The Capitals need to make smarter decisions both with and without the puck. There have been too many instances of over passing or overthinking plays. The Capitals just need to simplify their game and play smart.

     

    Chicago Blackhawks:

    Projected Lineup:

    Drake Caggiula — Jonathan Toews — Patrick Kane

    Alex DeBrincat — Dylan Strome — Dominik Kahun

    Brandon Saad — David Kampf — Marcus Kruger

    John Hayden — Artem Anisimov — Chris Kunitz

    Duncan Keith — Brent Seabrook

    Carl Dahlstrom — Connor Murphy

    Slater Koekkoek — Erik Gustafsson

    Collin Delia

    Cam Ward

    Scratched: Henri Jokiharju

    Injured: Corey Crawford (concussion), Gustav Forsling (upper torso), Brendan Perlini (concussion protocol)

     

    Keys to the Game:

    1. Get a good start

    The Blackhawks need stronger starts to their games, and with a Capitals team that is struggling as of late, an early start could give the Blackhawks the opportunity to put the momentum in their favor.

  • Is the Player Safety Bias when comes to suspending stars?

    Is the Player Safety Bias when comes to suspending stars?

    Last time we discussed the inconsistencies of the NHL Player Safety department and how if they are really worried about player safety they need to begin to call all hits that are recklessly dangerous to a players safety. This article we’re going to try to tackle a bigger subject, Is the NHL Player Safety Department Bias when it comes to star players? This is a subject that has been lingering for a long time in the NHL, let’s discuss why.

    I’m sure we’ve seen the aftermath of the Ottawa/ Pittsburgh game where Sidney Crosby’s slash across Ottawa Senators Defencemen Marc Methot’s hand almost left his finger hanging there. If you haven’t I’ll leave the link below so you can take a look for yourself.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7HpS3ECqkdA

     

    Then the same week Crosby speared Ryan O’Rielly in a retaliation play. The most disturbing thing about this whole situation was Crosby never received a hearing or fine. I want you to listen to the Hockey News Matt Larkin on these same two issues and I quote “If you think Crosby should be suspended, you’re delusional.” (Larkin, 2017) he went on to mention that much worse has been done and if they weren’t suspended why should Crosby when there was no intent to injure. I don’t know about you but an intentional stick to the groin sounds like intent and a slash so hard that it messed up Methot’s finger so much through his glove, sounds like its suspension worthy. I will put the link to both incidents down below. Now let me say this isn’t a rag on Crosby article, this is just one of a few situations we will discuss. But to be fair I need to put everything in the open.

     

    We’ve seen the Brad Marchand shenanigans, licking people, punching players with gloves on that aren’t expecting It from behind. Yet Brad Marchand sits with a very slim record of any discipline, the league has had “stern” talks with Marchand and yet he continues. Another player is Corey Perry, the number of questionable hits that come from Perry is ridiculous. Yet Perry also has a slim record.

     

    Alexander Ovechkin has a mean streak and sometimes he throws hits that are quite questionable. Ovechkin though seems to be one of the few guys who actually gets suspended. Ovechkin has been suspended 3 times.

     

    Then there’s the mysterious Ryan Johansen. He tends to do things that are questionable and even things that are so far across the limit that you wonder if he’s thinking at all. Recently Johansen just got two games for what the league called “unintentionally slashing the Winnipeg Jets player over the head with his stick” or as wet line to call recklessness. I’ll such the video below so you can see for yourself.

     

    All this said is the NHL Player Safety Bias towards Stars? I’m going to say no. More lenient yes, but not bias. But do you blame them? We see the NHL as a sport, they see it as a business and their business is run and held together by these Star players. So yeah you kind of got to protect your investment a bit. I’m saying I agree with it. But it’s how a business works, always got to protect your investment.

    I believe as you probably do that the NHL Player Safety Department should call it fair for every player and I get annoyed if I see a player of star caliber get away with something that another player would easily get suspended for. But we’re looking at things as fans and lovers of the sport, we expect things to be fair allowing for better games and more parity. We just love the game. But the NHL is a business and at the end of the day they will run it like a business. It’s why the NHL has been able to expand and keep teams like the Arizona Coyotes or the Florida Panthers and even the Ottawa Senators and bring back the Winnipeg Jets. So yeah I guess you can call it a bias, like these guys still get suspended as I’ve shown you above. It comes across as more of a leniency then anything else.

     

    But let’s keep the conversation going, leave your thoughts. I would love to hear them.

  • January 19th, 2019 — News and Notes

    Today is Saturday, January 19th, 2019, and these are your news and notes.

     

    There were 7 games on the NHL schedule yesterday.

     

    FLORIDA 3, Toronto 1

    After Toronto’s Ron Hainsey scored the first goal of the game, the Florida Panthers would score three unanswered goals to go on to defeat the Toronto Maple Leafs.

     

     

    Montreal 4, COLUMBUS 1

    The Montreal Canadiens would face off against the Columbus Blue Jackets in a key game for Columbus in the Metro division standings.  However, the Montreal Canadiens would soundly defeat the Blue Jackets by the score of 4-1.

     

     

    NY Islanders 2, WASHINGTON 0

    In a key contest for Metropolitan Division standings, the New York Islanders faced off against the Washington Capitals.  The Islanders would go on to defeat the Washington Capitals 2-0, and with that win, the Islanders now hold first place in the Metro division.

    During a pre-game presentation the Capitals honoured Brooks Orpik who recently played in his 1,000th NHL contest as well as the Capitals showing a video tribute for former Capitals Head Coach Barry Trotz, who stepped down from the position over the summer.  Trotz is now the Head Coach for the New York Islanders.

     

    TXHT was LIVE at the contest last night and you can check out the full recap of the contest at the following page.

     

     

    Ottawa 4, CAROLINA 1

     

    With the 4-1 loss to the Ottawa Senators last night, the five game winning streak on home ice came to an end for the Carolina Hurricanes.

     

     

     

     

     

    CALGARY 6, Detroit 4

    Infographic between the Calgary Flames and the Detroit Red Wings

     

     

    Pittsburgh 3, ARIZONA 2 (OT)

     

     

     

     

    VANCOUVER 4, Buffalo 3

     

    https://twitter.com/Canucks/status/1086515611990077440

     

     

    Today’s schedule of contests across the NHL…

     

    This weekend’s NWHL Contests…