March 6, 2025 Game of the Day Recap
Canadiens 2 – Oilers 3
A battle between two Canadian teams on the ice I have learned makes for everyone’s viewing pleasure. This game was a battle until the very end and we even got some free hockey, as the game went into overtime. The Oilers snapped the Canadiens 5 game win streak and won their second game in their last 8. With there being less than 20 games left in the season, getting back into a groove is what Edmonton will need with the playoffs around the corner. They would hold a playoff spot if the playoffs started today, but seeding will be important for them. This game should give the Oilers momentum, and hopefully steer them clear of continuing to fall down the standings. Montreal is not in a playoff spot as of now, so they will need to recover from this loss and go right back to their ways of the past 3 weeks.
The Canadiens are a fun team with a lot of fire that I am excited to watch as the playoffs become near. They might be near the top of my list for a favorite team, since I have not picked one yet. They don’t have anyone like Connor McDavid or Leon Draisaitl who is an absolute superstar, but the guys they do have work so well together.
The first period started getting chippy with these two rivals. Edmonton led out the scoring via the stick of Corey Perry in this period. Perry was also an instigator in a few shoving matches early on. To capitalize off of that, for the first time of the night, Cole Caufield, for the Canadiens, scored a sweet unassisted goal with just under 5 minutes left in the quarter. This was one of the cooler goals I had seen in my hockey viewing this year as he had just came in the game and got a steal right away that led to a score.
The second is where we got to see more of a McDavid-Draisaitl line that intrigues me so much. Each one of them needs so much attention that the second a wrong move is made by the other team, the puck gets swung to one or the other and a goal gets made. This one getting the Oilers up very early into the second period.
Yet again, the Canadiens responded before the end of the period to send the game into the third all tied up. This goal was nice teamwork by the team in transition, as Joel Armia found his spot in the middle of the ice and Lane Hutson found him for a perfect play. All this leads to the third period and the ensuing overtime.
Nothing was getting by either goalie in the period as both teams did not necessarily need this game, but a win for either goes a long way. Especially in an East vs West game with Canadian based teams. With almost a full overtime played, it was eerily similar to that of period 3. Edmonton went with Draisaitl and McDavid on the same line for this period and with under 10 seconds to go, this line scored the victory for the Oilers. Scored by Evan Bouchard and assisted by both McDavid and Draisaitl, this is all I could have asked for in the game. Two goals coming from a line with the two best positional players in the game is poetry. It would be similar to that of watching Shohei Ohtani and Mookie Betts hit a home run in the same game.
For a small recap of all of that, the Canadiens looked good and are close to the top of my list when it comes to choosing a favorite. Watching the best hockey players in the world play, never gets old, and I am ready for an Oilers-Jets game to see those two, McDavid and Draisaitl, on offense against Connor Hellebuyck. This game will be on March 20 and it will be featured.
March 7, 2025 Game of the Day Preview
Dayton – VCU
VCU can claim an outright regular season conference title with a win tonight against Dayton, who is 4 games back from first. Their conference tournament will start next Wednesday and go through Sunday the 16th. I think the A10 might be able to get 5 teams in the tournament, as long as none have horrible losses in the coming days. VCU should be around a 4 or 5 seed and Dayton should be anywhere from 7-9 seed in the NCAA tournament.
VCU is in a good stretch of games right now with 9 wins in a row up to this point, with their last game against Dayton in February being a part of this streak. Dayton is on a smaller stretch of 3 wins themselves. VCU leads the series since 2022 with 5 wins and 3 losses in this matchup. They have the all time series lead with 16 wins and 9 losses.
The offensive capabilities of both teams are almost identical. 2 players around 14-15 points a game, with the other 3 of the top 5 hovering right around 10 points. The Seasonal assist and rebounding numbers are also close. This makes me unsure as to why VCU is favored by 9.5 points. I will be taking Dayton +9.5 for what should be a great game and down to the wire for the last regular season A10 game for these teams.
