vs
Game Date:
03/28/2016
7:35pm EST
Lines:
Buffalo +1.5
Detroit -1.5
Total:
Over
5 (-123)
Under 5 (+111)
Community Picks: Buffalo Sabres 0% vs Detroit Red Wings 0%
Buffalo Sabres and Detroit Red Wings Thread
Team Tweets & News Articles
(Hello, this is a feature that will run through the entire season and aims to recap the weekend’s events and boils those events down to one admittedly superficial fact or stupid opinion about each team. Feel free to complain about it.) The Nashville Predators weren't looking so hot headed into the All-Star Break. They were 24-18-8, with 56 points, and sitting just fifth in the Central Division, seventh in the West overall. One of the things you could point to at that point as being the primary reason they were not exactly looking like a juggernaut was the fact that Pekka Rinne was arguably the least-deserving All-Star in a game featuring John Scott, The team had a .924 save percentage at 5-on-5 at the time, 20th in the NHL. That's only about league average, which isn't good at all for a clear No. 1 goaltender who costs $7 million. More worrying, though, was the fact that Rinne couldn't make a stop on the PK, with an .832 shorthanded save percentage, the worst of anyone who had played at least 35 games by that time of the season by nearly 20 points. It was tied for the highest number of goals allowed in the league. That was torpedoing what was otherwise an incredibly praiseworthy season. The Predators were the second-best possession team in the league (53.7 percent CF), one that wasn't generating a ton of high-quality chances, but was the best in the league at shutting them down. At 5-on-5, their shots-for per 60 was eighth in the league, in the class of a Chicago or Winnipeg. Their shots-against per 60 was first, in a class by itself. But regardless of what was happening then, what's happening now, eight weeks or so later, tells a pretty interesting tale: Nashville isn't much better off in terms of where they currently sit in the standings, but has posted 35 points in its last 25 games. That's tied for the second-best points total in the Western Conference, behind Anaheim and even with divisional opponent St. Louis. It's also 12 more than Chicago, which now sits just four points ahead of the Preds. So why the turnaround? Would you believe that a guy who has consistently been one of the best goalies in the league when healthy finally started playing like it again, while the rest of the team continued to be dominant? While Rinne hasn't improved much at 5-on-5, his ability to stop pucks while his team is shorthanded has swung significantly in the other direction, and that's made all the difference. Before the break, Rinne was a .906 goalie in all situations. Sad! Since then, he's .920. And wouldn't you know it he entered the year as a .919 goaltender for his nearly 400-game career? Shocking. The Preds entered the All-Star break with a penalty kill running at just 79.1 percent, ahead of only Philly, Winnipeg, Arizona, Calgary and Ottawa. The Flyers are a decent enough team but the other four have been awful basically front-to-back this year. The Panthers were giving up a little more than three power plays a game at that point, and conceded the seventh-most power play goals as a result of their poor percentage. Giving up 32 in 50 may not seem like a lot, but the difference between that and league-average probably cost them two points in the standings. Since then, the Preds have been taking slightly fewer penalties (a drop of about 0.22 per game) and Rinne has tightened things up to the point that they've carried the ninth-best PK in the league. This despite the quality of play in front of him actually getting quite a bit worse. Continue to Article
March 28, 2016 10:59:am EST
The University of Wisconsin’s men’s hockey team will reportedly hire Tony Granato as their next head coach. ESPN’s John Buccigross along with USCHO both reported the news Sunday morning that Granato will replace long-time coach Mike Eaves who was fired in mid-March . Eaves had been the Badgers’ coach for 14 seasons, but had won just 12 of his last 70 games. Both report Tony Granato will hire his brother, Don Granato a Badgers alum who works with USA Hockey’s National Team Development Program and Mark Osiecki, who works as the associate coach of the Rockford IceHogs of the AHL. Osiecki is also a Wisconsin alum and former head coach of Ohio State. He was also a Wisconsin assistant coach from 2004-10. [ Join a Yahoo Daily Fantasy Hockey contest today ] Tony Granato, 51, is currently an assistant coach with the Detroit Red Wings and played four years at Wisconsin. After a 774-game NHL career, he spent parts of three seasons as an NHL head coach with the Colorado Avalanche. In 215 games, Granato went 104-78-17-16. In 2000, he was inducted into the Wisconsin Athletics Hall of Fame. All three will be tasked with turning around a once proud program that has fallen on hard times. Wisconsin has won six national titles and made 12 appearances in the Frozen Four but USCHO’s story notes that attendance at Wisconsin home games fell below 10,000 fans for the first time in 18 seasons. Net profit from the men’s hockey team has fallen from $1.179 million in 2011-12 to $38,502 in 2014-15. Some have pointed out that Eaves' ability to recruit has slowed in recent years. Still, the program has potential. The Badgers won the 2006 National Championship with Eaves as coach, made the National Championship game in 2010 and have a bevy of solid NHL players who are former Badgers. These include New York Rangers forward Derek Stepan, Rangers captain Ryan McDonagh, San Jose Sharks captain Joe Pavelski and Minnesota Wild blueliner Ryan Suter. MORE FROM YAHOO HOCKEY - - - - - - - Josh Cooper is an editor for Puck Daddy on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at puckdaddyblog@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter! Follow @joshuacooper Continue to Article
March 27, 2016 1:16:pm EST
Since we're down to the final moments of postseason life for teams in contention, Puck Daddy solemnly begins a daily countdown to annihilation. Saturday’s loss to the Minnesota Wild in regulation was a potentially devastating one for the Colorado Avalanche. Their odds for making the playoffs dropped to 5.1 percent overall, and they have just five percent chance of making the final wild card, according to Sports Club Stats . The Wild’s victory gave them 85 points to the Avalanche’s 80 points. Colorado still has a game in-hand but lost their lead in ROW wins, as the Wild matched them with 34. Their tragic number dropped to nine. In the Eastern Conference, the Detroit Red Wings caught a major break as the Philadelphia Flyers lost to the Arizona Coyotes after the Wings were blown out by the Pittsburgh Penguins. Both teams remained tied at 85 points, but the Flyers have a game in-hand. Here are the current standings. The Death Watch tracks the final Wild Card spot and the teams that are chasing it. Their “tragic number” is the number of points gained by the final wild card team or lost by the team chasing it. All playoff percentages are from Sports Club Stats ; tragic numbers and other figures via the NHL. A team is eliminated from play-offs when their "Tragic Number" hits 0. The Eastern Conference picture, via the NHL: Continue to Article
March 27, 2016 10:27:am EST
The Pittsburgh Penguins pounced on the Detroit Red Wings in the second period, scoring four goals and showed no mercy with three more scores in the third. Detroit, meanwhile, moved a step closer to possibly missing out on the playoffs for the first time since 1990. Carl Hagelin scored twice, Phil Kessel had a goal and four assists and Nick Bonino's career-high five points helped Pittsburgh rout the Red Wings 7-2 Saturday. Continue to Article
March 26, 2016 6:14:pm EST
One glimpse at the scoresheet left Sabres coach Dan Bylsma searching for new designations in referring to Buffalo's top young forwards, Jack Eichel and Sam Reinhart. Reinhart tied the game 1:23 into the third period and then made a nifty no-look pass to set up Eichel for the go-ahead goal 2:44 later in rallying Buffalo to a 3-2 victory over the Winnipeg Jets on Saturday. The two forwards selected with the No. 2 picks in each of the past two drafts lead Buffalo in scoring, having both topped 21 goals. Continue to Article
March 26, 2016 5:37:pm EST
