Dispatch From The Sports Desk: NHL Weekly Wrap-Around and CBB weekend Picks. UHC Statement Wins and Mountain West Baksetball

January 24, 2025 Eric Jensen College basketball, Nhl 0

The playoff race in the Eastern Conference is really heating up in the NHL, as is the Utah hockey club. A lot of hockey to talk about this Friday and a quick check on a loaded Saturday and Sunday of college hoops as well! Let’s fly. 

NHL Weekly Wrap-Around

East Playoff Race Heating Up

Good Weeks

The Rangers had an unreal week. After getting a shootout win against the Habs they cleaned out both the Senators and Flyers who are neck and neck with them in the standings. Having Igor Shersterkin back certainly helps, but over the past week the Ranger’s whole lineup has been red hot. Can they stay consistent is the next big question? They’ve got the slumping Avalanche, the hapless Islanders this week and then a weekend back-to-back test against the Bruins and Golden Knights. If they come out of that stretch with one loss, look out, blue shirts might be back.

The Blue Jackets. No doubt about it this is one of the most fun, young and dumb teams in the league. If your looking to watch a game that’s going to be end-to-end and high scoring, you want to watch the Blue Jackets every night. The goaltending tandem isn’t terrible but the defense is outside of Norris finalist Zach Werenski who had what you could argue is an MVP season. Kirill Marchenko leads the attack and up and down the lineup everyone’s chiming in. Add a defenseman at the deadline and see how far you can go. The best story in the NHL considering the absolute tragedy they went through this off-season when star player Johnny Gaudreau was killed by a drunk driver this summer.

Red Wings, Andrew Copp and JT Compher remain two of my favorite no-name hockey players and guess what, the grit and grind of Detroit’s bottom six paired with it’s stars and speed in the top six is working out this year. 6-3-1 in there last 10, they need to do some winning this week. They get the Lightning at home and then a road trip to Oil Country.

Tough Week For Canada

Both Montreal and Ottowa had weeks to forget. The Senators basically got shut out twice and the Habs struggled verse the streaking Red Wings.

Look Out For UHC

Utah walked into the second-best team in the central division’s house, with Kirill the thrill Kaprizov back and absolutely walloped them. That after they owned the best team in the West the Winnipeg Jets 5-2 at home on MLK day. Clayton Keller, that’s the star this week. A young man with massive potential, a killer shot, and a way of getting to scoring areas with ease.

You also can’t talk about the season without shouting out Karel Vejmelka, to the fans Veggie and to this blog from here on out, Veggie. Veggie has been a top five goalie this season by numbers, just that simple.

Oh did I mention Utah did this without star Dylan Guenther and star defenseman Sergachev? Yeah man, it’s impressive. There’s one playoff spot left in the west and four teams are fighting for it.

Utah got prepped but now the test is here. Friday night in Winnipeg, Sunday afternoon in Ottowa and then back home to the confines of the Delta Center to take on the slumping Penguins on Wednesday. Taking on the Columbus Blue Jackets that Friday at 7 pm. A test and a good one.

Quick Hits Standings Notes

  • Don’t look now but the Preds are on a five-game winning streak and 7-3 in their last 10.
  • The Kraken meanwhile are 4-6, the only completely pointless franchise in the league, no juice whatsoever.
  • Caps are undefeated in regulation in their last 10 and on a six-game winning streak, tasty.
  • Avs are 4-4-2 in the last 10, sigh, cup contenders don’t do that.
  • Devils man, spicy, high scoring and deep I do think they can survive the Markstrom injury with Jake Allen anchoring the net for the next month or two.

CBB Picks For the Weekend

Villanova +9.5 against Marquette at home. I’m almost back in on my beloved wildcats but they need to keep a home game against Shaka and crew tight.

Creighton over Seton Hall- don’t really care what the line is Seton Hall is sadly deeply lost in the mix of things in college basketball. Rick Pitino recently called out their disgustingly terrible NIL set up. Let Shaheen Holloway cook and give him some money.

Kentucky on the road over Vanderbilt, another year one Mark Pope test. Go get em Utah boy.

Houston over Kansas, let’s just say this the big story of the weekend will be how back Houston is and how nearly spotless their resume is.

Xavier over Uconn at home- something is wrong to the core in Stoors right now. Hurley won’t be ranked come Monday despite being ” The best coach in the Fucking sport,” his words, not mine.

Auburn over Tennesee, the heavy-weight SEC bout we have all been waiting for. Auburn is just no doubt the best team in the country though and they prove that again Saturday night. War Eagle.

Oklahoma over Arkansas- we come out of the weekend with more heat than ever on John Calipari at Arkansas, it hasn’t even been a year yet.

Nevada over San Diego State, love me some Mountain West basketball to close the night. Nevada edges closer to the bubble, SDST veers farther toward it.