Weekly NHL Forecaster November 6th – November 12th

In simplest terms: Good week for Vancouver Canucks

Below is a breakdown of the fifth week of NHL games in the 2017-2018 season. The graph breaks down the schedule and the strength of the opponent in goals for, goals against, their power play and penalty kill and ranks it against the rest of the league on a scale from 1-31 (with 31 being the worst) So the higher the average ranks you see for an opponent the better schedule that team has. It factors in how well a team does at home vs. on the road as well.

*Stats are as of 10/27/2017

Favorable:

Offense: Vancouver gets a second consecutive week against some struggling teams defensively. Calgary Flames and San Jose Sharks are not coming on strong in net and Brock Boeser might have a good week.

Goalies: Roberto Luongo might have a chance to close that all time shutout gap on Martin Brodeur with the Hurricanes, Sabres and Devils who are all in the bottom third at home in offensive production. Jaroslav Halak gets to face Edmonton (oddly struggling offensively), Dallas and St. Louis who are sub-average in a week where NYI can continue to ascension of the Metropolitan standings.

Power Play: The Capitals get the Coyotes and Oilers who are two of the 3 worst PK units right now. They need the boost too as they’ve been off to a pedestrian start and this is anything but a pedestrian team. The Senators get the ultimate 5vs5 team (Colorado) but when it’s not 5vs5 the Aves suffer.

Photo by Rob Carr/Getty Images

Photo by Rob Carr/Getty Images

Penalty Kill: The Senators will face Colorado twice (which is nice). The Lightning meanwhile get the California stint (San Jose, Anaheim and LA) who are weak on the power play.

Unfavorable:

Offense: Anaheim has to face Jonathan Quick to start the week and ironically Vancouver is very strong on the road defensively so far. The weakest of them is Tampa Bay who might be one of the strongest teams in the NHL. I don’t like the Ducks chances at a productive week offensively. New York Rangers will have to put in some effort behind Buchnevich, Rick Nash and Chris Kreider as they face goalie Bob, Tuuuuuuuka and Cam Talbot.

Goalies: Tuuka Rask, after 3 favorable weeks, will be SEVERLY tested this week with Minnesota Wild, the Rangers (who are good at home) and the Maple Leafs home (best offense in NHL) and away. That’s 4 games, lots of travel and a mix of tough opponents. Pekka Rinne has a tough go with Columbus Blue Jackets and Penguins, two of the top Metropolitan teams.

Power Play: Tampa Bay will face a test with their strong power play unit against that same California stint who is bad on the PP but great on PK (all three teams in the top 12 in PK units so far). The San Jose Sharks on the flip side get Vancouver as well as LA, Vancouver is also in the top ten in PK units.

Penalty Kill: The Flyers go up against the Blackhawks and Wild strong PP units. Colorado faces the Senators who thrive on non 5vs.5 so this should be a fun matchup. Keep it at 5vs.5 and I think Nathan Mackinnon and company win, lots of penalties and Erik Karlsson and company will win.