Saturday Night Special
- Saturday, Dec. 28/02
Jersey Devils home to Washington Capitals
by Bookiekiller.com's NHL Guru, The Rink Rat
Versus opponent: 2nd meeting of the year, played Friday night
These two teams have not met previously this season then do a home and home. Such is the unique abilities of the NHL's scheduler. Another oddity - the Capitals lead their conference in scoring at home with a 3.54 goals/game average. Yet somehow on the road they manage only a pathetic 2.14 goals/game. Jersey's got to love that stat.
Washington will play their 22nd road game of the season in Jersey, most in the Eastern Conference. They are fourth (2.48 ) in goals against but not much killing penalties - 81% (13th ). Their power play slouches along at the same rate. This team has been unbeaten in five of their previous six games, not counting Friday. Not bad for an outfit in disarray a couple of weeks ago. They have been hanging around .500 but with any kind of run could catch division leading Tampa Bay, who have been sagging of late. Goaltender Olaf Kolzig is back from a groin pull and has a .918 overall save percentage, .921 on the road. Jaromir Jagr, he of the prodigious skill and bad attitude, is potting roughly a point per game. He has likely been working over rookie head coach Bruce Cassidy, too, which is not much help to team unity. A pleasant surprise is Michael Nylander with 30 points. Peter Bondra is cold and they don't get much from their defense in the way of scoring anymore, but with all that they are a dangerous team if not taken seriously.
Jersey's players, the ones who'd been around a while, had the shock of their lives last summer with the second coming of Jacques Lemaire. That would be new coach Pat Burns, who views a shot on goal by one of his players as merely a prelude to a defensive breakdown. But some of it works. The Devils are fourth on home ice in goals against and penalty killing. They hit about 3.00 goals per game, few of those goals coming on an eleventh place power play. None of Burns' forwards average 20 minutes of ice time per game, with ageing warrior Joe Nieuwendyk getting barely 16 minutes per night. Burns relies on his big three defensemen, Niedermayer, Rafalski, and Stevens, the only players to average greater than 20 minutes/game. Goaltender Martin Brodeur is a hard to beat with a save percentage of .912. He's seldom over-worked as he only faces an average of 24 shots a night.
It is doubtful this game will be a dazzler, and Washington could use the points. But Jersey is in a dogfight with Philadelphia for the Atlantic Division seed and will bank both of them. Take the Devils on the Puck Line !!!
the rat can be reached via email @ rsbookiekiller@hotmail.com
- Saturday, Dec. 28/02
Jersey Devils home to Washington Capitals
by Bookiekiller.com's NHL Guru, The Rink Rat
Versus opponent: 2nd meeting of the year, played Friday night
These two teams have not met previously this season then do a home and home. Such is the unique abilities of the NHL's scheduler. Another oddity - the Capitals lead their conference in scoring at home with a 3.54 goals/game average. Yet somehow on the road they manage only a pathetic 2.14 goals/game. Jersey's got to love that stat.
Washington will play their 22nd road game of the season in Jersey, most in the Eastern Conference. They are fourth (2.48 ) in goals against but not much killing penalties - 81% (13th ). Their power play slouches along at the same rate. This team has been unbeaten in five of their previous six games, not counting Friday. Not bad for an outfit in disarray a couple of weeks ago. They have been hanging around .500 but with any kind of run could catch division leading Tampa Bay, who have been sagging of late. Goaltender Olaf Kolzig is back from a groin pull and has a .918 overall save percentage, .921 on the road. Jaromir Jagr, he of the prodigious skill and bad attitude, is potting roughly a point per game. He has likely been working over rookie head coach Bruce Cassidy, too, which is not much help to team unity. A pleasant surprise is Michael Nylander with 30 points. Peter Bondra is cold and they don't get much from their defense in the way of scoring anymore, but with all that they are a dangerous team if not taken seriously.
Jersey's players, the ones who'd been around a while, had the shock of their lives last summer with the second coming of Jacques Lemaire. That would be new coach Pat Burns, who views a shot on goal by one of his players as merely a prelude to a defensive breakdown. But some of it works. The Devils are fourth on home ice in goals against and penalty killing. They hit about 3.00 goals per game, few of those goals coming on an eleventh place power play. None of Burns' forwards average 20 minutes of ice time per game, with ageing warrior Joe Nieuwendyk getting barely 16 minutes per night. Burns relies on his big three defensemen, Niedermayer, Rafalski, and Stevens, the only players to average greater than 20 minutes/game. Goaltender Martin Brodeur is a hard to beat with a save percentage of .912. He's seldom over-worked as he only faces an average of 24 shots a night.
It is doubtful this game will be a dazzler, and Washington could use the points. But Jersey is in a dogfight with Philadelphia for the Atlantic Division seed and will bank both of them. Take the Devils on the Puck Line !!!
the rat can be reached via email @ rsbookiekiller@hotmail.com
