Tag Archives: Hockey

Playoff Percentages: Lightning crashing

Through the remainder of the regular season, we'll take a look at how the night's action impacts the playoff race, highlighting which teams' postseason odds went up or down significantly.

The Washington Capitals became the first team to earn a spot in the Stanley Cup Playoffs with their win Saturday, and in the process dealt an enormous blow to a potentially dangerous opening-round opponent in the Tampa Bay Lightning.

Tampa's second consecutive loss in regulation has seen its postseason odds cut in half over the space of 48 hours. Though it could have been much worse, as the Toronto Maple Leafs and New York Islanders only managed one point apiece in their games.

Here's a look at the rest of the postseason picture after Saturday's action:

Eastern Conference

Team Result Playoff Chances Change
Bruins idle 90.0% +2.3%
Maple Leafs L 2-1 (OT) vs. Blackhawks 62.8% +1.4%
Islanders L 3-2 (OT) vs. Blue Jackets 25.1% +1.5%
Lightning L 5-3 vs. Capitals 19.5% -7.6%

Western Conference

Team Result Playoff Chances Change
Oilers W 2-0 vs. Kings 99.4% +0.5%
Blues W 3-0 vs. Coyotes 97.6% +2.3%
Predators L 4-2 vs. Hurricanes 89.6% -4.5%
Kings idle 18.2% +0.6%

To see percentages for the entire NHL, visit Sports Club Stats.

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Ducks’ Getzlaf, Cogliano hit milestones in win over Sharks

A couple of milestones for a pair of lifelong Anaheim Ducks.

With an assist on Patrick Eaves' first-period goal Saturday, captain Ryan Getzlaf recorded the 800th point of his NHL career.

Only one other man has hit that milestone as a Duck: Teemu Selanne. That's the company you want to keep, kids.

Andrew Cogliano, meanwhile, played in his 776th straight game Saturday, tying Craig Ramsay for the fourth-longest ironman streak in NHL history.

The 29-year-old, drafted in 2005 by the Edmonton Oilers, has remarkably played in every game since he broke into the league in 2007.

The Ducks beat the San Jose Sharks 2-1 on Saturday, with Jonathan Bernier again turning in a strong performance. He made 33 saves, as Anaheim moved within four points of first-place San Jose.

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Allen, Blues continue dominance of Coyotes with another shutout win

GLENDALE, Ariz. - Jake Allen stopped 31 shots for his fourth shutout of the season to lead the playoff-contending St. Louis Blues to a 3-0 victory over the Arizona Coyotes on Saturday night.

Scottie Upshall, Alex Pietrangelo and David Perron scored to help the Blues win for the seventh time in eight games overall and beat the Coyotes for the ninth straight time. It was St. Louis' fifth shutout since Feb. 2.

Allen improved to 6-0-0 in his career against the Coyotes and earned his 15th career shutout. He stopped Teemu Pulkkinnen's breakaway shot at 12:23 of the second period to keep the Coyotes scoreless.

The Coyotes failed to earn a point from a game for the first time since a March 5 loss to Carolina. Mike Smith stopped 37 shots.

Upshall extended the Blues' lead to 2-0 at 2:52 of the second period. He took the puck from behind the net back up the ice, turned around and shot the puck into traffic and past Smith for his ninth of the season.

Smith's saves included a fairly easy one when the Blues' Vladimir Tarasenko was awarded a penalty shot with 45.6 seconds left in the second. But Tarasenko held the puck for too long and didn't shoot until he was almost behind the net.

Perron scored a short-handed empty-net goal with 1:03 to play in the game.

The Coyotes played without captain Shane Doan for the first time this season. Doan missed some time early in Thursday's game to be checked for a concussion after a collision with a teammate during pregame warmups, but returned to the ice and played. He was listed as day-to-day with a lower body injury.

Doan, 40, is the all-time franchise leader in games played, goals, assists and points, and had played in all 70 games this season. He remains on pace to play the most amount of games he has since the 2009-2010 season, when he appeared in all 82 games.

The Coyotes lost defenseman Anthony DeAngelo less than two minutes into the game when he was called for boarding and given a five-minute penalty and a game misconduct. DeAngelo checked the Blues' Zach Sanford into the boards face-first.

Sanford went to the locker room and missed the rest of the first period, but returned in the second.

The Coyotes were three seconds away from killing DeAngelo's penalty when Pietrangelo fired a long-range shot that eluded Smith for the game's first goal. Paul Stastny provided the pass that set up Pietrangelo's 10th of the season.

NOTES: The Coyotes held a pregame ceremony to honor veteran C Radim Vrbata, who recently played in his 1,000th career game. Vrbata's gifts for his achievement included a silver stick, a painting and a pair of tickets to the 2018 Wimbledon final. ... C Jori Lehtera (upper body injury) and F Dmitrij Jaskin (upper body) were scratched for the Blues, along with healthy scratches Jordan Schmaltz and Nail Yakupov.

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Watch: Blackhawks’ Hayden goes skate to stick to shelf for 1st NHL goal

John Hayden had himself a week.

The 22-year-old signed a two-year contract with the Chicago Blackhawks last Sunday, and scored his first NHL goal Saturday in Toronto, in only his second career game.

And it was pretty, too. The Yale product showed off his offensive skill, using his skate to take a pass from Jonathan Toews before wasting no time going upstairs on Frederik Andersen.

Big first G for the kid, big road win for the fellas.

A post shared by Jonathan Toews (@jonathantoews) on

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Watch: McDavid’s lethal snipe puts him back in points lead

The Vancouver Canucks kept the Edmonton Oilers off the scoresheet for nearly two periods Saturday, but Connor McDavid wasn't going to let it go on any longer.

The Oilers captain took a feed from Andrej Sekera, cut across the middle and whipped one past Canucks goaltender Richard Bachman for his 25th goal of the season.

It was also McDavid's 80th point, which moved him past Boston Bruins forward Brad Marchand and back into top spot in the NHL in the Art Ross Trophy race.

The goal held up as the winner, the Oilers taking a 2-0 decision.

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Watch: Couture scores in 500th career game

500 games and 179 goals for Logan Couture.

The San Jose Sharks forward skated in his 500th career game Saturday, taking the opportunity to net his 25th goal this season, and 179th of his career.

Late in the first period against the Anaheim Ducks, Couture accepted a feed from Joe Thornton before flinging the puck behind netminder Jonathan Bernier.

The goal extended Couture's point streak to four games, where he's tallied two goals and four assists.

(Video courtesy: NHL.com)

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Babcock: Leafs earned ‘absolutely huge point’ in OT loss to Blackhawks

The "loser point" doesn't have a huge fan club, but Toronto Maple Leafs head coach Mike Babcock was proud of his team for securing one by making it to overtime in a loss to the Chicago Blackhawks on Saturday.

"That's a huge point for us (tonight), an absolutely huge point," Babcock told reporters following the 2-1 defeat, according to TSN's Mark Masters.

"Every day you talk about how big the game is, but that's what we're going to do right to the end, obviously," Babcock added.

Auston Matthews ended his seven-game point drought when he opened the scoring in the first period, but John Hayden potted his first career marker in the second and Ryan Hartman tallied the winner for the Western Conference-leading Blackhawks with 17 seconds left in overtime.

Despite the loss, the Leafs restored their one-point lead over the New York Islanders for the second Eastern Conference wild-card spot. The Islanders earned a point of their own earlier Saturday in an overtime loss to the Columbus Blue Jackets.

Toronto has a game in hand on both New York and the Tampa Bay Lightning, who fell 5-3 to the Washington Capitals on Saturday night and now sit two points behind the Leafs.

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Rangers’ road dominance bodes well for potential playoff seeding

They may reside at the "World's Most Famous Arena," but the New York Rangers prefer life on the road.

The Blueshirts made the trek to Minnesota on Saturday to close out the second portion of their weekend back-to-back, and eked out an important 3-2 win over the Wild.

This shouldn't come as a surprise, though, as the Rangers have been the NHL's best road team all season long, leading the league in wins away from home.

Thanks to a foolish playoff system and a ridiculously competitive Metropolitan Division, the Rangers are slated to begin the playoffs as a wild-card seed. As it currently stacks up, New York would begin the postseason on the road in Montreal - a draw that sounds particularly unfavorable, until you look at the numbers.

Location Record GF GA PP PK
Home 19-15-3 (41 pts) 116 108 15.24% 76.60%
Away 26-9-0 (52 pts) 112 78 21.90% 83.30%

The splits are inexplicably staggering, but in the long run, New York's trend of getting it done away from The Garden could pay dividends come Spring time, although they'd like find some consistency before then.

"We try to figure out why we are so good on the road and why it changes at home," forward Rick Nash told Jessi Pierce of NHL.com prior to the win in Minnesota. "It seems like we play straight lines on the road, get pucks deep, and at home we try to make the cute plays and not get as many shots on net. We are trying to bring that road game home."

However, perfecting the home game will have to wait, as four of the Rangers' next five games come on the road - something they probably aren't too upset about.

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