Tuesday, April 07, 2009

Tuesday's Preview (6 Nights Left)

It was a big night for Marcus on Monday night, as he was able to pull in some points and reel himself closer to third place. He took an evening-high amount of players and managed to get good work out of them, registering 5 points out of 5 players. That's exactly what you need out of your players in the last week of the season, a point-per-game average. John B. had it with his guys... or 'guy,' I should say. He managed a point from his only player and moved into second, because of the tie-breaker.

Now, we move onto the nitty-gritty of the week. Day one of three huge game days in the league. Thirteen games are on the slate for Tuesday night, just enough to get a great portion of players in the top five teams out on the ice to shake out some more points.

ClaytonJohn B.PeterMarcusBenson
Points766-23-23-31-33
Games11+18+111+168+1
TOR/NJDZach Parise, FNoneAlex Ponikarovsky, FNoneJamie Langenbrunner, F
Brian Gionta, F
Patrik Elias, F
MTL/NYRAlex Kovalev, FNoneNoneNik Antropov, FNone
Dan Girardi, DRoman Hamrlik, D
FLA/PHIMike Richards, FNoneNathan Horton, FNoneMartin Biron, G
Matt Carle, D
NYI/CAREric Staal, FRay Whitney, FNoneNoneNone
WAS/ATLNoneNoneNoneNoneAlex Ovechkin, F
Todd White, F
BOS/OTTBlake Wheeler, FDennis Wideman, DPatrice Bergeron, FTim Thomas, GPhil Kessel, F
Brian Elliot, GMarc Savard, FZdeno Chara, D
PIT/TAMNoneVaclav Prospal, FNoneNoneNone
CHI/NASNoneDuncan Keith, DPekka Rinne, GMartin Havlat, FDan Hamhuis, D
Jason Arnott, FMartin Erat, FCristobel Huet, G
DAL/MINNoneNoneMarty Turco, GNoneMike Ribeiro, F
Marek Zidlicky, D
LOS/EDMDustin Brown, FAnze Kopitar, FAles Hemsky, FKyle Quincey, DNone
Drew Doughty, D
CAL/VANKevin Bieksa, DDaymond Langkow, FNoneMike Cammalleri, FTodd Bertuzzi, F
Mattias Ohlund, DCurtis Glencross, F
Sami Salo, D
STL/PHONoneKeith Tkachuk, FNoneEd Jovanovski, DNone
Manny Legace, G
COL/SANJoe Thornton, FEvgeni Nabokov, GNoneNoneMarek Svatos, F

Among the top five teams left on the preview, the game of the night that has a player on each team is the Boston/Ottawa match-up, which is nice and early. We were looking to have a goaltending match-up in this game between Tim Thomas and Brian Elliot, but it looks like Thomas will get some rest tonight and Manny Fernandez will take the job of beating the Senators. Elliot should still get the start, as Alex Auld started for Ottawa last night.

It's unlikely that Cristobel Huet will be getting the start for Chicago tonight, as Nikolai Khabibulin will likely get the bulk of the starts before the playoffs. He looks to be the actual number one there, so we miss out on another goaltending match-up.

The top game of the night will be the Boston/Ottawa game, as the Bruins are expecting Phil Kessel to re-join their line-up tonight, which is huge news for Benson, and brings up the game total to seven active players going. Calgary/Vancouver will also have seven players going tonight, more if John P. was still hanging around the preview. Chicago/Nashville will have six going, for sure, seven if Chicago decides to start Huet.

The cut-off for fourth and fifth will be again 15 points tomorrow morning, so that's what you should be able to expect if John and Peter both have big nights.

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