I am unbelievably a new fan of West Coast time zone hockey games! With closing down my bar a couple nights a week I need something to keep myself awake. Enter West Coast hockey games. Last night was a fun night to have to keep myself awake. Besides having 13 games to watch throughout the day. The first starting at 2:00 pm EST and the last at 10:30 pm EST. I had scores and games to keep an eye on all day. Name a better Thursday, I can’t.
3 games that I had circled the entire day all were late games between the Metropolitan and the Pacific divisions. Anaheim/NYR, San Jose/Columbus, and LA/Philly. These were all interesting match ups between the Pacific Division and the Metropolitan Division. The division rivalry is one fun reason to watch these late games, however only one of these 3 games featured teams currently sitting in playoff position. Therefore, I have found my reasoning to make these games count. The best of the bads.
Anaheim Ducks vs. New York Rangers
The 5-6-3 Ducks took on the 5-7-1 Rangers last night and it was arguably the best game of the night. After it appeared that the Rangers were going to skate on to the next one with a simple win, the Ducks decided otherwise. Empty net, offense crashing, the Duck managed to score late into the 3rd to tie up the game. The goal scored by Rickard Rakell with just 26 seconds left pushed to game into a very uneventful overtime. At one point, the Rangers were able to hold onto the puck for over a minute and could not get the job done.
After that came a one team dominated shootout. The Ducks went first where a textbook save from Georgiev on Getzlaf put the Ducks in a bad position from the start followed by Aberg getting stone walled as well. Meanwhile for the Rangers Zuccarello and Zibanejad both found the back of the net.
Los Angeles Kings vs Philadelphia Flyers
In this game the 6-7-0 Flyers visited the 3-8-1 Jonathan Quick-less Los Angeles Kings. Both of these teams were fighting for their first consecutive wins of the season. Philadelphia got on the board first, which has been a weak spot for them this season. Oskar Lindblom’s hard work was rewarded with his first every multi-point game of his young career.
Lindblom was responsible in quite possibly the most confusing goal of the season. The Flyers took a 2 goal lead on a puck that was clearly Pelé’d into the back of the net by Lindblom. The goal was obviously reviewed where the situation room decided that the puck was officially kicked. Above all though the puck was kicked into Sean Walker’s (Shout out BGSU) stick before crossing the goal line. The goal was awarded to the Flyers who went on to score another 2 and only give up 1 more to the Kings. Winning by a score of 5-2 the Flyers officially have their first back to back wins of the season.
San Jose Sharks vs. Columbus Blue Jackets
Finally to the lone playoff teams in this article. The 7-5-0 Columbus Blue Jackets invaded the shark tank belonging to the 6-4-3 San Jose Sharks. The predicted Vezina Trophy winner Segei Bobrovsky had a big night with 44 saves, 25 of which came in the 3rd period of the game. The Blue Jackets gave up the first goal of the game for the 8th time this year. Most importantly though they were able to steal the lead away during the 2nd period on a Seth Jones shot that found the twine.
This game was the game to end streaks, good and bad. Segei Bobrovsky had spent the last 3 games being a back up. Not what you’d expect from a net minder of this skill. Even worse was the fact that the 3 games before his benching were all loses. Leaving his last win on October the 18th against the aforementioned Flyers. Bob breaking his losing streak was not the only one ended tonight. Both Brent Burns and Timo Meier brought 9 game point streaks into tonight’s game. Unfortunately neither of the two Sharks were able to contribute on their lone point in the 4-1 loss.
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