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Tag: Erik Karlsson

  • WCF Game 3 Recap – San Jose Sharks v. St. Louis Blues

    WCF Game 3 Recap – San Jose Sharks v. St. Louis Blues

    The St. Louis Blues and San Jose Sharks started out about the same way all the games these playoffs have for the Blues – without them. The Blues mustered only four shots the entire period en route to a 2-0 deficit. Erik Karlsson scored the first goal (unassisted), followed by Joe Thornton’s first of the game.

    The second period was entirely different. Alex Steen opened the scoring to cut the lead to 2-1. Thornton netted his second of the game to increase San Jose’s lead back to 2, but the much maligned (unfairly, to this writer), Vladimir Tarasenko brought the Blues back to 3-2. Now, the game got really fun. David Perron committed what should have been a delay of game penalty for shooting the puck over the glass, but it was missed by the referees (of note, it is very fun to see Peter DeBoer’s incredulous face). He then proceeded to score the next two goals to give the Blues a 4-3 lead entering the third.

    The Blues generally outplayed the Sharks in the third, with no team scoring until about 1 minute left, where Couture tied the game at 4, after a series of laughable, contemptuous icings by Alex Pietrangelo, then a poor defense play by him. I generally think Petro is a wonderful player, but he has been simply bad this series.

     

    Hey everyone! Michael here. Aryan asked me to take over and cover the overtime period(s) of this tightly contested Game 3 between the San Jose Sharks and St. Louis Blues.

     

    In overtime both teams would trade chances in the first five minutes of the extra period, but then on a controversial play that saw Timo Meier bat the puck with his hand in front of the Blues net to Gustav Nyquist who would then pass it to Erik Karlsson who would shoot the puck past Jordan Binnington to win the game 5-4 in overtime and take the 2-1 series lead.

     

    Clearly a hand pass by Meier, but unfortunately this is not a reviewable play and the fact that all four officials missed this call the goal cannot be reversed. St. Louis got the short end on this one and will be motivation going into Game 4.

     

    Make sure to follow TXHT’s extensive Playoffs coverage on our 2019 NHL Playoffs page.

  • Western Conference Finals Preview – St. Louis Blues v. San Jose Sharks

    Western Conference Finals Preview – St. Louis Blues v. San Jose Sharks

    After a wild seven game series with the Dallas Stars, the Blues emerged victorious. Saturday, they continue their inexorable march to the Cup against the San Jose Sharks. Before breaking down the series, I’ll have to admit (though often considered a sacrilegious act to hockey fans), that I am a baseball fan and ardent supporter of the St. Louis Cardinals. As such, I noticed a quite interesting parallel between the World Series of 2011 against a Dallas-based team and the second round series with the Stars. Each series had game winners in this order: STL, DAL, STL, DAL, DAL, STL, STL.

    So, instead of recalling the vituperative memories of the last time the Blues and Sharks played in the playoffs, let’s focus on the last time the STL and SF baseball teams played for a premonition:

    Oh. Right.

    Anyway, back to the better sport – the Blues and Sharks finished the regular season with similar point totals, though the Sharks finished two points ahead with 101 and will start the series at home.

    The two teams met three times during the season, with the Blues going 1-1-1, including a 4-0 win and 4-0 loss in November (which, as we’ve seen before, does not really matter because that was before the team learned how to play hockey), as well as a 3-2 overtime loss, in a game without Vladimir Tarasenko.

    Like with any series, there are a number of factors that could be ‘keys to the series’, but quite honestly, there really is only one important one – Martin Jones. Jones is about as bad as Ben Bishop is good, so if the Blues cannot win this series, and score a fair amount of goals, it is completely on them. Though San Jose sports Brent Burns and Erik Karlsson on defense, neither is particularly adept at defense these days. Since Burns, Karlsson, Joe Pavelski, Tomas Hertl, and Logan Couture are quite skillful offensively, the Blues simply need to play as strong of a game defensively as they did in game 7 against Dallas, and bide their time until they get their offensive chances.

    To put how mediocre Jones is in perspective, let’s compare him to the much maligned Jake Allen, who absolutely was not good for the Blues during the season and a major reason for their stodgy start to the here. According to NaturalStatTrick, Martin Jones has a save percentage of .896, while Allen’s is .905. Allen has a GSAA of -5.91, while Jones has an astounding -22.87. GSAA is a metric that basically measures goals saved above average. While -5.91 isn’t great, it’s much better than -22. The only part where Jones beats Allen is in High Danger Save Percentage, with a paltry .806 to .796 edge.

    Of course more goes into an evaluation of a goalie than simply his raw stats, most notably team defense, but at minimum we can conclude that San Jose is not good at keeping the puck out of their own net, and Jones himself is not good when facing high danger shots. If the Blues do not score against Jones, the last thing anyone should be doing is valorizing him, because in all likelihood it will be the shooters that are taking bad shots, as opposed to Jones making great and timely saves.

    That’s basically it. Score goals. Just score goals. Play solid defense. And, above all else, don’t throw the puck in your own net:

    Blues in 6.

  • January 8th, 2019 — News and Notes

    January 8th, 2019 — News and Notes

    Today is Tuesday, January 8th, 2019 and these are your news and notes

     

    There were five games in action last night.

     

    Nashville 4, TORONTO 0

    Nashville goaltender Pekka Rinne would have an 18 save performance and Toronto’s goaltender Michael Hutchinson would have a 28 save performance on 32 attempts.

    TXHT’s Steve Gardiner has your full recap of the contest at the following link.

    Nashville Predators vs Toronto Maple Leafs – 01/07/2019 – Game Day Preview and Recap

     

    St. Louis 3, PHILADELPHIA 0

     

    St. Louis Blues goaltender in this game, Jordan Binnington, would become the 35th different goalie in NHL history to record a shutout in his first career NHL start and the second to have a shutout in a debut joining Rich Parent back on January 26th, 1999.

     

    Minnesota 1, MONTREAL 0

    In a very ugly and penalty-filled game, the Minnesota Wild would go on to defeat the Montreal Canadiens by the score of 1-0.

    Minnesota’s Nick Seeler would be assessed a two-minute instigator, a five-minute major for fighting, as well as a 10-minute misconduct penalty and Montreal’s Kenny Agostino would be duelled out a five minute major for interference, a five minute major for fighting, as well as a 10-minute game misconduct penalty.

     

    This major chain of events came off of the two-minute interference penalty when Agostino was called for interference on Minnesota’s Eric Fehr.

     

    With the Wild’s win, this would be Devan Dubnyk’s second shutout on the season and the 38th for his career.

    Also with this win, this would be Minnesota’s ninth consecutive win against the Canadiens, matching franchise records for longest win streaks against an opponent.

    https://twitter.com/PR_NHL/status/1082473382162169858

     

     

    Calgary 4, CHICAGO 3

    Calgary Flames Johnny Gaudreau would have a two-goal performance, continuing his hot streak and help the Flames take down the Chicago Blackhawks by the score of 4-3.

    The Flames would also become the first team to have four players with at least 50 points in their first 45 games of a season since the 1995-96 Pittsburgh Penguins with Ron Francis, Mario Lemieux, Jaromir Jagr and Toms Sandstrom.

     

    Chicago’s goalscorers would be Patrick Kane with his 24th goal on the season, Alex DeBrincat with his 20th goal of the season and Brandon Saad would score on the power play late in the third period with his 12th goal of the season, however that would not be enough as the Blackhawks would fall 4-3.

     

    SAN JOSE 3, Los Angeles 1

    San Jose Sharks D Erik Karlsson would register an assist in his 13th consecutive game and would be one of only six other players to do so.  Karlsson would go on to have three assists in the contest.

    The San Jose Sharks would go on to defeat the Los Angeles Kings last night by the score of 3-1.

    In NHL News…

     

    Yesterday the NHL announced the Three Stars of the Week (week ending January 6th)

    The first star went to Calgary Flames Johnny Gaudreau, who had an 11 point week in four games played.  Included was a back-to-back four-point performance which had not happened for a Flames player since Doug Gilmour back in November of 1988.

    The second star of the week went to San Jose Sharks Brent Burns.  Burns had a nine-point week across three multi-point outings over the weeks and leads the NHL among all defenceman for points with 47 points in 43 games played.

     

    The third star of the week would go to New York Islanders goaltender Robin Lehner.  Lehner would go 3-0-0 during the week and has a record of 7-0-0 since December 18th.  Lehner would become the fourth different Islanders goaltender to have a personal win streak of at least seven games and is the first the 2014-15 season when Jaroslav Halak had a similar mark.

     

     

    NWHL

     

    This week the NWHL announced co-players of the week.  Buffalo Beauts goaltender Shannon Szabados and Metropolitan Riveters Madison Packer were named the VEDA Co-Players of the Week.

    Szabados had a 30 save performance in the Beauts 5-0 shutout win over the Boston Pride on Saturday.  That contest was scoreless for the first 25 minutes until Buffalo opened up the scoring.  Szabados would also go on to have miraculous saves in the contest.

    Packer, in Sunday’s contest against the Connecticut Whale, had one goal and three assists to close out the regular-season series between the Riveters and Whale.  The Riveters had a six-goal outburst in the contest to give Metropolitan a 6-3 win.  Packer, a four-year veteran of the NWHL, led the league in goals last season and she will be playing in the NWHL All-Star Game next month in Nashville.

     

  • 2019 NHL All Star Teams are Announced

    2019 NHL All Star Teams are Announced

    The National Hockey League has announced the 2019 All Star Game rosters. Here is how the rosters are looking for each Division:

    Atlantic
    Photo Credit – NHL on NBC

    For the Atlantic Division, they will be captained by Toronto Maple Leafs forward Auston Matthews, who will be joined by his Leafs teammate John Tavares. Also the Tampa Bay Lightning have two representatives with Steven Stamkos and Nikita Kucherov. Both David Pastrnak of the Boston Bruins and Thomas Chabot of the Ottawa Senators are both making their first All Star Game appearances.

     

    Central
    Photo Credit – NHL on NBC

    Colorado Avalanche forward Nathan MacKinnon will captain the Central Division and will be joined by teammate Mikko Rantanen. Both the Winnipeg Jets and Nashville Predators also have two representatives with Mark Scheifele and Blake Wheeler, and Roman Josi and Pekka Rinne respectively. Dallas Stars defensive stalwart Miro Heiskanen, along with Scheifele and Rantanen will all be making their first All Star appearances.

     

    Pacific
    Photo Credit – NHL on NBC

    Connor McDavid of the Edmonton Oilers will captain the Pacific Division as voted by the fans. McDavid will be joined by three members of the host San Jose Sharks Joe Pavelski, Brent Burns, and Erik Karlsson. While Karlsson will be making his first All Star appearance as a Shark, both Clayton Keller of the Arizona Coyotes and rookie sensation Elias Pettersson of the Vancouver Canucks will both be making their first All Star appearances.

     

    Metro
    Photo Credit – NHL on NBC

    For the Metropolitan Division, while fan selected captain Alex Ovechkin will not be participating, the Washington Capitals will represented by goaltender Braden Holtby, and defenseman John Carlson. The Columbus Blue Jackets would also have two representatives with forward Cam Atkinson, and defenseman Seth Jones. Along with Carlson, Sebastian Aho of the Carolina Hurricanes, and Mathew Barzal of the New York Islanders will all be making their first All Star appearances.

     

    Each roster will have one more player added that will be voted on by the fans in the 2019 NHL All Star Last Men In fan vote. The players eligible for this vote will be unveiled during the first intermission of the Pittsburgh Penguins and New York Rangers game on NBC Sports Network, and the Canucks and Senators game on Sportsnet.

  • News and Notes from around the NHL and NWHL

    Thursday September 13th, 2018 was an exciting day in the world of hockey. Here’s the biggest news that took place and some notes about them:

    Carolina Hurricanes announced Justin Williams as their new captain. Justin Faulk and Jordan Staal will be Williams’ alternate captains.

     

     

    Also the Hurricanes announced that Victor Rask will be out indefinitely due to a hand injury he suffered in his kitchen.

    Tyler Seguin resigns with the Dallas Stars for 8 years with a $9.85 million AAV. Also the Dallas Stars announced in the coolest way possible as seen below:

     

    Elliotte Freidman of “Hockey Night in Canada” breaks down the new Seguin contract which kicks in July 1st, 2019 below:

    Arthur Staple of “The Athletic” put out an amazing article today on New York Islanders goalie Robin Lehner as he opens up about his battles with addiction and bipolar diagnosis.

     

    In NWHL news, it was announced that four more players signed with teams today. Two players signed with the Minnesota Whitecaps, and one each with the Metropolitan Riveters and Connecticut Whale.

    And speaking of the Whitecaps, it was announced today that TRIA will be the official healthcare provider for the team and will feature an all female medical staff.

     

    Erik Karlsson traded to the San Jose Sharks by the Ottawa Senators in a massive trade.

    Here are the full trade details courtesy of TSN:

     

    And lastly here are the two conditions in regards to the Conditional Draft Picks potentially going to Ottawa:

    Lastly, after the Karlsson trade, the Senators announced that Jean-Gabriel Pagaeu is out potentially for 4 to 6 months due to surgery to repair his Achilles’tendon, per reported by Renaud Lavoie.

     

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