Welcome to the FanDuel NHL Blue Line Power Plays column for Tuesday, March 14th addition. We will offer some top plays for Tuesday night’s hockey action, and find value picks for affordability. Salaries discussed in this article are set by FanDuel for Tuesday.
First, we start with an alert. Please keep in mind the Jets at Devils game is postponed due to a winter storm tonight. As of the time of writing this article, you could still pick those players for your line as if they’re starting. Make sure you avoid those player because you will receive 0 points for those picks tonight.
Even with the postponement, there’s still eight games on the NHL schedule. We’re only going to focus on five games to build our lineup and stack some positions with the same team, and favorable match ups. Here’s a look at the games we’re targeting:
Islanders at Hurricanes (7pm ET)
Lightening at Senators (7:30pm ET)
Maple Leafs at Panthers (7:30pm ET)
Stars at Oilers (9pm ET)
Sabres at Sharks (10:30pm ET)
The Oilers are heavily favored against the stars on home ice, so we’re likely going to stack a lot of Edmonton players. We also like the Leafs in Florida, Sharks on home ice, Lightening, and Hurricanes. We’re going to start in Edmonton with a center stack of Oilers:
Next: Top Centers
Top Centers
The Dallas stars have struggled all season to defend their side of the blue line and scores between the pipes. The Stars are typically even worse on the road. Tonight, the Stars are visiting an offensive juggernaut, the Oilers, in Edmonton.
With the Oilers lined up for a favorable match up tonight, we’re going to stack our center picks with top line lead, and leading Oilers scorer, Connor McDavid ($8,600). For our second pick, we’re going to grab Ryan Nugent-Hopkins ($4,600) from the Oilers second line.
McDavid has two goals and two assists in the last five games. Connor was quiet on Sunday, only provided 3.2 FanDuel NHL points against a touch Candadiens team, and tough goal tending. Tonight, McDavid should bounce-back.
Nugent-Hopkins hasn’t been on a hot streak, but could start one tonight. Ryan has almost four shots on goal in the last four games. On February 28th in Saint Louis, Nugent-Hopkins only had one shot on goal, but provided two assists in the game, totaling 18.1 FanDuel NHL points. This should be another double-digit night for Ryan.
Next: Top Wings
Top Wings
We’re going to complete our Oilers stack immediately at the wing position, adding Leon Draisaitl ($6,400) and Jordan Eberle ($5,200). Like Connor and Ryan, Leon is another incredible young and talented player on the Oilers. These three players should yield incredible Oilers seasons in the future.
Over the past four games, Draisaitl only had two assists, which is actually pretty quiet for him this season. Tonight, he should bounce back with such a juicy match up on home ice, and start another hot streak.
At 26-years-old, Eberle is actually the veteran of the group. Jordan had been on a tear in late February, dropping nearly 15 FanDuel NHL points-per-game in our lineups. But after a one-goal game in March, Eberle cooled off against the Islanders, Penguins, and Canadiens. Jordan should bounce back tonight as well.
Ondrej Palat ($5,000) is the sole lightening player we’re using in our lineup. In the last three games, Ondreg has a goal and two assists, and should continue to stay hot in Ottawa tonight. Palat is playing on the Bolts top line, one of the hottest lines in the NHL now.
Finally, completing our winger positions is Teuvo Teravainen ($4,500). Teuvo has been scolding hot lately, with two goals and two assists over the last five games for the Canes. He’s had roughly 15 FanDuel NHL points-per-game in that time, a tremendous value for only $4.5K. His roll should continue on home ice against the Islanders tonight.
Next: Top Defense
Top Defense
We have some cash to burn, and Brent Burns ($8,000) is on home ice tonight so this is a no-brainer. Burns is one of the top scoring NHL FanDuel options all season.
On March 9th, Brent had three assists leading to a 29.8 FanDuel NHL point night. That’s what I call fairly usual for Burns this year. He’s an incredible talent and top scoring defender, who’s on the ice nearly 25 minutes per game. Burns is worth the salary.
For value, we’re going to grab Canes top line defender, Jaccob Slavin ($3,900). The Hurricanes just played the Islanders in New York last night. In that game, Slavin had a hat-trick (three goals), an assist, three shots on goal, a short-handed goal, and a blocked shot.
In total, Jaccob had an incredible 52.4 FanDuel NHL points in one night. That’s an insane return on a sub-$4K value. I don’t expect the same result tonight, but Slavin is likely to stay hot against the same team.
Next: Top Goalie
Top Goalie
Originally, I wanted to grab Talbot because I liked his match up. But Cam has struggled lately. Another team with a good match up is the Maple Leafs in Florida, and Frederik Andersen ($8,700) minding the net there tonight for the Leafs.
Mostly because the Maple Leafs allow a lot of shots on goal, Andersen has been able to picking up a large amount of saves this year. In the last two games, Frederik had 36 total saves each game. In the last five games, Andersen only had one game below 33 saves, and had a 3-2 record.
So with so many save opportunities, Frederik is getting 15-20 FanDuel NHL points, even with losses. When winning, Andersen is averaging over 30 FanDuel NHL points. That’s what we’re shooting for tonight.
Always check NHL lineups throughout the day when playing FanDuel NHL. The NHL isn’t overly forthcoming with injury news, and players are often scratched at the last-minute with little information. Also, goaltenders are never a sure-thing. Follow us on twitter, @fantasycpr, for updates as we get closer to lineup lock time. Good Luck today FanDuelers!