DraftKings just announced the Fantasy Hockey World Championship and the qualifiers began tonight. They are also running the $60K Breakaway that has a $100 buy in and has a $10,000 dollar top prize so you can use they same line up for both or multiple line ups for both if you wish but it is highly recommended. I don’t know how many line ups during the Millionaire Maker series of people who won their $2 to $10 buy in tournament and would have won some big money in a larger buy in tournament. Don’t let this be you! Throw that extra chance in if you feel confident about your line ups. Obviously you want to play cash games and monitor your bankroll, which I shouldn’t preach about it’s my biggest weakness as a player and I assume this for most, but on qualifier days that’s the only thing I’m shooting for. This article is going to be focused on tourney plays from each game to see if we can’t hit up Las Vegas in March. These are tourney plays so they are a little off the board for that reason and remember there’s nothing wrong with throwing in a few cash style players others will have. On most nights you only need a guy like Perreault who is low owned and goes off to win because you played a few guys that have the floor you need.
Goalies
Petr Mrazek (7,300) – You may look at this and go, but wait he is up against the Blues who have been scoring like crazy and control the top spot in PP%. During their stretch they haven’t really played a top defensive team or one with the PK numbers the Red Wings have. Mrazek has been good on the road where most of his starts this season have come and he has preformed admirably. He is 5-2-0 on the road with a .92o SV% allowing 2.29 GAA. The Wings may be able to come in here and steal one against the Blues.
Semyon Varlamov (9,000) – The Panthers are reeling after the destruction by the Jets. They allowed 8 goals in that game and it looked like their defense just fell apart. I don’t expect that to happen again and this game will be close and Colorado pulled out a 3-2 victory in their last trip to Florida and this could be another sneak in on the road and take a victory. Colorado allows a ton of shots and if it wasn’t for this guy they would have a lot more losses. He is going to have a lot of save opportunities and if he allows two goals and gets 35-38 saves he’ll have a 7.5 DK point night and may be very low owned on the road.
Consideration: Tuukka Rask cause the Rangers got blanked and go on to another tough match up. Joni Ortio because of his price but he may be highly owned.
Centers
Brian Little (5,100) – The Jets have been on fire and the numbers are a little odd due to the 8 goal game against Florida and Perrault had the 4 goal game but going back to the consistency of little for now a 1,200 discount seems like a good deal. Dallas is in the bottom 5 in shots and goals allowed and I think everyone else will be paying up for the rest of the line because of the big game where Little didn’t stand out but Little has the upside tonight.
Pavel Datsyuk (5,700) – He is still way too cheap and we all know what he is capable of. In only 32 games he has scored two points or more in 9 of them. He is averaging almost a point a game now and even though they have a tough match up he has scored on them in the past and I don’t think anyone will be on Detroit at all tonight. The PP is solid and even if they lose 3-4 that’s still good for fantasy players.
Consideration: All the Stamkos at home, he is just really expensive and usually pretty popular but at this price I think people will go down to Go down and get Seguin for cheaper so pay up and be different.
Wingers
Jiri Hudler (4,500) – The Flames match up against this team well and due to their lack of flashy offenses they go under the radar quite often. The Flames will get chances to score tonight and during the season series Hudler has dominated with 6 points in three games. With people still gravitating towards teams like St. Louis, Dallas, and Tampa the Flames may go under looked tonight.
Ondrej Palat (5,100) – The injury to Tyler Johnson has opened up a little extra skate time and opportunity for a few of the other Lightning. Stamkos is expensive and people know his name so he gets picked up and Palat goes unnoticed. He has a 3 multi-point games in his last ten, plays top PP and along side Stamkos and Kucherov who are among the top scorers in all the NHL.
Consideration: Radim Vrbata, the Sedins pass to him and he puts it in. They have struggled to score recently however.
Defense
Brent Burns (6,700) – People don’t usually pay a huge price tag for defenders like this but Burns has 35 points to go along with 8 points in as many games and two multi-point nights. Need that kind of upside in a defender and paying this much is a turn off/low ownership. The Sharks are in a good spot hosting the roller coaster Leafs who allow more than 3 goals a game.
Anton Stralman (3,100) – Hedman is out and Stralman has been moved to the top PP unit for the Lightning. They score a lot at home and Stralman is going to get more time and opportunities just like Palat mentioned earlier. He is super cheap and has shown to be effective laying the puck off to Stammer. He could be in line for a night and at the price you can load up on the studs you want.
Consideration: Arron Ekblad cause he has been getting the shots and not putting them in, something has got to give.
Stacks
If you were one of those people who stacked the whole or most of the Jets power play two nights ago you’re probably sitting in your new car reading this. It will be popular but there is always the Minnesota PP stack vs Buffalo. Koivu/Parise/Pominville/Vanek/Suter is the top PP. They haven’t scored much lately but there’s nothing like a trip to Buffalo to solve your scoring problems. They put up 6 goals on them last time. Go a little contrarian and put up the guys who did most of the damage last time Coyle/Zucker/Niederreiter/Spurgeon/Brodin. Arizona has been blown up a few time recently have figured out how to slow it down but having no other option than Mike Smith out there I think stacking Flames isn’t a bad idea tonight either. They have been moving the lines around a bit but Backlund/Gaudreau/Jones/Wideman/Giordano. Canucks are up against Philly’s worst PP in the league and Emery is in net and he has struggled as of late. Burrows/Sedin x2/Vrbata/Edler. Stack your Tampa Bay and Edmonton game. Tampa has given up 11 goals in the last two and Edmonton should be able to keep it open. They showed up in the big games lately against the Hawks and Islanders so they can play up to the level they need to. Tampa has split up the PP time a bit with the injuries so there’s a Callahan/Killorn/Flippula/Drouin/Stralman and a Kucherov/Namestikov/Stamkos/Palat/Carle stack out there and for the Oilers Hall/Eberle/Nugent-Hopkins/Pouliot/Schultz.
Good Luck tonight Grinders!
