NHL December 18; Not A Long Boring Hockey Post (although I suppose that is subjective).

Eleven games on tap tonight, in the NHL.

The Atlantic Division remains in the same order as it was on December 1. Not to say there wasn't shuffling from that snapshot date to now. Only that the rankings are the same today.

Other division's teams shuffled, but basically stayed within their area relative ranking.

Various injuries are spread out among many teams.

One stat I noticed, only three teams remain in avoiding a tied game being decided by the Dreaded Shoot-Out: Toronto, Ottawa and Dallas.

 

Some interesting match-ups tonight between the stronger teams and, uh, some struggling teams:

Bottom-ranked Florida plays at number two-ranked Buffalo (both Atlantic)
Nashville (#2) plays in Chicago (#7) (both Central)
Winnipeg (#1-Central) plays in LA (#8-Pacific)
Tampa Bay (#1-AT) plays in Vancouver (#6-Pac)
Calgary (#1-Pac) in Dallas (#5-Cent)
Toronto (#3-AT) in NJ (#7-Met)
Ducks (#2-Pac) at NYR (#6-Met)
NYI (#3-Met) at AZ (#7-Pac)

Mid-tier vs mid-tier game:
San Jose (#3-Pac) at MN (#4-Cent)

Struggle vs struggle has:
Detroit (#7-AT) playing in Philly (#8-Met)
St. Louis (#6-Cent) at Edmonton (#5-Pac)

Good games to watch? Sharks at MN should be good. St. Louis, AZ and LA are teams I've been watching, just to see what they do in trying to turn things around. The StL-Oilers game could be a close one. I don't see AZ beating the Islanders tonight. Same for LA, don't see them beating Winnipeg. Make no wager on my pure speculation. Any game could see an upset. The Panthers could beat Buffalo by a shot, no way to tell. No one would have guessed St. Louis beating the Jets 1 - 0 on December 7.

I'm not making any predictions. Oddsshark has you covered there.

And a past due Rest in Peace to Bob Naegele, Jr., who brought the NHL back to Minnesota.
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