Tuesday, February 21, 2017

Goalie Announcements (Feb 21)

Monday didn't offer up any key match-ups for the goalie survivor pool, so it didn't make a whole lot of sense to go over those two games. So, we kick off the week on Tuesday night and the schedule will allow for all four surviving goalies to get their gear on, but the question will be... will they hit the ice?

Both John S. and Stacey M. should get a start, but the question will be, who will get two?  Both, either... neither?

This is a bit of a landmine week, given the lessened amount of games in the week, so if they can both get their wins early, that would likely put them on the path to splitting this pool at the end of the season.

Stacey won't be getting a start out of the Rangers tonight, as the coaching staff confirmed nice and early on Tuesday morning that they will be going with the same lineup from Sunday, which includes Henrik Lundqvist getting the start for the Blueshirts.  For Grant, that's a start for him penciled in the books for his 15th placed team.  The match-up from the visitors should be Carey Price, given the nature of the opponent and the timing in the schedule, which bodes well for Benson, who is 6 points up on Grant in the overall race.

On the plus side for Stacey, Pekka Rinne was manning the starter's crease at the morning skate for the Predators, which means that he'll be the likely starter for their match-up against the visiting Calgary Flames.  Wait, doesn't John have a Flames goalie?  Why yes, yes he does.  Does Chad Johnson get the start for the visitors tonight?  Nope.  The win and your in theory has been kiboshed for Brian Elliott getting the start in Nashville.  Derek B. should be happy about that.

John does get a start though, as Devan Dubnyk was confirmed as the Minnesota Wild starter nice and early today with a giant test ahead of his team with the Chicago Blackhawks in town.  As expected, it will be Corey Crawford in the visitor's net tonight, giving a start to Marcin and his 12th place team.  Marcin is only 1 point up on John in the overall standings, so this is somewhat of a swing game in the middle of the overall race... you know, if that mattered for much.

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