NHL History & News

On Saturday night two of the top teams in the NHL will meet, when the Boston Bruins travel to Vancouver to play against the Canucks. With a win on Saturday Boston will look increase its division lead over the Montreal Canadiens, which is currently four points. The Bruins will use this contest as a measuring stick to see how it fairs against the best team in the West as they have struggled against some of the better competition from the Western Conference.

For this matchup NHL Betting Odds will be available on Friday night.

As the Boston do not play again after meeting Calgary on Tuesday night, they will be well rested for this game on Saturday. As both of those special teams rank in the middle of the league in effectiveness, perhaps the extra days of practice will enable the Bruins to get their power play and penalty kill in order.

In the NHL, Vancouver on the other hand has some of the best special teams play. The Canucks, currently ranking 1st on the power play and 4th on the penalty kill; they will look to take advantage of the Bruins on the special teams when these two teams meet on Saturday.

With 3.3 goals per contest and the lowest goals against per game at 2.3, Vancouver also boasts the best goals per game average. It is easy to see why the Vancouver Canucks have the best record in the league, with all four of these facets of the game clicking.

It could be a long night for the guys from Boston as the Canucks should be able to score some goals and cruise to a victory, if the Bruins struggle to stay out of the penalty box.

This week in a game between two of the teams in the Western Conference playoff picture, the Vancouver Canucks will take on Dallas Stars. With a 37-12-9 record on the season, the Canucks are head and shoulders above the rest of the league. With a 31-20-6 record on the season, the Stars are among a large pack of teams that are within the 3rd and 10th spots in the conference.

In NHL Futures the Canucks are the favorite to win the Stanley Cup at 4-1. Dallas is at 25-1 hockey odds.

Even though the Canucks are also the best team in terms of statistics, they are not just the best team in the league in terms of record. On all fronts the Canucks have been absolutely dominant. They are also allowing fewer goals defensively than any other team as they are averaging more goals than any other team in the league.

Even though the Stars do seem to find a way to win despite not being great at any one thing, they don’t really match up with the Canucks well in any statistical category.

When the Canucks have power play opportunities in this game, the Stars will need to make sure to crack down defensively. The Stars have one of the worst penalty kill percentages in the league whereas the Canucks have the best power play offense in the league.

In this game, the Canucks will need to limit the effectiveness of Brad Richards. In both goals and assists, Richards is leading the Stars. The Canucks should easily take out the Stars if they can limit his role in the game.

With the NHL getting back into high gear after the All-Star game, NHL fans will be treated to a contents of two of the better teams in the entire league when the San Jose Sharks travel to Boston to take on the Bruins Saturday night.

NHL Odds are not yet available.

Even though San Jose is struggling in the standings right now, the Sharks still figure to be one of the favorites to win the Western Conference come playoff time.

Boston is currently third in the Eastern Conference and leads Montreal by only four points in the standings. Despite a mediocre power play that currently sits at 16th in the league, Boston continues to rely on one of the best goal tending tandems in the league to win games on a nightly basis. The offense is doing pretty well also as the Bruins average 3.0 goals per game.

After making it to the Western Conference finals last year the San Jose Sharks have been a bit of a disappointment so far this season. Struggling to find any consistency on offense and defense has really slowed the down the Sharks in the first half of the season. If San Jose wants to make another deep playoff run they will need to get things going in a hurry, especially since they are tied for 8th place in the West with two other teams.

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.

On New Year’s Day at Heinz Field, home of the NFL’s Pittsburgh Steelers, the Arch NHL rivals Pittsburgh Penguins and the Washington Capitals will battle against each other in the Winter Classic and NBC will broadcast the match at 1 pm ET.

For this matchup NHL Odds are not yet available.

The Penguins beat the Capitals 3-2 last Thursday in Washington when the teams met just last week.

The game went seven rounds of a shootout before Pittsburgh winger Pascal Dupuis scored the winning goal on Washington Capitals goaltender Michal Neuvirth, even though it was not easy matchup.

In the first minute of the game the tone was set early when Alex Ovechkin put a big hit on the Penguins’ Evgeni Malkin. In order to stretch his scoring streak to 23 straight games, it took just one shot and three minutes for Sidney Crosby after that. To give his team a 1-0 lead Crosby scored on a tip-in off a pass from Kris Letang.

When Mike Green scored to stop his 14-game scoring drought, Washington later scored on a five-on-three advantage.

Caps Coach Bruce Boudreau said of Green’s play that, “I thought it was his best game in a long time, He played good defensively and yet he jumped into the play to make things happen offensively. You could see when he scored – it was like the weight of the world came off his shoulders.”

When the NHL resumes its schedule after the holiday break on Sunday, hockey fans will be treated to another great Central Division matchup between the Columbus Blue Jackets and the Chicago Blackhawks. Right now the Blackhawks are tied for eighth place in the Western Conference with the Los Angeles Kings, while the Columbus Blue Jackets trail Chicago by 2 points in the standings and sits tied for 9th with Phoenix and St. Louis. In hockey betting lines, NHL betting odds have not yet posted for this matchup.

When looking back at the season, the teams that miss the playoffs by just a few points always kick themselves for losing those interdivision games. Because of this fact, Chicago and Columbus realize this upcoming game could loom large in the standings come April.

On paper this game looks like a bit of a mismatch for the Blue Jackets as the Blackhawks have plenty more offensive firepower than Columbus. However, with Chicago not having played its best hockey of the season yet and Columbus playing fairly well defensively, this game should be a close one between the two Central Division foes. Chicago will be looking to capitalize on their recent success having beaten both Detroit and Los Angeles as part of their 5 games home stand. Columbus will be looking to get a fresh start while traveling on the road to break out of a month long slump that has seen them win only three games in their last 13.

On Sunday (7 pm ET, NHL) at Madison Square Garden, the New York Rangers will battle against the Washington Capitals.

For this match NHL Odds are not yet available.

As the Capitals were to face the Colorado Avalanche on Saturday both teams will be on the second half of a back-to-back and also the Rangers visited the Columbus Blue Jackets the same day.

Thursday, in their previous game Alex Ovechkin and the Capitals lost their fourth-straight game. In over a year it is their longest losing streak.
As the Florida Panthers blanked Washington 3-0, Tomas Vokoun stopped 36 shots to earn his third shutout of the season and on the power play Washington went 0-for-8.

Capitals coach Bruce Boudreau makes a statement “If your best players aren’t your best players, you’re not going to have success, you have to get production out of your best players, and it’s not happening for us right now.”

By beating the Senators 5-3, the Rangers took on the Ottawa Senators on Thursday.

Erik Christensen, Derek Stepan, Michael Sauer, Brandon Dubinsky and Ruslan Fedotenko all had singles for New York.

The Rangers, who have won seven of their past 10, Henrik Lundqvist stopped 24 shots for them.