It’s been an emotional start to the season with a few of hockey’s finest passing away. Montreal Canadiens legend Jean Beliveau is the most recent to pass away and of course Pat Quinn who left his legacy behind just weeks ago. It’s a part of life for things to come and go, but it’s great they are respected and fans and colleagues are able show their appreciation and passion for their contribution to the game with small tributes in opening game ceremonies. Hopefully Gordie Howe will be able to hang on as he has been struggling with his health as of late, yet another of hockeys finest on and off the ice.
There are only three games lined up tonight to kick start the week…
(PIT) Fleury VS (NYR) Lundqvist
It’s been a shaky start for Henrik Lundqvist this season, which really isn’t much different than any other season for the Rangers goalie. It’s common for him to start slow and heat up as the season goes on; makes me wonder what kind of off season madness he gets up to! Nevertheless the Rangers are sitting outside of a playoff spot with 26 points in 25 games. They have a tough matchup tonight vs the Penguins but Henrik has done well so far this season vs Pittsburgh with a 1-0-1 record and a glorious .96 goals against average and a .972 save percent. Pittsburgh on the other hand has been cruising along at a steady pace and is currently tied for first in the Metropolitan with the Islanders at 38 points in 26 games; the Islanders having played one more game. No Patric Hornqvist in the lineup tonight for the Penguins; which will be his second game in a row. Hopefully for us fantasy owners that have him on their roster, he doesn’t have a concussion and will be back in action sooner than later; from what I’ve heard we will hear more tomorrow about his situation.
(NJ) Schneider VS (CAR) Ward
It should be no surprise to anyone to see Cory Schneider in net for the Devils as he has started an absolutely plethora of games for New Jersey to start the season. It’s been a large work load in the early going for Schneider as he posts a 7-8-0 record with a .913 save percent going into this game. From what I have seen it seems that for the most part he holds them in the game with some big saves but has lacked a lot of scoring help from the New Jersey forwards who have only 64 goals to date. Ward and the hurricanes got things rolling for a bit there but have plummeted back down to the bottom of the standings in the Eastern Conference. Carolina has had their work cut out for them all season with injuries and a lack luster of action on both sides of the puck; a high ranked prospect in the first round of this year’s draft will hopefully help Carolina get back on track within the next few seasons.
(FLA) Luongo VS (STL) Brodeur
Now here is a battle of two Canadian goaltenders that have brought home the Gold medal for their home country back in the 2010 Olympics. This will be an interesting game to watch I feel as St. Louis is in the race at the top of the Western Conference and it will be just Martin Brodeurs second start of the season. He filled in on Saturday night for the Blues as they had a huge comeback win over the Islanders making 14 of 15 saves. The Florida Panthers are sitting just outside of a playoff spot in the East and would love to win tonight to get a win streak started. They are 5-3-2 in their last 10 games and need to find a way to get some more goals on the board….realistically they will only survive on high quality goaltending for so long. They have a league low 56 goals but an impressive total of only 64 goals against which is the least amount of goals against for any team in the East.
Here is a list of which teams have how many games going forward this week: (2) Games: Arizona – Boston – Dallas – Montreal – Ottawa – Vancouver
(3) Games: Anaheim – Buffalo – Carolina – Colorado – Columbus – Detroit – Florida – Minnesota – Nashville – New York Islanders – New York Rangers – Philadelphia – Pittsburgh – St. Louis – San Jose – Tampa Bay – Washington - Winnipeg
(4) Games: Calgary – Chicago – Edmonton – Los Angeles – New Jersey – Toronto
Make sure you get your HBSL teams submitted before the first game of the week! Load up on players who have 4 games coming up this week and be sure to pick wisely as we are now over the half-way point of the HockeyBuzz SuperLeague season!
Best of luck this week going forward and thanks again for reading.