New Jersey Outlaws vs. Danbury Whalers-Thanksgiving Eve

The New Jersey Outlaws will take on the Danbury Whalers tonight from the Ice Vault at 7:35PM. The Outlaws are on their longest home stand of the year, this is game three of five and are 8-2 on the season. The Whalers are the only team they have lost too and Danbury is right behind them in the standings. The Outlaws are in second place and the Whalers in third place. It should be a exciting night of hockey at the Ice Vault in Wayne,NJ. Here are the pregame notes.
The Outlaws have yet to play an overtime game. This is their 11th game of the season and their seventh home game. They are 5-1 at home and 3-1 on the road. The Outlaws defeated the Vermont Wild on Saturday night by the score of 8-2. The Outlaws will take on Brooklyn Friday and Saturday nights at home. They won’t be playing many home games over the next month after this weekend so they want to take advantage of these games.

The Outlaws have scored 51 goals and allowed 27. They have a very good power play which comes in at 34%. The penalty kill is at 80 percent which isn’t great but it isn’t horrible either. The leading goal scorers are Kevin Cooper and Travis Kauffeldt who each have nine. Matthew Puntureri leads the team in points with 21. Kauffeldt has 19 and Cooper has 18. The Outlaws have a pretty balanced scoring attack, they have a lot of guys that can score and put points on the score sheet. The two goalies are also good, Adam Dekker is 4-0 with a 2.50 goals against average and a 924 save percentage. Dan McWhinney is 4-2 with a 2.84 goals against average and a 905 save percentage.

This is also the 11th game for Danbury and they are 7-3 on the season. They also have not played an overtime game this season. They are 3-2 on the road and 4-1 at home. They have scored 43 goals and given up 34 goals. They won their last game against Cape Cod 5-3 and they will take on Akwesasne on Friday on the road.

Their power play is pretty good with a 25% success rate and their penalty kill is at 75.6% which is pretty low. Chris Seifert leads the team with seven goals and he leads the team with 15 points. Nick Deschenes has 13 points and Greg Holt has 12 points. Peter Vetri is one of their goalies and he is 3-1 with a 3.00 goals against average and a 916 save percentage. Nick Niedert is 4-2 with a 3.60 goals against average.

This is the fifth time these two teams have met this season and they have split the first four games. The Outlaws lost at Danbury to start the season by the score of 5-4. They won at home 5-3 in the second game of the season. November 5th they lost at home to them by the score of 4-2 and they beat them on November 11th by the score of 5-2.

New Jersey Nets Week in Review

I know you are all thinking what is going on here with the basketball but I am getting a little help from a friend. I will reveal that information soon enough but for now I am going to be posting some basketball stuff for you NBA fans out there and to bring something else to the blog, to digress a little from baseball but of course I will continue to have daily coverage of the Mets and Yankees do don't worry for those not interested in basketball. Here is the recap of the New Jersey Nets week. The great news for the Nets was that they won a game this week. They also lost a game but who cares. They beat the Charlotte Bobcats on Tuesday night by the score of 104-93. It was the second time this season they have beaten Charlotte. It is pretty amazing considering they are 5-49 on the season. Courtney Lee was the high scorer for the Nets with 21 points. Brook Lopez scored 16 points before fouling out. Everything was back to normal again the next night when the Nets returned to their losing ways. Miami handed them a 87-84 loss at the Meadowlands. Dwayne Wade was injured in the first quarter and did not return to the game. Despite his absence the Nets were not able to take advantage. New Jersey had a 80-74 lead with 5 minutes left but Miami finished with a 13-4 run to close out the game. The Nets are now 5-49 and a embarrassing 29 1/2 games out of first place in the division. They are 22 games out of a playoff spot and what can you say except there is always the lottery and next season.

New York Knicks week in Review

This past week the Knicks played a home and home series with the Bulls and lost both games. Their record falls to 19-34 on the season and they are 7 1/2 games out of the playoffs. They only have 29 games left to play, they have lost 10 of their last 14 and the season seems to be slipping away. The first game against the Bulls on Tuesday saw the Bulls crush the Knicks by the score of 118-85. Derrick Rose proved to be too much to handle as he scored a game high 29 points. The Bulls were leading by 14 at the half and pulled away in the third quarter by taking a commanding 95-68 lead. David Lee led the way for the Knicks with 24 points and 12 rebounds. The Knicks didn't fare much better on Wednesday night at the Garden. They blew a 15 point lead to lose once again to the Bulls. They lost 115-109, this extended their losing streak to 5 games. Rose led the bulls again with 27 points and All Harrington led the Knicks with 27 points. The Knicks were without Nate Robinson who was traded to the Celtics for Eddie House.

NFL Divisional Round Playoffs

The Divisional round of the NFL playoffs will begin tomorrow. The Arizona Cardinals will be in New Orleans to take on the Saints and then in prime time tomorrow night the Baltimore Ravens will be in Indianapolis to take on the Colts. Sunday will have the New York Jets at San Diego Chargers and Dallas Cowboys at Minnesota Vikings. I was 1-3 with my picks last week so I am hoping for better luck this week. Here are my picks: I am going to go with New Orleans over the Arizona Cardinals. I think this could be another high scoring game, I just don't think Arizona will be able to stop the Saints. If there are turnovers that will definitely be huge in this game. I will go with Saints 35 Cardinals 31 I am going to go with the Colts over the Ravens. I just don't think the Ravens are that good and the Colts will be looking to shutup their critics. The Colts are a great team and I don't think the layoff will hurt them at all. I think they will be able to put up enough points and the Ravens don't have a great offense. I will go with the Colts 24 Ravens 14 I think the New York Jets have a shot against the Chargers and it should be a good game. I think this will definitely come down to turnovers in this one. I think even the Jets will have a hard time stopping this offensive machine. I think they can slow them down but won't be able to shut them down. I think the Chargers will be able to move the ball and beat the Jets. San Diego 28 New York 21. The Dallas Cowboys are really rolling now and the Vikings come in to the playoffs limping. They only won their last game against the Giants who were just horrible in that last game. The Giants didn't even show up. I think the Vikings will be rusty and the Cowboys are playing as well as anyone right now. The Cowboys defense has been a force to be reckoned with. I am going with Dallas 24 Minnesota 17.