Weekly NHL Forecaster December 4th – December 10th

Below is a breakdown of the seventh week of NHL games in the 2017-2018 season (can you believe we are about 25% into the 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 11/9/2017

Favorable:
Offense: The Blackhawks get Washington, Buffalo and Arizona this week which is good both offensively and defensively. It’s not easy to stack up on Blackhawks but perhaps you could try Artem Anisimov – 31%, Alex DeBrincat – 32% or Nick Schmaltz – 12%. The Bruins have it good with Nashville, Arizona and NYI, expect some solid goal production from them. The Blue Jackets also have a favorable week with New Jersey (good on the road, but at home not so bueno) and Arizona Coyotes.

Photo by Elsa/Getty Images

Goalies: The Hurricanes have an easier week as they face Vancouver, San Jose (both bottom 7 teams offensively) and LA on their west coast trip. Roberto Luongo has a good week with the Panthers facing the Islanders, and Avalanche with a tough Jets matchup in the middle of the week. The Montreal Canadiens will work to bounce back after a rough start with St. Louis Blues, Calgary Flames and Edmonton who are all bottom third offenses on the road.

Power Play: The Blackhawks PP is TERRIBLE but they face some bad PK units in Buffalo and Arizona, expect to see an increase in PP production late in the week for them. Detroit has a good week with Winnipeg, and St. Louis who are both in the bottom third of the league on the PK. Montreal has a good week facing some bad PK teams.

Photo by Minas Panagiotakis/Getty Images

Penalty Kill: The Coyotes penalty kill gets a breather as they face some inept power play units in Columbus and the Blackhawks (which I continue to find comical that these two are amongst the worst 3 pp units in the NHL). They will be tested before that with the Bruins who are the 6^th best unit.

Unfavorable:
Offense: AVOID BUFFALO this week. Three games on the road against Colorado, Chicago and St. Louis is a preverbial green mile for the Sabres on most all fronts. Also avoid LA on both fronts as they face Minnesota, Ottawa and Carolina who are all surprisingly good away teams. Not that San Jose was strong offensively but don’t expect too much from them either.

Photo by Kevin Hoffman/Getty Images

Goalies: AVOID BUFFALO this week. (see Above). Avoid LA (see above).

Power Play: Washington’s PP is going to have their work cut out for them. They face two of the top 6 penalty kill units as they go against the Sharks and Blackhawks. Their “relief” if you want to call it that is against the Rangers who are 11^th. Ovechkin might not be in for a big week.

Penalty Kill: Pittsburgh has a rough week facing Rangers, Islanders and Maple Leafs (who are lethal on the PP). Tampa Bay gets a gambit with NYI, Winnipeg and Colorado. Winnipeg has a strong PP.