Weekly NHL Forecaster February 26th – March 4th

Below is a breakdown of the seventh 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 2/23/2018

Favorable:

Offense:

-Arizona. Minnesota is horrible defensively on the road (2^nd to worst) and Ottawa isn’t a whole lot better (7^th worst).

-New Jersey. Another consecutive good week for the Devils. Pittsburgh, Florida and Carolina all on the road (all sub average defensively at home).

-NYI. Montreal home and away is a good start for any team this year but Pittsburgh isn’t doing the best at home either.

Photo by Adam Hunger/Getty Images

Photo by Adam Hunger/Getty Images

Goalies:

-Boston. A good week for Tuuka Rask. All four of the aforementioned teams above are also among the bottom 12 in scoring goals at home.

-Carolina. Pick your goalie be it Cam Ward or Scott Darling, they face Pittsburgh at home and Red Wings on the road, both bottom 5 in goals scored in their respective locations.

-Colorado. The above mentioned 3 teams are also bad on offense at home.

Power Play:

-Montreal. Flyers, Islanders (x2) and Bruins this week. The first three games are bottom 4 PK units.

-NYR. Play the Rangers this week, play ALL the Rangers this week for everything.

Photo by Minas Panagiotakis/Getty Images

Photo by Minas Panagiotakis/Getty Images

Penalty Kill:

-Anaheim. They have two games and it’s 2 of the worst 3 power play units in the league (Chicago and Columbus)

-Vegas. Home and away with LAK, Ottawa and NJD (all sub average PP units)

-San Jose. They face the three worst PP units this week.

Unfavorable:

Offense:

-Chicago. Not looking good for them as they go up against San Jose, LA and Anaheim on the road, that’s Jonathan Quick, Martin Jones and John Gibson

-Calgary has some tough goalies this week with Ben Bishop, Semyon Varlamov and King Lundqvist (who might be the easiest of the three this year).

-Dallas. Dallas is the one team to avoid this week, it’s not looking good for them.

Goalies:

-Buffalo. Robin Lehnar gets a gauntlet with Tampa Bay and Florida this week.

-Dallas. Calgary, Tampa Bay and St. Louis will be coming in strong against the Stars.

Power Play:

-Calgary. They face Dallas, Colorado on the road (both top ten PK units) and NYR at home (6^th best PK unit)

- Chicago. They are already terrible on the PP and now they face San Jose, LAK and Anaheim (all top 11 PK units)

-Columbus. Also terrible, also facing 3 top 11 pk units this week.

Penalty Kill:

-Edmonton. San Jose, Nashville and NYR (all top 12 PP units)

-Colorado and Florida – Ditto to above on the Power Play.

-Montreal – not that I’m picking them much in general but this will be a tough week with the Flyers, Rangers and Lightning (all top 12 Power Play units).