NHL Games to watch 2/4/12

There's a ton of games today and several of them to watch

1. Pittsburgh Penguins vs Boston Bruins
Both teams have over sixty points and both teams are trying to catch the Rangers. This should be a good game, although, there's a lot of bad blood between the teams, so expect a lot of fireworks. Boston will be starting Tim Thomas and Pittsburgh will counter with Marc-Andre Fleury.

2. New Jersey Devils vs Philadelphia Flyers
The Devils are 7 points back of the Flyers in the standings, but if the season ended today, both would be in. New Jersey will be looking to continue their 2 game winning streak while the Flyers will not be looking to lose position to the Pens and Rangers.

3. Toronto Maple Leafs vs Ottawa Senators
The Maple Leafs are holding onto the 8th spot by 2 points and the Senators are 3 points ahead of the Leafs. This will be a tough game between 2 Canadian teams. Craig Anderson and James Reimer will face-off in net and Mikhail Grabovski has been on a tear as of late, so expect him to have a monster game

4. Minnesota Wild vs Dallas Stars
Minnesota is ahead of Dallas by 3 points for the 8th and final playoff spot. This game could contribute to determining that final spot at the end of the season. The Wild are once again facing a team directly behind them in the standings, after disposing of Colorado in their previous game. The Stars barely missed out on the playoffs last season, and they don't want to do so again this year

5. St. Louis Blues vs Nashville Predators
This is going to be the biggest game of the night. St. Louis is holding onto fourth place by 1 point over Nashville. The Blues also have two games in hand, so Nashville will need to play to win 2 points in regulation. The Blues have great goaltending in Halak and the Predators will counter with Rinne, expect this to be a low-scoring game as both goalies know what's at stake in this game. The Predators have won the first three match-ups, but two were in the SO, so if St. Louis can win in regulation, it'll go a long way towards helping them win the tie-breaker against the Predators.

NHL Games to watch 2/3/12

Didn't get last night's games in, but there were a few that were good, Flyers-Predators, Red Wings-Canucks.

Anyways, tonight's games, only two to really watch

Los Angeles Kings vs St. Louis Blues
These are two teams fighting for playoff seeding. The Blues currently sit in 5th with 65 points while the Kings sit in 7th with 60 points. It's really going to be a battle of goaltending as the Kings will send out Jonathan Quick and the Blues will most likely counter with Halak who's playing second fiddle to Elliott, but still a damn good goaltender. Expect a 1-0 or 2-1 victory, and it may come in the shootout.

Chicago Blackhawks vs Calgary Flames
Chicago continues their roadtrip of Western Canada and they'll head to Calgary tonight. Calgary is in 11th place in the West, but only 5 points back of Minnesota's 8 spot. Speaking of 8, the Blackhawks got lit up last night by Sam Gagner who tied a record for second-most points in a game with 8 (4 goals, 4 assists). Ray Emery will most likely be in net tonight as the Blackhawks look to rebound from last night's loss.

NHL after the All-Star Break

Looking at the NHL Standings going into the All-Star break, they look like this.

Eastern Conference
1. New York Rangers - 66pts
2. Boston Bruins - 64pts
3. Washington Capitals - 55pts
4. Philadelphia Flyers - 63pts
5. Pittsburgh Penguins - 60pts
6. Ottawa Senators - 60pts
7. Florida Panthers - 55pts
8. New Jersey Devils -55pts
9. Toronto Maple Leafs - 55pts
10. Winnipeg Jets - 50pts
11. Tampa Bay Lightning - 46pts
12. Montreal Canadiens - 45pts
13. New York Islanders - 45pts
14. Buffalo Sabres - 45pts
15. Carolina Hurricanes - 45pts

Western Conference
1. Detroit Red Wings - 67pts
2. Vancouver Canucks - 64pts
3. San Jose Sharks - 60pts
4. St. Louis Blues - 65pts
5. Nashville Predators - 64pts
6. Chicago Blackhawks - 64pts
7. Los Angeles Kings - 58pts
8. Minnesota Wild - 55pts
9. Colorado Avalanche - 54pts
10. Dallas Stars - 52pts
11. Calgary Flames - 52pts
12. Phoenix Coyotes - 52pts
13. Anaheim Ducks - 43pts
14. Edmonton Oilers - 41pts
15. Columbus Blue Jackets - 32pts

Breaking down the Eastern Conference
To be honest, there's no team that's actually out of it yet. 10 points separate the 8th place team and last place team and the Atlantic Division is going to have a lot of games down the stretch to beat up on each other which may end up costing one of the four currently in playoff positioning to fall out the chase for Lord Stanley, most likely the New Jersey Devils. The Canadiens, Islanders, Sabres, and Hurricanes have an uphill road to climb, but one of them could slip into the #8 seed. I like the Rangers and Bruins to win their divisions, but Pittsburgh and Philly will make a hard push for the title, but with Philly's goaltending problems and the Penguins' inability to maintain healthy (although Letang is now back), I doubt they can maintain healthy the rest of the season. Washington is in trouble with trying to win their division this season in what has mostly been an up-and-down season along with Backstrom and Green being on the shelf and Ovie suspended. They had a great win over the Bruins before the break, but they can't expect to maintain this the rest of the season. Florida has a great team they bought this off-season and have a very good chance to win the division if they can maintain their pace. Florida, New Jersey, and Toronto are all tied with 55 pts, but likely only 1 of them will make the playoffs. Ottawa has had strong play of late from Craig Anderson and has gotten up to 6th in the rankings, but Craig Anderson is going to have to carry them for the rest of the season to get to the playoffs. (Didn't he do that a few years back with the Avalanche?) Tampa Bay ran all the way to the Conference finals on the back of Dwayne Roloson, but now they're going to have to rely on Garon if they want to get back. My eight teams to make the playoffs (in order)
1. Boston Bruins
2. New York Rangers
3. Washington Capitals
4. Pittsburgh Penguins
5. Philadelphia Flyers
6. Florida Panthers
7. Tampa Bay Lightning
8. Ottawa Senators

Breaking down the Western Conference
The Western Conference is pretty much dominated by the central division. The Blue Jackets are definitely out, the Oilers, after Khabibulin went to crap has blown any chance of a playoff spot this season along with a ton of injuries and suspensions (Andy Sutton anyone?) They'll be a good team, but not this season. Anaheim could have a shot if their cards fall right, but four spots are going to the central division for the chase for the cup. The Red Wings are going to win the division, they have the best record at home this season (20-2-1!) and have no deficiencies on the team. The Canucks will most likely win the NW seeing as how they've always won it. The Sharks will probably win the Pacific thanks to their only challenge being the Kings who can't find a way to score goals. The Blues, Predators, and Blackhawks are ALL going to get spots because they're that damn good. I don't think the Wild will get that last spot because of up and down play by their goalies and injuries. The Kings will most likely stay in the playoffs because Justin Williams has been on fire as of late and the Kings are finally starting to score. The Flames (aka lames) just can't get their act together and the Coyotes are where they are due to Mike Smith being injured. Here's my projections for the final standings.
1. Detroit Red Wings
2. Vancouver Canucks
3. San Jose Sharks
4. Chicago Blackhawks
5. St. Louis Blues
6. Dallas Stars
7. Nashville Predators
8. Los Angeles Kings

I'll have more posts about games every night for the rest of the season that will impact the playoff standings. Also, I have to break up the Fantasy Hockey rankings because there are just too many players and I have been away for too long unfortunately.