Compelling Storylines to follow in the NHL on Super Bowl Sunday!
It is Super Bowl Sunday but there’s still plenty of action to keep an eye on in the NHL.
While the whole country will be gearing up for a mouthwatering showdown between the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and the Kansas City Chiefs in the biggest game of the year, the NHL will pose as an elite warmup act with five games on today.
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It all starts with a huge matchup between the Philadelphia Flyers and the Alex Ovechkin led Washington Capitals at 12:00 p.m. ET, while one West Division showdown and three Central Division contests will then lead us nicely into Super Bowl LV.
While five games doesn’t sound like a lot, there will be plenty of action to keep an eye on throughout the early afternoon, and things are really beginning to heat up in all four divisions as we get closer to the 2020-21 NHL season being a month old, with every single game extra important in a shortened schedule.
Therefore, all five of today’s matchups could have some huge implications and we are going to break down some of the biggest talking points to keep an eye on throughout the day, starting with the NHL’s own Super Bowl Sunday star. So, without further ado, let’s delve into some riveting storylines to keep an eye on today in the National Hockey League…
Storylines to follow across the NHL on Super Bowl Sunday
Can The Great Eight outshine the Goat?
Today will be all about Super Bowl 55 and whether or not Tom Brady can lead the Tampa Bay Buccaneers to glory and capture what would be an unprecedented seventh championship in what has been a truly spectacular and legendary career. Brady is already the Goat in the NFL but, should he clinch victory in the biggest game of the year later today, then he will truly cement his status as the best to have ever done it.
The NHL of course has its own goat in Alex Ovechkin, who continues in his mission of making history after scoring his 709th career NHL goal on Thursday, a milestone moment that saw him move in sole possession of seventh on the NHL’s All-Time Goals list ahead of Washington Capitals great, Mike Gartner.
Ovechkin is now eight goals away from catching Hall of Famer Phil Esposito, who is sixth on the list with 717, while The Great Eight continues to chase The Great One, with Wayne Gretzky currently holding the NHL record for most goals with 894.
Given the pace at which Ovechkin continues to light the lamp on the biggest stage, it isn’t out of the realms of possibility that he could catch The Great One and cement his legacy in the process, and he will have an opportunity to get a little bit closer to that today against the Philadelphia Flyers, who are second in the East Division but are 5-3-2 in their last 10 outings.
The Capitals are currently third in the ultra-competitive East and just a point behind the Flyers, and a win today would get them closer to the Boston Bruins who are currently top of the standings. In order to beat Philadelphia, Washington will need a strong game from their Goat in Alex Ovechkin who has 14 career points (10 G, 4 A) in 13 games on Super Bowl Sunday, and he’ll be hoping to add to that total before settling down to watch Tom Brady perhaps add to his 40 touchdowns this year as he looks to win a seventh ring.
Can the Vegas Golden Knights continue to roll?
It was a long-awaited return to action for the Vegas Golden Knights on Friday who had to sit out for more than a week due to COVID-19 issues, but they showed no signs of rust in what was a pretty dominant win over the LA Kings at T-Mobile Arena. They were even without elite defenseman Alex Pietrangelo but, as we mapped out here, their depth and the performances of three of their young guns more than made up for that loss.
So, can they continue to roll today? They again host the Kings at T-Mobile Arena (3 p.m. ET) and, although Pietrangelo is likely to be unavailable again, this team is just loaded with stars and talent so they should be able to improve to 7-1-1 on the year and start making up for lost time in the West Division.
It also helps that the Golden Knights boast one of the most elite two-way forwards in the game in Mark Stone, who leads Vegas in scoring with 13 points (3 G, 10 A) in eight games, while his linemate Max Pacioretty has 10 points (6 G, 4 A) with both players in lethal form for their team so far this year.
With Robin Lehner expected to get the start between the pipes today, with the goalie 2-1-1 this season with 2.95 Goals Against Average and a .885 Save Percentage, the Vegas Golden Knights will be expected to beat the Kings for the second time in a couple of nights, and it will be fun to see the likes of Stone, Pacioretty and William Karlsson explode once again with all three huge in Friday night’s win.
Central Division feast
Today’s slate of five games in the NHL will be dominated by the Central Division, which accounts for three of the five games in total on the docket. And there will be plenty to keep an eye on in a division which has been absolutely ravaged by COVID-19 so far.
The Dallas Stars, the Carolina Hurricanes and the Florida Panthers have all had their schedules disrupted by the Pandemic, and you can throw the Tampa Bay Lightning in there who have had some games moved too. Therefore, the Central is a hard division to read with a lot of teams playing catch up, which means that the Playoff race will go down to the wire.
Focussing on today for now, though, and there will be some fascinating matchups to keep an eye on throughout the afternoon. I mean, the Florida Panthers have carved out a pretty impressive start to the season with a 6-0-2 record, while they have yet to lose in regulation. They have been powered by forward Carter Verhaeghe, who has six goals in eight games, while the usual suspects in Aleksander Barkov and Jonathan Huberdeau are also off to hot starts with 12 and 11 points respectively. They should be able to feast off the Detroit Red Wings today, who are currently ranked 26th in Goals Against Per Game (3.58) and are 2-8-2 on the year.
Then we have the Carolina Hurricanes against the Columbus Blue Jackets, which should be a pretty mouthwatering matchup at Nationwide Arena. After all, the Hurricanes have a star young forward in Sebastian Aho who has eight points (2 G, 6 A) in eight games with the Canes 6-2-0 on the year so far. On the flip side, the Blue Jackets are still getting used to life with one of the purest goalscorers in the entire NHL in Patrik Laine, who was acquired as part of the blockbuster trade that sent Pierre-Luc Dubois to the Winnipeg Jets. Laine is still settling in with Columbus but he has one goal in two games and he will look to put on a statement game today in order to help his new team improve to 6-4-3 on the year.
Next. Depth comes through for Golden Knights. dark
Finally, we have a matchup between the Chicago Blackhawks and the Dallas Stars to look forward to, with the big story in this game being the Stars’ decision to bench goalie Anton Khudobin due to a discipline issue. Khudobin is 3-2-1 this year with a 2.51 Goals Against Average and a .908 Save Percentage, but Jake Oettinger will instead start with Landon Bow as his backup. The Stars will start an eight-game homestand tonight and they are 4-0-0 on home ice so far in 2020-21, while the Blackhawks are 0-3-3 on the road so it isn’t a good omen for Chicago who are currently 4-4-4 on the year.