THURSDAY’S GAMES AND PICKS

For in depth look into the NHL teams records and preview of tonight’s games please go back to the “Home Page” on Hockey God, at the bottom lower left hand side:

Click on “Scoreboard” and review every game by clicking in the individual games being played on Thursday.

Tonight’s Picks

FLA @ PHI: Take FLYERS

NYR @ ATL: Take RANGERS

CGY @ CLB: Take BLUE JACKETS

TBL @ MTL: Take CANADIENS

SJS @ NSH: Take PREDATORS

VAN @ STL: Take CANUCKS

LAK @ DAL: Take STARS

EDM @ PHX: Take OILERS

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BATTLE OF PA

Distance is 416 kilometers or 258 miles or 224 nautical miles

The Philadelphia Flyers and the Pittsburgh Penguins play in the Eastern Conference and are a short distance from each other in the State of Pennsylvania.

They flat out hate each other battling every game whether in Pitt or Philly like it’s their last.

The teams two young stars captains Mike Richards & Sidney Crosby carry their fierce competitive battle from game to game trying to out do each other for their teams wins.

Former world Junior Canadian teammates before the NHL where they won gold together will once again be teammates at next seasons Vancouver Olympics where Canada will take on the World.

But put them on the ice against each other and you can see the hatred in the eyes and in their individual play. Crosby the young offensive star with the NHL train hyped up behind his play against the star two way captain of the hated Flyers.

RICHIE STANDS UP

Anyone who says that either player does not live up to the hype is an idiot. Richie plays a game very similar to the guy that picked him Bobby Clarke former boss with the Flyers. Richards leads the Flyers on the ice in almost every department, he is a player that fits the Flyer persona perfectly meaning he will fight, score, block shots, win faceoffs and play both special teams regularly.

The Philadelphia captain leads the team with 46 helpers and 74 points, but he also leads the team’s forwards with 21:43 of ice time per game, he’s tied for first with a plus-25 rating and he’s second with 125 hits. Richie is going to score 30 plus goals this season on top of all that.

“He has a great understanding of the game at both ends of the ice and he works like a dog all the time; you have to in order to be considered a great defensive forward,” Clarke said. “The one other thing that makes him a complete player is the fact he’s not a very easy guy to play against.”

Richards leads the League with 7 shorthanded goals, and on Feb. 15 he set an NHL record with his third 5 on 3 goal. He also became the first player since Joe Sakic to score shorthanded goals in three straight games (Feb. 15-21). Richie does it all in Philly !

CROSBY PROVES HIS WORTH

Crosby takes a fair bit of abuse from people in the media and as hockey culture dictates success breeds jealousy. It’s bull shit that either player would have detractors with their play but they certainly do just not on these pages.

Consider this Crosby carries the NHL unfairly on his back because of the NHL hype that he never asked for from the league. But he does all that all the while he puts up huge numbers for the Pens with star teammate Evgeni Malkin.

Crosby sits near the top of the league consistently with 96 points in 70 games that includes 28 goals to go with 68 helpers helping him earn the $8.7 million dollar contract with the Pens.

HEAD TO HEAD

The Pens hold a 4-2-0 lead in the season series, and if you take into account Pittsburgh’s five-game series triumph in the Eastern Conference Final last spring, the Pens are 8-3-0 against Philadelphia over their last 10 games.

The Flyers sit in 4th like they have most of the season with a record of 40-22-10 good for 90 points two points ahead of 6th place Pens who have a similar record of 40-27-8 = 88 points.

Crosby, who has 4 goals and 8 points against the Flyers this season makes life miserable for Philly with 20 goals and 45 points in 26 career games. Malkin, who has 3 goals and 6 points in the season series, has 13 goals and 21 points in 20 career games.

With the Eastern Conference seeds still up in the air it still looks good that 4th seeded Flyers could play when the dust settles 5th place Pens there by allowing the battle of PA once again in the NHL playoffs.

E. Malkin	75	33	73	20	106
S. Crosby	70	28	68	7	96
C. Kunitz	75	22	26	15	48
B. Guerin	71	19	27	-11	46
P. Sykora	69	24	21	6	45
J. Staal	75	20	21	-4	41
M. Satan	65	17	19	3	36
R. Fedotenko	58	13	16	9	29
K. Letang	67	9	20	-5	29
T. Kennedy M. Richards 69 28 46 22 74 J. Carter 72 40 33 20 73 S. Gagne 69 30 39 22 69 S. Hartnell 72 27 29 13 56 M. Knuble 72 26 19 7 45 J. Lupul 69 21 23 1 44 K. Timonen 67 3 37 19 40 B. Coburn 70 7 17 5 24 M. Carle 66 5 15 1 20 C. Giroux 32 5 14 10 19	60	13	15		28

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