FanDuel NHL Blue Line Power Plays: November 8
By Matt Rogers
Welcome back to the FanDuel NHL Blue Line Power Plays column, for Wednesday, November 8th. We’re a daily fantasy hockey column focused on top FanDuel NHL plays for your lineups each day.
After a robust nine games on Tuesday night, the NHL schedule settles down to a three-game slate for Wednesday. But all three games have great match ups, and two of the three games are broadcast on the NBC Sports Network. This slate offers plenty of top goalie talent, making offensive picks challenging, but there’s also opportunity with some net minders taking a night off.
Here’s a look at the NHL schedule for Wednesday, November 8th:
Wild at Maple Leafs (7:30pm ET)
Bruins at Rangers (8pm ET NBC SN)
Lightening at Sharks (10:30pm ET NBC SN)
Last night was a rough one for this column. We recommended veteran Mike Smith who was defending in goal against the Canucks. But while Vancouver was on the road in Calgary, they had no problem getting five goals past Smith. Mike ended the night with -7.2 FanDuel NHL points, decimating our lineups.
T.J. Bodie had a solid 11.7 points on a cheap salary of only $4,6K last night, but Nick Leddy only got us an additional 4.8 points. Connor Sheary was a decent value, landing over 11 FanDuel NHL points in a wing spot for $5.4K, and Jordan Eberle tried to get back at his old team by scoring a goal and piling up over 18 points, but the Islanders stack fell flat, with John Tavares and Anders Lee each quiet for the night. It was a rough night, but we have a great opportunity to bounce back on Wednesday.
As always, we’ll look to update our picks and final lineups prior to lock on our twitter account @FantasyCPR so make sure to give us a follow for all the late breaking lineup news.
Now let’s start building our lineups by looking at the top centers for this slate…
Top FanDuel NHL Centers: Nov 8th
It’s enticing to grab Steven Stamkos ($8,600) for your top pick at center tonight. Stamkos leads the NHL in total points, with 25, has seven goals and 18 assists. Steven is averaging well over 20 FanDuel NHL points-per-game, and the Bolts are the highest scoring team in the NHL. However, tonight they’re in San Jose, facing one of the hottest goalies in the NHL, Martin Jones. He’s only giving up 1.98 goals per game, likely limiting Stamkos FanDuel NHL point total tonight. So you’re risking $8,600 for a potential single-digit point return.
In stead, we should grab Auston Matthews ($8,200) or Mika Zibanejad ($7,400). Mika is tied with Taylor Hall and Connor McDavid with 17 total points, including eight goals and nine assists. The Rangers are facing a historically tough Rask in goal tonight, but he’s struggling this season, making Zinbanejad one of the best picks at center tonight.
Matthews is doing slightly better than Mike, and is manning the top line of the Leafs, which is currently second in scoring among all NHL teams. Auston has nine assists and ten goals, tied for 5th in the NHL in total points, with 19. Matthews is more of a goal-scoring threat and is facing an inexperienced Stalock in net for the Wild. Between the two, we’re more willing to find a way to pay up for Matthews.
In fact, while the Rangers may be a great offensive play tonight, the best offensive teams with the most ideal match up are both playing in Toronto. The Leafs Andersen is getting peppered with shots on goal each game, and is giving up around 3.5 per game. Meanwhile, the Leafs offense is second in the NHL in scoring, and is facing the Wild’s backup goalie, at home in Toronto.
With that in mind, stacking Matthews with Nazem Kadri ($5,800) or the Wild’s top-line leader Eric Staal ($6,500) really inflates your value at the position. Also, there are plenty of lower salary wings you can stack with these centers. If you stack Kadri with Matthews though, you’re narrowing your Leafs options for Wing or Defense to only two more players. So picking Staal, allows you to plug in three more, from each team, in wing and defense.
Now let’s take a look at the wings we want to stack along with our centers…
Top FanDuel NHL Wings: Nov 8th
Aside from Nikita Kucherov ($8,900), there are many top plays for cash games at wing tonight. Marchand didn’t travel to New York with the Bruins, so you can immediately scratch him off your list. And while I like David Pastrnak ($7,400) in most situations, not tonight against Lundqvist.
We already talked about how we’re fading the Bolts visit to San Jose, so that draws our attention to Mikael Granlund ($6,700). Mika doesn’t play with Staal on the first regular line, but he does man the second line and first power play unit with Mikko Koivu ($5,800). Between Granlund and Koivu, Mika is the more likely to score, and Mikko is more likely to provide the assists. So stacking Staal from the Wild first line with Granlund on their second, give you exposure to the vast majority of the Wild’s scoring tonight.
Speaking of the Wild’s top power play unit, Nino Niederreiter ($4,900) also plays with Granlund and Koivu on their top power play unit, but plays with Staal during their regular time. Adding Niederreiter is a great third Wild chip to cast a wide net on their offense tonight.
Looking back to our Matthews top-line pick from the Leafs, I love to stack Zach Hyman ($4,500) with Auston as a cheap value play. Hyman spends 17 to 22 minutes per game on the ice, gets several shots on goal each game, some blocks, and is often involved in scoring from Matthews. At some point, Hyman’s salary is going to start climbing. Until then, we’ll continue to stack him with Matthews.
While we’ve mostly focused on the Wild and Maple Leafs for offense, we still like the Rangers odds of scoring as well. Rick Nash ($6,200) is one of the hottest Rangers on offense right now, landing two goals and three assists, including a power play goal, over the last five Rangers games.
Nash also spends 17+ minutes of his game-time on the ice, and isn’t afraid to fire at the net several times per game. When involved in scoring, he’s more likely to land around 20+ FanDuel NHL points, a decent return for his price $6.2K salary.
Top FanDuel NHL Defenders: Nov 8th
Brent Burns ($7,400) and Victor Hedman ($6,400) are always top options when on the ice, and they’re both playing tonight. However, from a DFS perspective, Hedman and Burns are more valuable for blocked shots tonight, and likely won’t yield enough offensive points to justify their salary. If you’re going to spend big on defense, we should start with Kevin Shattenkirk ($6,100).
Kevin was outstanding for the Blues last season, but after being traded to the Capitals during their playoff push, Shattenkirk seemed to back off his aggressive play. Kevin didn’t gel well with the Caps system, and ended up signing with the Rangers, we’re he’s blossoming again.
Through 16 games, Kevin is averaging over 14 FanDuel NHL points-per-game and has three goals, a power play goal, and an assist in his last two games. In fact, Shattenkirk has a goal or assist in each of the last five Rangers games. With a good match up tonight, he’s a great play.
Looking back to the Wild and Leaf stacks, there are tons of value options. Starting with the top line for the Leafs, Morgan Rielly ($4,800) has been very productive over the last five games, and is averaging around 12 FanDuel NHL points-per-game. Rielly is often paired with Ron Hainsey ($3,700), who isn’t as active in the scoring. But when Hainsey provides a helper, or two, like he has over the last couple of weeks, Ron is a very cheap way to get double-digit points.
Jake Gardiner ($4,600) and Nikita Zaitsev ($4,300) are two more value picks from the Leafs, and a great way to get exposure to their other lines, along with man advantage opportunities.
From the Wild, Ryan Suter ($5,200) and Jared Spurgeon ($4,700) may seem more pricey, but they’re both landing around 13 FanDuel NHL points-per-game, as the two top-line defenders are more involved in scoring than the Maple Leafs defenders. If possible, try to stack Spurgeon and Suter together, or at least split one with a Leafs defender.
Top FanDuel NHL Goalies: Nov 8th
Andrei Vasilevskiy ($9,400) is the most expensive goal tender on Wednesday night. Vasilevskiy is 11-1-1 and the most likely to provide the 12 FanDuel NHL points for a win. Also, the Lightening are currently first in the NHL with 3.87 offensive goals-per-game. So with those odds, Andrei is an attractive option.
However, Vasilevskiy is giving up 2.52 goals per game, 14th in the NHL. That may not seem bad, but he’s facing the Sharks Martin Jones ($8,900) in San Jose. Jones is only giving up 1.98 goals per game, second in the NHL among all goalies. And while Martin has a 7-3 record, two of those losses were the first two games of the year, before the Sharks went on their current tear through the NHL. I don’t like either of these goalies in this match up, because it’s very difficult to predict who gets the 12-point win.
Toronto is hosting the Wild, and the Maple Leafs will have Federik Andersen in net. Andersen can sometimes be a good option, because he takes so many shots, and gets many saves. However, Federik is also letting 3.43 goals in per game 32nd in the NHL. Andersen also has an 8-6 record.
He does have a solid shot at a win, but the Wild will have a relief appearance from Alex Stalock ($7,400). He’ll face the top offense in the NHL, with the Leafs currently scoring just under four goals per game. In what looks like a potential shootout, I’m fading both goalies and targeting their offense.
That leaves us with Tuukka Rask ($8,200) and the Bruins visiting Henrik Lundqvist ($8,500) and the Rangers in New York. Rask is struggling to start this season, with only three wins in nine starts, and giving up nearly three goals per game. The Rangers are scoring well over three goals per game, and Lundqvist is hot, winning each of his last four games, and piling up nearly 30 saves in each game. Of all of the options tonight, Henrik is our best bet for a win, and should land us above 20 FanDuel NHL points with 25 to 30 saves.
So, after reviewing all of our favorite options, here’s an example of a lineup we put together for Nov 8th FanDuel NHL:
C Matthews (TOR $8,200)
C Staal (MIN $6,500)
W Granlund (MIN $6,700)
W Hyman (TOR $4,500)
W Nash (NYR $6,200)
W Niederreiter (MIN $4,900)
D Rielly (TOR $4,800)
D Spurgeon (MIN $4,700)
G Lundqvist (NYR $8,500)
Note: This is a recommended lineup after discussing our top options for the week. You should use this as a guide, and provide your own input when building FanDuel NHL lineups. We are not telling you, or selling you, to use this lineup.
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