FanDuel NHL Blue Line Power Plays: December 20

Welcome back to the FanDuel NHL Blue Line Power Plays column, for Wednesday, December 20th.  We’re a daily fantasy hockey column focused on top FanDuel NHL plays for your lineups each day.

Yesterday had a huge slate of games, typically for Tuesday.  When there’s such a large amount of games, though, it can be more difficult to win FanDuel NHL GPP and Cash games due to the large number of lineup combination possibilities.  And last night, while we had some solid picks, we had several misses.

For the Tuesday ‘All Day’ slate, Frederik Andersen was a great pick in goalie, again.  He piled up 32 saves and took the win in a blowout 8-1 result for the Maple Leafs, who were hosting the Hurricanes.  Andersen should continue to be on everyone’s radar, as log as he’s likely starting.

But the top net-minder of the night was Anton Khudobin, who allowed the Bruins to continue to steamroller through their light pre-Christmas travel part of their schedule.  After Tuukka Rask and the Bruins blew out the Blue Jackets a few days ago, Boston gave Rask the night off, allowing the 31-year-old Russian veteran to tend the night in Buffalo last night.

Anton picked up where Rask left off, saving 36 shots for a win and 3-0 shutout of the Bruins.  In total, he piled up 48.8 FanDuel NHL points, one of the best results of the night.  If you played Khudobin, who had a cheap $7,400 salary, along with top scoring options like Nikolaj Ehlers, Micthell Marner, or Eric Stall, you had a great shot at GPP wins.

Ehlers, one of our favorite Jets targets this season, remains hot and provided 30.9 FanDuel NHL points on two goals.  Marner, the young Maple Leafs star, added one goal and two assists for 46.6 points.  And the Wild’s Eric Staal had two goals and one assist for 37.3.

All of these plays were affordable.  And some of the expensive options like Steven Stamkos, $8,300), also provided a goal and assist for over 25 FanDuel NHL points.  Victor Hedman, $5,800, wasn’t necessarily expensive but one of the more costly defensive pick, and added a goal and two assists for 37 points, remaining one of the hottest defenders this week.

Still, with John Carlson, also $5,800, we got an assist, four blocked shots, and three shots on goal for over 19 points.  Anders Lee was one of our mid-salary-range picks at wing for the Islanders, and he knocked in a goal for over 16 points.

But our favorite pick of he night, was the red-hot 21-year-old Swiss Predator Kevin Fiala.  For a reasonable $5,200 salary, and only 10-12% owned in most GPP plays, Kevin had a goal and assist for over 24 points.  Keep Fiala on your list of top picks until he cools off.

So we take what we learned last night, and move forward to a skinnier slate on Wednesday night.  Here’s a look at the NHL schedule for Wednesday, December 20th:

Maple Leafs at Blue Jackets (7:30pm ET)

Red Wings at Flyers (8pm ET NBC SN)

Blues at Flames (9:30pm ET)

These slates are often underrated.  There are only six teams on the ice, but that allows us to better focus on the top plays of the night, and there are some very interesting match ups to take advantage of here.

Ironcially, the Maple Leafs, Flyers, and Flames are all playing better lately, and they’re facing three teams who are battling there one of the worst periods of their season.  The Blue Jackets are a good team, and will eventually bounce-back, but they’ve given up seven goals in two of their last four games, and are 1-3 in that span.

After a strong start to the season, the Red Wings have only won three of their last ten games and they’re traveling to Philly to play a Flyers team who’s won six of their last seven.  And after a very strong offensive start to the year, the Blues have only scored three goals in their last four games, while giving up around three goals per game.

So we have some obvious targets for stacking 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 NHL DFS optimal lineup by looking at the top centers for this slate…

Top FanDuel NHL Centers: Dec 20th

FanDuel NHL has Auston Matthews listed as ‘out’ again tonight, with an upper body injury.  So he’s likely off the table tonight.  But keep an eye on his status as we approach game-time.  Matthews reportedly traveled to Columbus with the team.  That’s not necessarily unique, he’s done it before while injured, but it’s worth watching.  Auston is rumored to be getting close to getting back on the ice, and with the news that he’s traveling a short distance with the team tonight, there’s potential.  We could grab a low-owned top scorer right around lock time.

With Matthews aside, the top three scoring centers tonight are obvious.  Brayden Schenn ($7,100) should be a top pick, but he’s cooled off over the last four games, and faces a tough Mike Smith in goal on road ice.  Sean Monahan ($7,300) has nearly an identical situation to Scheen, slowing down and facing a tough Jake Allen.

We like the Flyers tonight, but Sean Couturier ($6,500) has also cooled off lately, mostly due to the shift of Jakub Voracek down to the second line.  So we don’t believe paying up for Sean is worth it.  And we’ll get to it later, but we don’t like the Red Wings offense tonight.

So, we’re now immediately looking at mostly value picks at center tonight.  We’ll admit, this is a risky approach, but paying up for the other options seems like a waste of salary tonight.

William Nylander ($5,300) has struggled this season.  One of the biggest problems with Nylander is his lack of defense, keeping him off of the ice.  But the Leafs seem to be more included to keep William on the ice lately, improving his chances of scoring, which is where he provides the most value for the team.

Last night on home ice, Nylander played for 16 minutes, had four shots on goal, and a goal to provide FanDuel NHL players with 18.4 FanDuel NHL points.  And as we saw last season, William is capable of greater.  With the Blue Jackets struggling lately, we’re going to take a flier on Nylander tonight.

While we think the Blue Jackets still struggle tonight, we’re also betting their offense will bounce back against the Leafs backup goalie on home ice.  Pierre-Luc Dubois ($5,300) is registering nearly 20 minutes of ice time per game over the last two weeks.  Dubois is peppering two to three shots on goal per game, and isn’t afraid to block some shots as well.  With the expectation the Blue Jackets bounce back tonight, we think Pierre-Luc will be involved in a few goals tonight, hopefully registering one of them.

Some other picks at center to consider are Alexander Wennberg ($5,000), Boone Jenner ($4,000), and Valtteri Filppula ($4,000).  Any one of these three would be a great combination with one of our top picks of the night.

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

Top FanDuel NHL Wings: Dec 20th

With salary savings identified at the center picks, and goalie as we’ll see later, we turn our attention to the expensive top options at wing tonight.  Vladimir Tarasenko ($8,000) and Johnny Gaudreau ($7,600) are the most talented skaters on the ice tonight.  Tarasenko has a tough match up against Smith, and Gaudreau has a tough match up against Allen.  But you can play either, especially in cash games, as they’re both rare talents who excel beyond the match ups.

The Flyers have the ideal offensive match up tonight, and paying for either Jakub Voracek ($7,700) or Claude Giroux ($7,300) are two top picks.  With the shift of the lines recently, Voracek is no longer playing alongside Giroux, but that hasn’t hurt their value.  Voracek is still a great pick for multiple helper potential, and Claude’s scoring ability is highest on the Flyers.  But with Simmonds now playing with Giroux, Claude is our favorite pick tonight.

Expecting a bounce-back from the Blue Jackets, Artemi Panarin ($7,100) is a great opportunity.  It’s likely many FanDuel NHL players will fade the struggling Jackets, and Panarin is the best offensive value on the team.  So in a NHL DFS optimal lineup sense, we’re paying low for Panarin tonight.

Playing alongside Panarin is Josh Anderson ($5,600).  Quietly averaging over 12.5 FanDuel points-per-game, Anderson has actually maintained offensive production during the Blue Jackets struggles, including two goals and one assist in their last three games.

Also, sticking with the Flyers stack, we mentioned Wayne Simmonds ($5,300) earlier, and his mid-range salary continues to be a very attractive pick.  Simmonds had a hot start to the season, but the Flyers second line quickly cooled off.

Recently, Dave Hakstol reformed the Flyers lines, and moved Simmonds into the top line with Giroux and Couturier.  Since then, Wayne has been more productive, and with a great match up tonight has the potential to produce well on a fairly cheap salary.

One last Blue Jackets before we move on to defenders.  Like Anderson, Oliver Bjorkstrand ($5,100) has become very offensively productive over the last two weeks, but his success has been muted by the Blue Jackets failures as a team.  If Bjorkstrand stays hot tonight, he’s likely the best value on the board at any position.

Top FanDuel NHL Defenders: Dec 20th

We’re mostly fading the Blues and Flames offenses tonight, so Mark Giordano ($5,900) and Alex Pietrangelo ($5,400) are off the board.  Instead our top two picks are Shayne Gostisbehere ($5,700) and Zach Werenski ($5,800).

You could go with either, depending on your stacking target, but between the two, Gositisbehere is our top option.  Now averaging over 14 FanDuel NHL points-per-game, Ghost has two goals and one assist in his last two games, and three goals and two assists in the last five Flyers games.  Shayne plays on the flyers second line, but gets 20+ minutes of ice time on their top power play line.

If you’re considering Werenski, also consider a cheaper Seth Jones ($5,100).  He also plays on the Blue Jackets top line, is registering 20 to 25 minutes of ice time per night, and has two goals in the last three games, quietly providing offense while the Jackets have struggled.

And two cheaper options from the Flyers are Ivan Provorov ($4,200) and Andrew MacDonald ($3,500), both sharing the ice on the Flyers top line.  Provorov is more offensively productive between the two, playing a Ghostisbehere-like role on the Flyers second power play line.

Finally, while we’re mostly fading the Blues and Flames, Colton Parayko ($4,800) is our favorite flier pick from that match up.  Parayko gets nearly 30 minutes of ice time each game, averages over 11 FanDuel NHL points-per-game, and often shows up on the scoring sheet in low-scoring Blues games.

Top FanDuel NHL Goalies: Dec 20th

The best goalie on the ice tonight is Sergei Bobrovsky ($8,700), but his pick comes with a ton of baggage.  Bob has given up 18 goals in his last four starts, that’s 4.5 goals per game.

In Boston, Sergei gave up seven goals on 45 shots.  That’s alarming for two reasons.  Seven goals is terrible for one of the leagues best goalies, and 45 shots indicates very poor puck control for the Blue Jackets.  Also, the Blue Jackets are hosting the Maple Leafs, who just poured eight goals into the net against the Hurricanes.  For so many reasons, do not play Bobrovsky tonight, even if he could bounce back.  The Blue Jackets have a lot to fix first.

The Maple Leafs will have back-up goalie Curtis McElhinney ($7,300) in goal tonight.  Given the Blue Jackets struggles we just mentioned, McElhinney is a solid value pick option at goalie tonight.  But, in six starts, Curtis only has three wins and two solid results.  And, at some point, the Blue Jackets will bounce back.  It’s risky, but worth a shot, especially in GPP plays.

With Jake Allen ($8,300) and Mike Smith ($7,800) effectively canceling each other out, we like red-hot Brian Elliott ($8,000) as the top goalie option for Wednesday night, likely facing the Red Wings backup goalie Petr Mrazek.

For Elliott, it’s simple.  The Flyers are playing better defense, have better puck-management over the last two weeks, allowing Elliott to provide 20 to 30 saves for consistent wins.  Facing a struggling Red Wings team on home ice is a great way to bounce back from their loss to the Kings this week.

So, after reviewing all of our favorite options, here’s an example of a lineup we put together for Wednesday, December 20th:

C    Nylander (TOR $5,300)

C    Dubois (CLS $5,300)

W   Giroux (PHI $7,300)

W   Panarin (CLS $7,100)

W   Anderson (CLS $5,600)

W   Simmonds (PHI $5,400)

D    Gostisbehere (PHI $5,700)

D    Jones (CLS $5,100)

G    Elliott ($8,000)

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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Best of luck in your FanDuel NHL contests and stay tuned to Fantasy CPR for all your DFS news and analysis across NHL, NBA, EPL, and NFL this fall!