FanDuel NHL Blue Line Power Plays: December 21

Welcome back to the FanDuel NHL Blue Lines Power Plays column for Thursday, December 21st.  We’re a daily fantasy hockey column focused on top FanDuel NHL plays for your lineups each day.

After a couple of rough slates this week, last night worked out nearly perfectly.  On offense, our top two stacking targets were the Flyers and Blue Jackets.  The two teams scored four goals, the most of any of the six teams on the ice last night.  In fact, fading the Blue and Flames match up, which we said would be low-scoring, worked perfectly as they only had a combined three goals.

Claude Giroux was one of our top picks at the wing position, and he provided three assists, for the Flyers four goals, along with three shots.  One of those assists was during a power play, and Giroux piled up over 29 FanDuel NHL points on a resonable $7.3K salary.

Wayne Simmonds and Shayne Gostisbehere also had great nights.  Simmonds added a goal and assist for over 28 points, and Ghost-Bear had an assist on four shots, along with a blocked shot, for a total of 16 points.

While Josh Anderon and Artemi Panarin only accumulated 9.6 FanDuel NHL total points, stacking them with Seth Jones, who had a goal and assist, and Dubois, another goal, piled up an additional 53.8 FanDuel NHL points for our lineup.

Finally, at goalie, Joonas Korpisalo had 39 saves and a win for 35.2 FanDuel NHL points.  At the time of the article we weren’t sure if Korpisalo would start, but he was a tremendous value at the position and the best play.  Still, we focused on Brian Elliott who had over 20 points, with the win for the Flyers, and he helped us exceed well over 150 total FanDuel NHL points in many of our lineup scenarios.

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 Thursday, December 21st:

Jets at Bruins (7pm ET)

Rangers at Devils (7pm ET)

Ducks at Islanders (7pm ET)

Blue Jackets at Penguins (7pm ET)

Senators at Lightning (7:30pm ET)

Hurricanes at Predators (8pm ET)

Blackhawks at Stars (8:30pm ET)

Blues at Oilers (9pm ET)

Avalanche at Kings (10:30pm ET)

Canucks at Sharks (10:30pm ET)

With ten games slated for Thursday night, there’s an overwhelming 20 teams to pick through in order to build your NHL DFS optimal lineup.  FanDuel is offering a 7pm Main slate with all games, but you could also target the 8pm Express, 9pm Late Night, or 10:30pm ET after hours slates, improving your odds of winning a cash or GPP.  Still, the Main slate has the most offers.

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 21st

With these match ups, the top center picks are obvious, and likely heavily owned.  The Blues have struggled lately, and Connor McDavid ($9,200) is always a great play in a match up like this, if you can afford him.

But, John Tavres ($8,600) and Steven Stamkos ($8,400) each have the most ideal match ups of the night.  Each are likely 20+ FanDuel NHL point scorers, but expect each to be heavily owned.  For cash games, they’re a great anchor, but for cash games, they’re a must-have.

While the Islanders are scoring 3.5 goals per game and are the second best offense in the NHL, they’re also giving up 3.5 goals per game (yes you read that right), the worst in the NHL.  So while the Ducks are struggling to score goals this season, this is one of the few times you should fade the Islanders for the Ducks.  Ryan Getzlaf ($7,100) is leading Anaheim’s top line, and is most likely to have double-digit points tonight.

The Saint Louis Blues are struggling to win games lately, but it’s mostly due to the lack of goal support from the Blue offense.  So we’re fading the Blues throughout the lineup.  However, while they’re still playing great defense, the Oilers likely get some goals in a win on home ice tonight.

McDavid is incredibly expensive, but the Oilers second line leader Ryan Nugent-Hopkins ($5,700) is hot right now and is marching toward one of his best seasons in his career, since being drafted first overall in the 2011 NHL draft.  Ryan has 9+ points in six of his last seven games, and over 15 in four of those games.  Tonight, with a goal and/or assist, we expectc Nugent-Hopkins to provide another double-digit result on low ownership.

Like Nugent-Hopkins, the Bolts have a good mid-salary range center on their second line, and have an even better match up.  The Senators are giving up 3.28 goals per game, fifth worst in the NHL.  And the lightning, the top scoring team in the NHL, welcomes the Senators into Amalie Arena tonight.  Brayden Point ($5,700) is rapidly improving his FanDuel NHL point average over the last two weeks with six 17+ point results in his last seven games.  Point should continue to be hot tonight.

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

Top FanDuel NHL Wings: Dec 21st

The Carolina Hurricanes were blown out on the road, in Toronto, on Tuesday.  Now the poor Canes have to travel to Nashville to play the Stanley Cup runner up Predators tonight.  If you can afford him, Filip Forsberg ($7,600) will likely have another 15 FanDuel NHL game tonight, and Victor Arvidsson ($6,200) is a cheaper option to Forsberg, or a great stack with Filip.

But the Predators also offer two great value picks on their second line, Kevin Fiala ($5,300) and Craig Smith ($4,600).  Smith has 11+ FanDuel NHL points in five of his last seven games, and two of those games were over 35 points, getting three points (goals or assists) in each of those big games for Craig.

Fiala is probably the most underrated skater on the ice tonight for FanDuel NHL.  Kevin has 15+ FanDuel NHL points in each of his last eight games.  In that time, Kevin had seven goals and four assists.  That’s an incredible run for someone only averaging 11.52 FanDuel NHL points-per-game.  Fiala is likely on more than just a heater, heading toward one of the best seasons of his young career.

Last season the New York Rangers were consistently one of the best scoring teams in the NHL.  Starting this season, the Rangers were slow to score many goals, but that appears to have ended.  The Rangers now average 3.26 goals per game, sixth in the NHL, and Mats Zuccarello ($6,300) is a big reason why.  The 5’7″ winger now has three goals and three assists in the last six games for the Rangers.  Tonight, the Norwegian Hobbit faces a Devils team giving up nearly three goals per game.

One of our favorite value plays is on the ice again tonight, Nikolaj Ehlers ($5,500).  Now with 17 goals on the season, sixth in the NHL, we’re shocked Ehlers isn’t more expensive.  And he may just be on a heater, but it’s unlikely.

Nikolaj flashed this potential last season, and he should continue to score a lot of goals this season.  Tonight, the Bruins are battling lots of injury and sickness issues, and the Jets are likely to capitalize on the opportunity.

Top FanDuel NHL Defenders: Dec 21st

With so much value achieved in our lineups at the center and winger picks, we’re free to spend up on defensive picks.  Typically paying up for a defender is foolish, but with so much defensive talent on the ice tonight, it could mean the difference between winning a GPP or not.

Brent Burns ($7,200) had been a heavy fade for most of this season, but we’ve recently started recommending Burnsy.  The Sharks offense has been mute most of this season, but they’re starting to catch fire, and Brent is one of the big reasons they’re hot.

Over the last six games, Burns has 20+ FanDuel NHL points in five games.  Several of those games are over 25 points, and two are over 30 points.  We haven’t seen a run like this from Burns since last season, when Brent was a lock each time he skated onto the ice.

Another red-hot defender is Victor Hedman ($5,900).  Getting Hedman for under $6K again, is amazing.  Victor has the big-play making ability of Burns, and has 14+ FanDuel NHL points in each of the Lightning’s last four games.  In that span, Victor has two goals and five assists, along with a lot of shots on goal and a few blocked shots.  With a favorable match up on home ice tonight, Hedman is an obvious pick.

As we’ve already mentioned, we’re high on the Predators tonight, and if you have room on defense to complete a Preds-stack, Roman Josi ($6,100) and PK Subban ($5,700) should be at the top of your list.  Regardless of their FanDuel average NHL points-per-game, either Subban or Josi has the ability to pile up over 20 points tonight in this match up.

Again, the Islanders are likely a heavy-owned group of players tonight, but Nick Leddy ($5,300) is a great pick on defense if you’re looking for a cheaper option, and want to get some action from the Isle/Ducks game in your lineup.  Also, while the Blues offense has been slow lately, Colton Parayko ($4,800) is another great value yielding double-digit points on a sub-$5K salary.

Top FanDuel NHL Goalies: Dec 21st

One of the toughest choices tonight is the goalie position.  Andrei Vasilevskiy ($9,400) has one of the best match ups tonight, playing the Ottawa Senators on home ice.  The Sens only have 2.75 goals per game, ninth worst in the NHL.  Also Adrei 21 wins this season, the most in the NHL.  So if you’re willing to pay up for a lock, Vasilevskiy is your guy.

Corey Crawford ($9,200) and Jonathan Quick ($8,800) are also winning many of their starts this season.  But Crawford will face some challenging offense from the Stars in Dallas.  Quick has the hot-scoring Avalanche on home ice tonight.  There are better options.

Of all the top goalies tonight, we love Pekka Rinne ($8,800) the most.  Rinne is already confirmed to likely start for the Predators on home ice tonight, facing the Hurricanes.  Carolina is only putting 2.67 pucks in net per game, fifth worst in the NHL.  Also, Pekka has won over 69% of his starts this year, and has 787 saves in 26 games, sixth best in the NHL.  So with the high likelihood Rinne gets 30 saves and a win, along with the potential for a shutout, he’s our top goalie in any format tonight.

If you’re shopping for value at the goalie position, don’t get sucked into picking Cory Schneider ($8,200).  He’s averaging over 20 FanDuel NHL points-per-game this season, and has been on a bit of a role, but the Devils are hosting their New York City neighbor, the Rangers tonight.  The Rangers are sixth best in the NHL with scoring, and Cory will struggle to get the win on Thursday night.

Instead, consider plugging Jaroslav Halak ($7,400) in goal for value.  The Islanders are hosting the west-coast Ducks in Brooklyn tonight.  Halak had some rough four-goal losses recently, but Anaheim is third worst in the NHL scoring goals, only 2.57 per game.  And in these match ups, Halak has been able to pile up over 20 FanDuel NHL points, with the potential of reaching over 30 points.

So, after reviewing all of our favorite options, here’s an example of a lineup we put together for Thursday, December 21st:

C    Nugent-Hopkins (EDM $5,700)

C    Point (TB $5,700)

W   Zuccarello (NYR $6,300)

W   Ehlers (WPG $5,500)

W   Fiala (NSH $5,300)

W   Smith (NSH $4,600)

D    Burns (SJ $7,200)

D    Hedman (TB $5,900)

G    Rinne (NSH $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.

Next: NBA DFS Picks & Pivots

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!