NHL Hockey
2008-01-15 - San Jose Sharks at Phoenix Coyotes
A Sports Betting Pick by Grga
Jan 15,2008 9:30 pm EST
Phoenix (23-20-1)
After some realy bad periods it seems like better days are coming in Phoenix. With 6-2-0 in January,Phoenix got back above .500 and in contention for playoffs.
(RW) Shane Doan and (RW) Radim Vrbata ,along with good goaltenting from (G) Ilya Brizgalov are key contributors during this good period.Team needs to continue this momentum and try to improve their NHL worst 8-10-1 home score in Jobing.com Arena.
(LW) Daniel Carcillo (5g, 7 a in 33 games played) is the only absentee for Coyotes.
San Jose (25-12-7)
Giving (G) Evgeni Nabokov night off and giving rookie backup (G) Thomas Greiss his first NHL start and even his first minutes in NHL was a good move by head coach Ron Wilson.
Nabokov played in every game this season and needed the rest.Greiss was good in his debut but Sharks lost in OT and that ended their 10 game road winning streak San Jose played only 6 games in January with 4-0-2 score.
(D) Brad Norton and (LW) Ryan Clowe are teams only 2 absent players.
STATS COMPARISON
Phoenix home 8-10-1 *** San Jose away 16-3-3
Current form (last 5 games)
Phoenix W-W-L-W-L*** San Jose OTL-W-W-W-OTL
GFA
Phoenix 2.52(22nd) *** San Jose 2.51 (23rd)
GAA
Phoenix 2.67(12th)*** San Jose 2.15 (2nd)
Power Play (%)
Phoenix 17.0 (19th)*** San Jose 16.7(20th)
Penalty Kill (%)
Phoenix 80.9(20th) *** San Jose 87.1 (2nd)
HEAD TO HEAD
This season
21.12.2007 San Jose-Phoenix 2:3 OT
08.12.2007 Phoenix-San Jose 0:1
16.11.2007 Phoenix-San Jose 0:6
13.11.2007 San Jose-Phoenix 5:0
11.11.2007 San Jose-Phoenix 4:1
THE VERDICT
In my opinion this is one of the hot periods that every bad team has. On the other side San Jose is good team with excelent defence.
Excellent H2H in favour of San Jose in this season and in last season too.
