New Jersey at Pittsburgh - 7 pm
Ottawa at Toronto - 7:30 pm
Phoenix at Calgary - 9:30 pm
Game of the Night
Ottawa at Toronto (home and home series)
Traditionally this has been a fairly one-sided series in recent memory - at least until April comes around. Sens fans know that they clearly have the better team, led by Alfredsson, Heatley, Spezza, Redden, etc.
The Leaf fans know that the Sens just can't seem to win when it truly matters:
Toronto has already lost three games this year via the shootout, picking up pretty much where they left off last year in that regard. Bryan McCabe has gotten off to a slow start with just one goal so far, but as Terrell Owens' publicist would say, he has 28.75 million reasons to be happy right now. Another player on defence who landed a long-term contract and has struggled offensively is Tomas Kaberle, who has just 2 assists. That said the Leafs are averaging 3.33 goals per game which is more than I would have predicted based on the talent they have up front.
The Sens have a struggling D-man of their own in Wade Redden who is still looking for his first point on the season. The Sens are coming off an eight-goal explosion against New Jersey and will try to use that momentum and start moving up in the standings. For the Leafs, Raycroft is the undisputed #1 guy at this point while the Sens may have a bit of a goaltending controversy:
Ray Emery: 2-1, 1.47 GAA, .952 SVP
Martin Gerber: 1-3, 3.31 GAA, .898 SVP
No matter who gets the start, I'm going with Ottawa to take the game at home tonight. They are already 12 points behind Buffalo and if they want to contend for the division they can't afford to lose games like this one.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
1 comment:
Ya, scoring has not been an issue so far for this team which is somewhat surprising. Tucker is going to cash in big time if he continues this pace - Leafs may not even be able to afford him.
Post a Comment