Montreal Canadiens at Detroit Red Wings
The Habs have gone 6-1-0 in their last seven games and a good part of this is thanks to goaltenders Carey Price, Peter Budaj, and Dustin Tokarski – the trio has allowed just 13 goals in the team’s last seven games (and seven of those goals came in two Price starts). Also, despite what might be said by some sports personalities, this power play is just fine: the team is 12th in the NHL on the season at 18.8-percent and have scored six power play goals in the team’s last seven games. The team is playing better as a whole as well, as their running 10-game possession rate has improved about 10-percent over the last six weeks of the NHL schedule.
Detroit is in a fight for their playoff lives as they are one of the four teams tied with 80 points for the last two playoff spots in the East. While the run has been admirable, a lot of it has been fueled by one player: Gustav Nyquist has nine goals in the team’s last six games, the rest of the team has eight. If he were to hit a cold streak, it’s pretty uncertain where the offense will come from. One aspect that will need to be sharp is their penalty kill as the team has allowed seven power play goals against in their last six games with a PK efficiency of 66.7-percent.
These teams have played two games against each other so far this year and those games have resulted in just eight total goals. Considering the Habs are averaging just over two goals a game in their last four, and the Red Wings (minus Nyquist) are even worse, I don’t think this is a high-scoring contest. I will be taking a player or two off the top Montreal power play unit for both GPPs and 50/50 games as well.
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Top RW Value |
Top LW Value |
Top C Value |
Top D Value |
Bargain Bin |
|
(MON) $5698 |
(DET) $7941 |
(MON) $7755 |
(MON) $8658 |
(DET) $4562 |
