Whether you’re interested for fantasy hockey reasons or just want to know which goalie your team is playing in a given day, we thought it might be helpful to share our best guesses (based on various previews from newspapers and Web sites plus our own instincts) on who might start each day.
7:00 pm ET games
New Jersey @ Pittsburgh
Likely New Jersey starter: Johan Hedberg - It sounds like Martin Brodeur is almost ready to return from his elbow injury, but for now, Hedberg will still be the main in net for New Jersey. (Source.)
Likely Pittsburgh starter: Marc-Andre Fleury - Of course. (Source.)
Toronto @ Washington
Likely Toronto starter: Jonas Gustavsson - J.S. Giguere is injured, so “The Monster” gets to cement his status as the Leafs starter once again. His reward: a potential meltdown against the Capitals. (Source.)
Likely Washington starter: Michal Neuvirth - One of the underrated strengths of the Capitals is their young, cheap and talented group of netminders. They can’t really go wrong with either Neuvirth or Semyon Varlamov right now. (Source.)
Nashville @ Atlanta
Likely Nashville starter: Anders Lindback - Lindback is performing admirably with Pekka Rinne on the mend. (Source.)
Likely Atlanta starter: Ondrej Pavelec - Pavelec came up huge against the Washington Capitals in his last start and is absolutely on fire right now. This is another nice opportunity for the goalie to keep up his strong play, although the Predators are far from pushovers. (Source.)
Dallas @ Columbus
Likely Dallas starter: Kari Lehtonen - The Stars are on a six game winning streak and Lehtonen is one of the key components considering the fact that Dallas won each of those games by one goal. (Andrew Raycroft has been surprisingly stout in two of those wins as well, though.) (Source.)
Likely Columbus starter: Mathieu Garon - The Blue Jackets are stumbling, but Garon has been absolutely fantastic at times this season. He might be the person to right the ship rather than Steve Mason. (Source.)
7:30 pm ET game
San Jose @ Detroit
Likely San Jose starter: Antti Niemi - A bit of a surprise that Niemi is getting three starts in a row, although he did recently earn a shutout so maybe the Sharks brass are thinking/praying that he figured things out. (Source.)
Likely Detroit starter: Jimmy Howard (Source.)
