FanDuel NHL Blue Line Power Plays: November 13

Welcome to the FanDuel NHL Blue Line Power Plays column for Monday, November 13th.  We’re a daily fantasy hockey column focused on top FanDuel NHL plays for your lineups each day.

The NHL continues on Monday night, but with a lighter schedule, only two games on the slate.  But these smaller slates are often the most fun to play, and typically yield better results for committed FanDuel NHL players.

We have a limited amount of goalies, making our goalie pick easy, and we can narrow down our offensive picks quickly.  Also, for any GPP plays, we’ll simply want to fade our cash lineup.

Here’s a look at the NHL schedule for Monday, November 13th:

Stars at Hurricanes (7pm ET)

Blues at Flames (9pm ET)

We’ll dive deeper into the goalie match ups later, but for right now it looks like Mike Smith will be defending the net for the Flames in Calgary, against a red-hot Blues team, with Jake Allen manning the twine.  And former Blackhawks net minder Scott Darling will be in goal for the Hurricanes, in Carolina, who is hosting Ben Bishop and the Dallas Stars.

Among these four teams, the least active in scoring this season has been the Flames, who aren’t far behind the Hurricanes, with only 2.63 offensive goals per game.  But the Flames have been hot lately.

Meanwhile the Blues are the hottest team on the ice tonight, scoring 3.11 goals per game, 12th in the NHL so far this season.  The Stars are also scoring nearly three goals per game, but aren’t defending as well as the Blues, who have only given up 2.44 goals per game.  But for offense, the Blues and the Stars seem to be the top teams to stack tonight.

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 13th

Tyler Seguin ($8,500) is are most expensive option at center tonight.  The Dallas Stars stud is averaging over 17 FanDuel NHL points-per-game, so it’s not surprising he’s so expensive.  But Seguin is also a popular pick, likely inflating his salary a bit.

But before you jump on Seguin and plug him into your lineup, keep in mind the Stars have been tinkering with their lines, and Tyler is no longer playing with Benn on the top line.  Instead, Seguin is centering the Stars second line, which includes Devin Shore ($3,900) and Mattias Janmark ($3,600).  Mattias is averaging over nine FanDuel NHL points-per-game, and Devin is averaging just under eight per game.  With Tyler leading this line, Shore and Janmark each have fantastic value and should be used at center to leverage the rest of your lineup.

With a few Dallas Stars already on our radar for our lineup, we’ll turn our attention to the other top offense of the day, the Blues.  Since being traded from the Flyers, Brayden Schenn ($6,700) has gelled very well with the Blues top line.  Over the last four games, Schenn has two goals and seven assists, and is now averaging over 15 FanDuel NHL points-per-game.  If you can afford him, and he’s a great match with Shore or Janmark, Schenn is a great pick tonight.

For a cheaper Blues option, you’ll want to go with Paul Stastny ($5,300).  Before Schenn arrived, Stastny was previously paired with the Blues star at win, Tarasenko.  Now on the Blues second line, Paul is still paired with some top offensive talent, and is averaging over ten FanDuel NHL points-per-game.  Also, Stastny gets plenty of time with the man advantage for the Blues.

To make stacking Blues and Stars possible with one of their goalies, or in the case that you’re looking for GPP options, Jordan Staal ($5,400) is leading the Hurricanes top line against Bishop tonight.  Staal is averaging over 11 FanDuel NHL points-per-game, and has four goals in the Canes last six games.

Now let’s take a look at the wings we want to stack along with our centers…

Top FanDuel NHL Wings: Nov 13th

With the Blues and Stars targeted for stacking, we have plenty of great options at wing, but the trick is going to be affordability.  Jamie Benn ($8,300) is leading the Stars top line tonight, and until last week had been on a cold scoring streak.  But in his last two games, he picked up a power play goal against the Jets, and registered an assist against the Islanders on Friday night.  Assuming Benn is going to be activity firing on net against the Hurricanes tonight, Jamie is one of a few must-plays we’re targeting at wing tonight.

Johnny Gaudreau ($7,600) is one of my favorite NHL players to watch, but against Jake Allen tonight, we’re fading him.  Jaden Schwartz ($7,100) is going to play with Schenn and Vladimir Tarasenko ($8,300) on the Blues top line.

But Schwartz has been inconsistent, and we’d rather target Schenn at center, and an expensive Tarasenko at wing.  Vlad is arguably the best player on the ice tonight, averaging nearly 18.5 FanDuel NHL points-per-game.  While Tarasenko was quiet against the Islanders on Saturday, he had been on a hot scoring streak for a week, and still managed to get five shots on goal for 8 FanDuel NHL points.  Tarasenko seems like another ‘must play’ with this match up.

We need to keep some room on our lineup for two more Blues players at defense and goalie, so we’re going to focus on the Stars for the rest of the wing picks.  Fortunately, Alexander Radulov ($6,400) and Gemel Smith ($3,100) are both listed as wings, and are each playing with Benn on the Stars top line tonight.  Given Smith’s incredible value, a seven point average on a top scoring line for only $3.1K, it’s not difficult to stack the Stars top line with Tarasenko, and still leave plenty of cash available to add some top picks on defense and at goalie.

If you’re looking to stack some guys with the Canes Staal, it’s best to stay on their top line and grab the young talented Sebastian Aho ($5,900) and veteran Teuvo Teravainen ($4,800).

Top FanDuel NHL Defenders: Nov 13th

We’ve been riding Alex Pietrangelo ($6,400) nearly every night he’s been on the ice this season.  Alex is averaging around 17 FanDuel NHL points-per-game, incredible for the defensive position.  Over the last four games, Pietrangelo has three goals, several shots on goal each game, and at least one block per game.  Alex is on the ice between 25 and 30 minutes per game, and is consistently logging solid FanDuel NHL points each game.

If you’re fading the Blues, or can’t quite afford Pietrangelo, flip to John Klingberg ($6,300).  He’s only $100 cheaper, but you’re getting nearly the same production from Klingberg, as we’ve seen from Pietrangelo.  If you need a cheaper top line Stars defender, Esa Lindell ($4,200) is an underrated but consistent double-digit FanDuel NHL point scorer.

Sticking with the theme of consistent FanDuel NHL scoring each game, Jaccob Slavin ($4,300) is averaging nearly 25 minutes of time on the ice each game, and nearly ten FanDuel NHL points-per-game.  Slavin is a solid top pick at defense for GPP, or Hurricane stacking options.  He also helps you mix up your line if you’re stacking Stars and Blues tonight.

Top FanDuel NHL Goalies: Nov 13th

Hopefully the -4.8 FanDuel NHL point result from Saturday scares off many players from plugging in Jake Allen ($8,800) into their lineups.  Allen had an ugly game on Saturday, giving up four goals on only 18 shots.  But that is very well below Jake’s average on the season, and it’s unlikely we’ll see the same result from Allen again tonight.  Among our four starters tonight, Allen is the clear favorite, and has the best match up, against a Flames team struggling to score this season.

If you’re fading Allen, or looking for a good GPP goalie play, Flames veteran goalie Mike Smith ($8,400) is your best option.  Playing Smith makes me nervous because the Blues have hot young scoring talent on the ice, but Mike is also one of the most underrated goalies in the NHL this season, due to this several years in Arizona before coming to Calgary this season.

Smith had a couple of tough losses, including to the Canucks in Calgary last week.  But Mike’s also logged some great wins against the Red Wings, Devils, Penguins, and Capitals over the last two weeks.

Scott Darling is probably the worst option at goalie tonight, making Ben Bishop ($8,600) also someone attractive.  Bishop struggling with his save percentage this year, but he just shutout the Islanders last Friday, and is one of the two most likely goalies to get the 12 FanDuel NHL points for the win tonight.

So, after reviewing all of our favorite options, here’s an example of a lineup we put together for Nov 13th FanDuel NHL:

C    Staal (CAR $5,400)     

C    Shore (DAL ($3,900)

W   Benn (DAL $8,300)

W   Tarasenko (STL $8,300)

W   Radulov (DAL $6,400)

W   Smith (DAL $3,100)

D    Pietrangelo (STL $6,400)

D    Slavin (CAR $4,300)

G    Allen (STL $8,800)

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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