Week In Review: NHL Edition, Week 5. Last Picks of 2017.

The Week In Review is a weekly compilation of hand-picked NHL stories selected by members of WinColumnSports deemed important or impactful from the week that was.  Additionally, there is also a running pool amongst the contributors based on our picks for Saturday’s match-ups. Myself as well as all of us here at WinColumnSports would like to wish you a Happy New Year.

Stories From the Past Week

Spencer Love

While the Blues may have lost against the Predators on Wednesday, We looked for them to rebound strong against the Dallas Stars Friday night. Blues goaltender Jake Allen had a 5-0-0 record with a .950 save-percentage, a 1.36 goals-against average and two shutouts in his last five home starts against the Stars. The squad from St. Louis was 2-0 prior to their loss on Friday night against the Stars this season.

There are a number of Blues’ players who seem to have the Stars’ number as of late. Paul Stasny has posted 11 points in the last 8 games against the Stars and Vlad Tarasenko has potted 3 goals over the past 3 meetings between the Blues and Stars. Stasny was held off the score sheet on Friday night despite seeing over 4 minutes of power-play ice time and was limited to a single shot on goal. Tarasenko managed to score 1 of the 2 Blues’ goals on Friday night extending his streak against the Stars. The Blues went 0/4 on the power-play and struggled to put together any threatening scoring chances against a Stars squad that they shouldn’t have any troubles outplaying. The Blues look to right their ship tonight against The Carolina Hurricanes. This will be both The Hurricanes and Blues second game of a back to back.

Arik Krause

The Washington Capitals and New Jersey Devils head into tonight’s game battling each other for first place in the Metropolitan Division. New Jersey currently has 50 points while the Capitals sit right below them at 49. In my opinion, the Capitals and Devils are two unlikely teams to be sitting on top of the Metropolitan Division at this point in the season. The Devils will be playing the second half of a back to back so one can expect that the Capitals will have the advantage this evening as they’ll be looking to take first place in the Metropolitan Division.

The Capitals came into the 2017/2018 season with a lot of roster turn around losing key pieces such as Karl Alzner, Kevin Shattenkirk, Marcus Johansson, and Justin Williams, and were expected to fall in the standings. This hasn’t been the case. The Devils came into the year as the worst team in the division last year. The Devils turn around season has been driven by rookies such as: Jesper Bratt, Nico Hischier, and Will Butcher.

Ben Ferguson

Brock Boeser has just recently taken over the rookie scoring race. Brock currently sits on top of the rest of the NHL rookies with 38 points in just 35 games. Mathew Barzal closely trails Boeser with 36 points in 38 games. Over the past week, Boeser has registered 2 goals and 3 assists in two games while posting a +3 +/- and registering 5 shots on goal. Brock has only been held off the score sheet 3 times in the month of December (12 games). These statistics are remarkable considering the supporting cast surrounding Brock. The Kings and Canucks meet tonight in Vancouver and I expect Brock to stay hot and continue to produce regardless of the match-up presented.

WinColumnSport’s Saturday Picks

This running pool is open to readers and WinColumnSport contributors. If you are interested in joining you can contact me on twitter (@WCS_BFerg). Ultimately, if you join the pool, you must be willing to contribute a developing story from the week that was.

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