FanDuel NHL Blue Line Power Plays: December 27
By Matt Rogers
Welcome to FanDuel NHL Blue Line Power Plays for Wednesday, December 27th. We’re a daily fantasy hockey column focused on top FanDuel NHL plays for your lineups each day.
The NHL season took a long three-day break over the Christmas holiday. The last games played were on Saturday, December 23rd. But we’re back to a robust eleven game schedule tonight, including an 8pm ET match up between the Capitals and Rangers in New York, on NBC Sports Network.
With only 34 to 38 games played at this point in the season, we’re not quite at the mid-point of the NHL year. But it still feels like a good time to pause and review the outcomes so far, so we know who to target after the Christmas break. While many skaters are still on the mend, it’s likely we see most of the leagues starting goalies back on the ice, over the next two days, and some of the day-to-day statuses may end tonight.
Nikita Kucherov and the Lightning have maintained a hot offensive start to the season. Kucherov leads the NHL with 24 goals, and with an additional 27 assists, Nikita also leads the NHL with 51 total points, at this point in the season. The Lightning aren’t back onto the ice until tomorrow, Thursday, but Kucherov is a weekly ‘must-have’ in NHL DFS optimal lineups.
But, while Kucherov has maintained his status as a top scorer in the NHL, the rest of the Lightning team is failing to keep up. Just weeks ago, Tampa maintained three of the top five point leaders. But over the last couple of weeks, we’ve seen the rest of Kucherov’s team cool off, while teams like the Islanders heat up.
Now, John Tavares and Josh Bailey threaten to take over Kucherov’s top spot in points. John and Josh each have 46 points, and while the Isles are struggling to defend the puck, giving up the most goals in the NHL, they’re having little problem scoring goals each game, scoring the most in the NHL. Tonight, the Islanders host a Sabres team who’s struggling to keep winning streaks going.
With that in mind, let’s take a look at our schedule for tonight. Here’s a look at the NHL schedule for Wednesday, December 27th:
Senators at Bruins (7pm ET)
Red Wings at Devils (7pm ET)
Sabres at Islanders (7pm ET)
Blue Jackets at Penguins (7pm ET)
Canadiens at Hurricanes (7pm ET)
Capitals at Ranges (8pm ET NBC SN)
Predators at Blues (8pm ET)
Stars at Wild (8pm ET)
Oilers at Jets (8pm ET)
Coyotes at Avalanche (9pm ET)
Golden Knights at Ducks (10pm ET)
We already mentioned how the Islanders offense has been hot, but what about the Sabres young stars against the Islanders terrible offense? The Capitals visit New York, and with Alex Ovechkin on the ice, can we afford one of the leagues best players? The Predators consistently provide some of the best FanDuel NHL value this season, and we will take another look at them in St. Louis. And finally, will the Golden Knights continue to impress everyone in the NHL with their amazing inaugural season?
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 27th
Connor McDavid ($9,000) is consistently the most expensive FanDuel NHL player each time the Oilers are on the ice. But as we mentioned earlier, John Tavares ($8,800) is one of the best skaters in the league right now, and Tavares and his Islanders offense have been heating up throughout the month of December.
John is averaging over 18 FanDuel NHL points-per-game, more than any other offensive player tonight, and has a fantastic match up against a bad Sabres defense on home ice. In all formats, play Tavares in one of your center picks.
The Islanders have struggled on defense this season, even though their offense has been so spectacular. That forces a lot of high-scoring match ups each time the Islanders are on the ice. While the Sabres have struggled to provide much offensive production this season, Jack Eichel ($7,500) is an exception.
The 21-year-old center has five goals and three assists in his last four games, including a 63.2 FanDuel NHL result against the Hurricanes two weeks ago. It may seem odd, but stacking both the Islanders and Sabres tonight, could be a good play.
The Avalanche have some struggles to overcome, but their top line has been incredibly productive this year. Leading the Avs number one line is Nathan MacKinnon ($7,600). Through 35 games, Nate now has 40 points and is on a path to a career season, which started in 2013. MacKinnon has 15 goals and 25 assists, making him the team’s top offensive player. Tonight, the Avs host a terrible Coyotes defense, and MacKinnon and his top-line crew are lined up for a great night.
Finally, the Vegas Golden Knights are a surprise top-five team so far this season. One of the stories quietly emerging over the last month has been the play of Erik Haula ($6,100). The 26-year-old is already having a career season, with 24 points in 29 games. Erik and the Knights are vising the Ducks in Anaheim tonight.
The Ducks are giving up 2.67 goals per game at home, in the middle of the NHL, and are struggling to score on home ice, with only 2.61. This game clearly favors the Knights, and Haula should be involved in a couple of scoring opportunities.
Now let’s take a look at the wings we want to stack along with our centers…
Top FanDuel NHL Wings: Dec 27th
There is a long list of top wingers to play tonight, but there’s so much great value on the board, we have to jump right into the best return for your salary. We mentioned earlier we love John Tavares match up tonight, and Josh Bailey ($6,900) is tied for second in the NHL, with Tavares, in total points (46).
The difference between Bailey and Tavares is that Josh provides more assists than goals. Still, with John scoring 21 already this season, fourth in the NHL, we know Bailey is a consistent double-digit FanDuel NHL points scorer each time he’s on the ice. So even if Josh doesn’t score a goal tonight, he could help us with one or more assists and plenty of ice time against a terrible Sabres defense. If you need someone slightly cheaper, Anders Lee ($6,700) is a great pivot from Bailey, in a similar situation.
Staying in Brooklyn, we also like Evander Kane ($7,200). For some inexplicable reason, the Sabres coaching staff continues to split-up Eichel and Kane on the ice, so they’re rarely playing on the same line. But Kane has a solid Ryan O’Reilly at center on the Sabres second line, and Eichel joins the pair during their power plays. Kane is a 20 minute ice beast, and will have plenty of scoring chances tonight.
They’re expensive, but Brad Marchand ($7,700) and David Pastrnak ($7,400) are back on the ice for the surging Boston Bruins. When the Senators are away from Ottawa this season, they’re giving up 3.18 goals per game, 13th worst in the NHL in this scenario. Marchand and Pastrnak have been hot in December, and likely stay hot after the Christmas break, with this type of match up.
Kevin Fiala ($5,600) was on a heater, before he cooled off in Dallas, just before the Christmas break. Before that game, Fiala had a goal or assist in nine straight games, often getting one of each. Kevin was still on the ice for 17 minutes against the Stars, and had three shots on goal.
While the Blues are doing well on home ice, they have struggled to score goals in December. And for only $5.6K, we’re willing to grab Fiala again with the expectation he bounces back tonight, and drops another 15+ FanDuel NHL points into our lineup. Sticking with Fiala’s second line, we should also consider his line-mate Craig Smith ($4,600). While Craig doesn’t score as many goals as Kevin, Fiala is benefiting from the helpers he’s getting from Smith. If Fiala stays hot tonight, Smith is likely to put up another 10+ FanDuel NHL points, on a cheap salary.
Finally, our potential sleeper pick tonight is Clayton Keller ($5,500). Like Fiala’s December point run, Keller now has a point in each of the Coyotes last five games. The 19-year-old now has 13 goals and 29 points in 38 games this season. Keller only played in three games last season, after getting drafted 7th overall in the 2016 NHL Draft. The Avalanche are giving up nearly three goals per game on home ice, so it’s likely Keller continues his heater.
Top FanDuel NHL Defenders: Dec 27th
It’s a risky play, but we’re looking at stacking value from the Predators tonight. We’re taking the stand that the Blues continue to struggle, even on home ice. Roman Josi ($5,900) and P.K. Subban ($5,700) have been great FanDuel NHL plays all season. We’ve been on both many times this year.
Josi is often the more active on the scoring sheet, but Subban is currently on a hot streak. Over the last six games, Subban has three goals and four assists, getting a point in each of those six games. So between the two, we favor Subban’s value.
We haven’t talked about the Minnesota Wild at all for tonight, but we love how productive the Wild’s top-line defenders have been over the last couple of weeks. Ryan Suter ($5,700) doesn’t have as great of a scoring streak as Subban, but he has a goal or assist in six of the last eight games for the Wild.
Mathew Dumba ($4,500) has also been hot over the last two weeks. He was quiet against a very good Tampa Bay Lightning team on December 23rd, but before that game, Mat had three goals and two assists over a four game period, including a two goal result in Minnesota against the Oilers, piling up 32 FanDuel NHL points that night. Again, between the two, we value the better value from Dumba.
Finally, if you’re looking to complete an Islanders stack and have some salary to burn, your best play is Nick Leddy ($5,400). He was quiet for the first half of December, but over the last two games Nick has an assist in each game. And over the course of the season, Leddy is averaging over 12.5 FanDuel NHL points-per-game.
Top FanDuel NHL Goalies: Dec 27th
There are tons of great goalie picks tonight, but many have terrible match ups. Braden Holtby ($9,300) may be the most expensive pick, but Holtby has a tough match up against an offense surging in New York tonight. Matt Murray ($8,800) and Sergei Bobrovsky ($8,600) effectively cancel each other out, as does Henrik Lundqvist ($8,800) paired against Holtby.
If you have salary to burn, we favor Pekka Rinne ($8,500) bouncing back against the Blues in St. Louis tonight. It appears to be a risky play, but the Blues offense has been quiet this month, and while Rinne gave up nine goals in his last two games, for the balance of the month he’s been on fire. So it’s likely we get a solid goalie tonight, while many FanDuel NHL players are fading Rinne.
Cory Schneider ($8,300) hosts a struggling Red Wings team on home ice, and Marc-Andre Fleury ($7,900) will continue to try to re-emerge from his injury against the Ducks in Anaheim. Either Schneider or Fleury is a great pick, with Marc-Andre being the better value.
Finally, one pick which may seem odd given our suggesting to stack Sabres tonight, is Jaroslav Halak ($7,300). Over the last couple of weeks, Halak has been incredibly inconsistent, getting burned by the Ducks and Stars on home ice with nine goals over a two game period.
But before those two games, Jarolasv made 31 saves in a win over a very good Capitals team, and in his last outing, Halak grabbed 38 saves to beat a good Jets offense on December 23rd. Especially for GPP plays, Halak could be a tremendous value tonight.
So, after reviewing all of our favorite options, here’s an example of a lineup we put together for Wednesday, December 27th:
C Tavares (NYI $8,800)
C Haula (VKG $6,100)
W Bailey (NYI $6,900)
W Fiala (NSH $5,600)
W Keller (ARI $5,500)
W Smith (NSH $4,600)
D Subban (NSH $5,700)
D Dumba (MIN $4,500)
G Halak (NYI $7,300)
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.
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!