NHL: Two crucial games that could mean life or death

As the NHL regular season winds down, teams are making a mad dash to claim the final wild-card spots. Here are two crucial games that will make or break a season.

We are reaching the finishing line of the 2018-19 NHL regular season. However, not everything has been set in stone yet. Both the final Eastern and Western wild-card spots are still up for grabs and there are two games coming up which could settle the dust.

March 28 is when the Montreal Canadiens will visit the Columbus Blue Jackets for the biggest game of both their seasons. Entering Thursday, the Habs are up two points over the Blue Jackets. This game can either end with both teams at 90 points apiece, Columbus trailing the Canadiens by just a point, or Montreal gaining a three or four-point cushion.

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The two teams are 5-4-1 in their last ten games, but Columbus’ home record (21-14-2) is better than Montreal’s road record (18-16-4), which will come into play. Here are some important statistics that could help determine the game.

SAVE PERCENTAGE

Carey Price (MTL): .918

Sergei Bobrovsky (CBJ): .911

GOALS PER GAME

3 apiece

POWERPLAY

MTL: 12.4%

CBJ: 15.5%

PENALTY KILL

MTL: 80.6%

CBJ: 84.5%

SEASON SERIES

2-0 Montreal

Both teams will be playing for their lives and with Price and Bobrovsky in net, it could easily become a goalie duel as both goaltenders have been playing out of their minds in March. This will be a great game to watch and especially with the trade deadline moves made by Jarmo Kekalainen, a lot will be on the line.

The next game is between the Arizona Coyotes and the Colorado Avalanche. Entering Thursday, the Avs have a two-point lead over the former. The two will face off against each other on Friday, March 29th and it will determine who will have the upper hand in the next five games to come.

Colorado has played very well recently and are 6-3-1 in their last ten games while the Coyotes have gone 4-4-2, including a five-game losing streak. Colorado has a pretty decent home record (17-14-6) but Arizona’s road record is pretty strong at 18-18-3. Here are some other stats that could point to a potential winner.

SAVE PERCENTAGE

Darcy Kuemper (AZ): .922 (.938 in the month of March)

Philipp Grubauer (COL): .914 (.966 in the month of March)

GOALS PER GAME

AZ: 2.5

COL: 3.1

POWERPLAY

AZ: 17%

COL: 21.9%

PENALTY KILL

AZ: 85.6%

COL: 77.6%

SEASON SERIES

1-1

Both teams play very different styles of hockey. Arizona has a lot of defensive structure as a team while the Colorado Avalanche are more run-and-gun. It will be interesting to see the specialty teams face off against each other as Colorado has one of the best powerplays in the league while Arizona has the best penalty kill. This will be a huge game for both teams with intriguing storylines for both.

Arizona was devasted with season-ending injuries to so many key players and yet their team has stayed resilient and clawed their way into contention. Colorado has remained resilient in the face of devastating injuries as well. They lost both Gabriel Landeskog and Mikko Rantanen but their depth players have stepped up and filled the void. Both teams have had to fight hard to get to this point and the upcoming game will be life and death.