Now that the NFL season is winding down, daily fantasy players can now turn all their attention to the sports that actually happen daily. The NBA daily fantasy community is huge and filled with fantastic information. The great untapped DFS game, in my opinion, is the NHL. NHL fantasy is similar than NBA in that we are looking for the same Time=opportunity situation and in constant connection with injury news to see which value plays just got upgraded. Fanduel just announced The World Fantasy Hockey Championship, a live event that follows in the footsteps of the NFL and NBA championships, so now would be a great time to get into NHL daily fantasy.
Goalies
Full slate of games means a full slate of Goalies to choose from. Pekka Rinne vs Carolina is a solid play tonight. He is a huge favorite in a game set at 5 goals. Rinne sports a .929 SV% allowing only two goals a game. Carolina scores less than two goals a game. He let 6 by him last game in LA and should bounce back nicely at home against a bad offense. Corey Crawford vs Colorado may be a sure thing tonight. He has given up some goals in the last few games but that was against Nashville, Washington, and Dallas, three pretty good offenses. This year against Colorado Crawford is 2-0 allowing only 2 goals in each start. Cory Schneider vs Buffalo or anyone against Buffalo. They can’t score and the Devils play well at home in low scoring games. The Devils don’t score that much either, just over 2 goals per game but should get a win at home. Jimmy Howard vs Edmonton is lining up to be another fine play this evening. Continuing to target bottom barrel offenses is never a bad idea and the Oilers are just above the two goals line. Howard hasn’t let more that two goals by in the last 10 games except for once, and has a .921 SV% on the season. The Red Wings have won 13 of the last 15 games against the Oilers and out scored them last year 7-1.
Centers
Tyler Seguin, expensive everywhere as usual, but has one of the best match ups of the night. If you want a value play from Dallas at Center then go with Jason Spezza as his line has been as hot as the Seguin, Benn, and Sceviour line as of late. Pavel Datsyuk is way to cheap on DK, at 5.5K they are just giving him away and his match up tonight is a juicy one. Both Oiler goalies are terrible and should let the Red Wings score a few. Exposure to their top line and PP at that price for Datsyuk is a steal. The Blues are expected to roll over the Coyotes this evening and if they do T.J. Oshie will most likely be involved. He is on a 5 game point streak and is coming off of a Hat Trick game. David Backes is on the same line for a bit cheaper, so if you want exposure for less you can, but Oshie is a red hot player on a red hot team right now you want to play. Tyler Johnson is in the top 5 in points in the NHL in a game that should go over the 5.5 line. These have been high scoring affairs in the past and I’ll take Johnson over Stammer on the road and at the discount.
Wingers
Flip Forsberg is a good value across the industry. His line with Riberio and Smith are still one of the highest scoring in the league. Vegas thinks Nashville will score 3 times, while I’m not targeting the Preds offense like crazy tonight I will have exposure to the top line and mostly Flip. I like Jason Pominville tonight as well. The Sharks v Wild game has a low total, but the Wild should be able to come up with a goal or two at home. Pominville has scoring a point in every home game this year, I expect tonight to be no different. Jamie Benn is a lot cheaper than Tyler Seguin and the two of them have hooked up for the moist point pairs in all the NHL. Grab some exposure to Dallas tonight. Coming back to the Blues again you have some good choices. Jaden Schwartz, Alexander Steen, and Tarasenko have all been on a roll with the rest of the Blues offense. Schwartz is the hottest of the three and in most cases the least expensive. From the Montreal and Tampa Bay game I would grab Max Pacioretty who should lead most of the point chances Montreal has.
Defense
Kevin Shattenkirk because were stacking our Blues tonight and cause he is on ALL of the Blues PP. Linesman switch out and it seems Shattenkirk is in on all the PP minutes. Jonny Boychuk has been heating up lately and has been put back into the top power play unit and he has a point per game in his last four. His price isn’t rising as fast as his production so get him before it goes back up. Niklas Kronwall is another value defender in a good position. He is on the top PP unit and has been getting upwards of 25 minutes a game over the last week. Trevor Daley, another great value with a low floor. He gets PP time, takes 3-5 shots per game and has a blocked shot or two each game. Safe floor and if he assists in a PP goal or two you’ll really be sitting on a good play. Victor Hedman is getting back to his play from the seasons start, scoring 6 points in the last 3 games. If the Montreal and Tampa Bay game goes in to the 5-7 goal range Hedman will be a part of it.
Stacks
Just like in MLB, a stack can be an effective way to take down a tourney. The most success I’ve had in this is stacking an entire Power Play Unit. Tonight I’m stacking the Red Wings, Blues, and Blackhawks. You may want to find space for the most scoring line in all of hockey which is the Palat, Johnson, and Kucherov line from the Lightning. I think they have a tough match up tonight but they seem to find ways to score. Good Luck Tonight Grinders and take a shot at Fanduels First Ever Live Hockey Championship.
