NHL History & News

The NHL’s annual all-star game will showcase the greatest hockey players in the world this weekend.

NHL fans will be treated to a unique format during this year’s game that is taking place at the Carolina Hurricane’s home arena in Raleigh. The NHL decided to name two captains for the all-star game and have those players choose their team from a list of eligible all-stars, rather than having the best players from each conference square off.

Nicklas Lidstrom form the Detroit Red Wings and Eric Staal from the Carolina Hurricanes will be this year’s captains. This Friday night these captains will select their rosters from a list of 42 eligible players.

Hockey betting odds are not yet available for the All-Star game.

The skills challenge that takes place Saturday night is the one thing that has not been changed about this year’s all-star weekend. The skills competition will pit the best players in the world against each in various tests of their hockey ability such as shooting accuracy, breakaway competition and hardest shot, always a highlight of the NHL all-star weekend.

The absence of two of the game’s best players will be one drawback of this year’s all-star game. Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin both have said that they will not be attending this year’s game. Malkin just announced he will be out with a sinus infection as Crosby is still suffering from lingering effects of a concussion. For two other young stars to make their NHL all-star appearance, the absence of these two great players will just open up the door.

One of the more interesting match ups will be between the Carolina Hurricanes and the Pittsburgh Penguins with another full line up of NHL games scheduled for Saturday night.

The Pittsburgh Penguins trail the Philadelphia Flyers by just three points for first place in the Atlantic Division as Carolina currently sits three points out of the eighth and final playoff spot in the Eastern Conference.

For this matchup NHL betting Odds have not yet been posted.

As the Penguins deals with the loss of star center Sidney Crosby, who is still out with a concussion, recently they have been playing average hockey. The Penguins are just 2-3 and have only scored more than three goals in a game once, in the last five games that Crosby has missed. The team hopes to have him back in time for this weekend’s game as it is certainly no secret that the Penguins miss Crosby’s offense when he is not in the lineup.

Carolina seems to be coming into their own recently while having struggled at different points of the season. The Hurricanes may be peaking at the right time when they are scheduled to face one of the better teams in the Eastern Conference having won four of their last six games. Carolina has been able to stay within striking distance of the last few playoff spots this season unlike last year when the team was out of contention in the early part of the schedule, using a balanced offensive attack that has seen the Hurricanes average 2.9 goals per game and an 18.3% power play.

The Penguins should have little trouble beating the Hurricanes on their home ice, must Crosby return for Saturday’s game. Carolina has a chance to pull off the mild upset due to Pittsburgh’s recent lack of scoring if Crosby is still out of action though.

This Saturday, the Toronto Maple Leafs will battle against the Calgary Flames. Even though they are each within striking distance if they are able to turn things around before it is too late, at this point neither of these two teams is in position to make the playoffs.

For this matchup NHL Odds have not yet been posted.

Even as the Toronto Maple Leafs owns a nearly identical record of 18-20-4, the Calgary Flames are 18-20-5 on the season.

In almost every aspect of the game, both of these teams have been very mediocre. Between these two teams, there is one spot that stands out as an advantage. The Toronto Maple Leafs is 10th in the NFL in Power Play Percentage at 18.9 percent while being a really good Power Play team. They will have a solid shot at taking this game away from the Flames, if they are able to get Power Play opportunities. If the Flames hope to win, they will have to play a game without penalties. They will likely pay for their lack of discipline, if they allow the Maple Leafs to take the “man up” advantage.

With having one other tool, which could help the Maple Leafs in this game. A few years back the Leafs drafted a young goaltender, which looks like he is really starting to come on strong. James Reimer has gone 4-1 in those games as he has starting 5 games. By coming off of a 40 save performance, he has managed to allow just 1.92 goals per game to this point.

Lineup of Saturday NHL games of this week is advancing to be one of the better ones of the season. The game between the Detroit Red Wings and the Vancouver Canucks is highlighting all of the day’s match ups.

For this matchup NHL Odds have not yet been posted.

With 55 points each presently the Canucks and Red Wings are tied for first place in the Western Conference and in the NHL this is also good for the best record. A sizzling ten game stretch which the Canucks have used, has seen them go 9-0-1 with a six game winning streak. By compiling a 5-3-2 mark, the Red Wings have been pretty good their last ten games as well.

On December 22nd at Joe Louis Arena the only team to recently beat the red hot Canucks happened to be Detroit back. In order to send the game into overtime where Henrik Zetterberg won the game, the Red Wings needed a late third period goal by Nicklas Lidstrom in that game.

The Canucks have vaulted themselves into the top 10 in just about every key statistical group while riding this current hot streak. With having the 2nd best power play percentage at 24.8%, currently, Vancouver is ranked 2nd overall in the NHL averaging 3.4 goals per game. With the 4th best power play percentage at 22.7%, the Red Wings have the 1st ranked offense scoring 3.5 goals per game. When these two teams meet again this coming Saturday, much like the 5-4 overtime thriller two weeks ago, one can surely expect another offensive shootout.