FanDuel NHL Blue Line Power Plays: February 1
By Matt Rogers
Welcome back to the FanDuel NHL Blue Line Power Plays column. This is the Thursday, February 1st edition. We’re a daily fantasy hockey column focused on top FanDuel NHL plays for your lineups each day.
Regular season NHL was back on Tuesday, and we had a decent night with Carter Hutton as one of our top goalies, snagging 33 saves and obtaining the win for 34.4 FanDuel NHL points. At $8,600, Carter wasn’t cheap, but we know a win over the Habs in St. Louis was very likely, and the Canadiens were averaging just over 30 shots on goal, per game away from home, even though they weren’t scoring often.
John Klingberg was not involved in any offense on Tuesday, as the Kings blanked the Stars in Dallas. But with five shots on goal and an amazing five blocked shots, Klingberg maintained his Burnsy-like state, and provided 16 FanDuel NHL points without any offense. Erik Johnson, the Avs current top defense, was also able to get 16 points, but that included an assist. We may revisit Johnson again tonight.
Also, while we were big on Alexander Radulov, he clearly didn’t have any goals or assists, but somehow piled up six blocked shots and five shots for 17.6 FanDuel NHL points. Still, most of our offensive side of the lineup was quiet on Tuesday, which was disappointing. We would’ve been better off with Evgeni Malkin ($8,300) and his hat-trick, or the re-surging Adam Henrique, who has two goals and 27.7 FanDuel NHL points.
We didn’t write a column last night, but still had a decent night of FanDuel NHL plays in both cash and GPP. We played Frederik Andersen in goal, and with a 5-0 shutout of the solid Islanders offense in Toronto, and 28 saves, Andersen didn’t disappoint, with 42.4 FanDuel NHL points. The Sharks lost 1-2 to the Red Wings, but stacking Brent Burns and Marc-Edouard Vlasic on defense gave us 28.8 FanDuel NHL points.
With the Flyers moving Nolan Patrick ($3,700) to their second line with Jakub Voracek and Wayne Simmonds, we immediately identified enormous value potential. And as it turned out, Patrick had his first two-point night of his career, scoring a goal and providing a helper for 23.2 FanDuel NHL points. We also did a mini-Flyers value stack with Travis Konecny ($4,800) at wing, who added another 21.6 FanDuel NHL points with a goal and six shots. By the end of the night, our lineups had over 150+ points each.
Tonight’s slate is more like Tuesday, with 12 games on ice and an overwhelming number of options to pick through. So we’ll consider what we’ve already learned this week, and focus on the top picks of the night. First, let’s take a look at the NHL schedule for Thursday, February 1st:
Blues at Bruins (7pm ET)
Panthers at Sabres (7pm ET)
Flyers at Devils (7pm ET)
Maple Leafs at Rangers (7pm ET)
Canadiens at Hurricanes (7pm ET)
Ducks at Senators (7pm ET)
Golden Knights at Jets (8pm ET)
Kings at Predators (8:30pm NBC SN)
Lightning at Flames (9pm ET)
Avalanche at Oilers (9pm ET)
Stars at Coyotes (9pm ET)
Blackhawks at Canucks (10pm ET)
The B’s are back on the ice in Boston, but still without winger Brad Marchand. Danton Heinen continues to fill in on the top line for Marchand, but we have to consider Pastrnak and Bergeron a downgrade when Marchand is off the ice. The Blues, though, have some offensive potential on the road, regardless of who’s in net for the Bruins, likely Tuukka Rask.
The Panthers offense is strong, and they’re facing a Sabres team who’s struggled on home ice this season. But the Sabres have been better over the last two weeks. The Flyers lost last night in Washington, D.C., but mostly due to bad defense and goaltending. They have a chance to score several goals in New Jersey tonight, but so do the Devils.
The Senators defense has been absolutely horrendous in Ottawa, opening the door wide open for several great options from the Ducks. We may snag some sneaky value from the Jets in Winnipeg tonight. The Golden Knights travel to Canada tonight and have been tough to beat in any environment, but they’re struggling on the road lately.
Finally, with the Avalanche offense in Edmonton, the Bolts in Calgary, and the Stars in Phoenix, there are several juicy offensive match ups to take advantage of. The Oilers defense on home ice has been horrendous, the Flames offense in Calgary is slacking compared to the road, and the Coyotes have struggled to win anywhere all 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: Feb 1st
At center, there appear to be many awesome, but expensive, top options available. For the most part, we recommend avoiding many of these options. We’d love Nathan MacKinnon in Edmonton tonight, but he’s not expected to be in the lineup. MacKinnon suffered a shoulder injury, which put many Avs fans and NHL fantasy owners in temporary panic mode, on Tuesday. For now, Nathan is day-to-day, so we have to fade him tonight.
There are some exceptions, like Tyler Seguin ($7,900) and Ryan Getzlaf ($7,600). Over the last seven games, Seguin only has two goals and one assist, but a juicy match up tonight. The Stars have played the Coyotes twice this season, and Tyler has two goals and one assist in those games. With one game in Arizona, Seguin had two goals on five shots.
Getzlaf has played in 13 games against the Senators in his career, and has 16 points in those games. Ryan had seven goals on 34 shots (20.6%) and nine helpers against the Sens. Five of his 16 points were in the man advantage. The Senators penalty kill in Ottawa is only 69.2%, second worst in the NHL and one of the big reasons they struggle to defend the puck at home. This is a great night to own Getzlaf and the Ducks offense.
A great Ducks stack at center would be to add Adam Henrique ($5,300) to your Getzlaf play. Henrique is leading the Ducks third line, but he’s also leading their top power play unit, making Adam a top-value play tonight. And he’s hot! Over the last six games, Henrique has six goals and two assists, averaging over 20 FanDuel NHL points-per-game during that period.
The Calgary Flames are also struggling to kill the penalty at home, with a 78.2% rate, seventh worst in the NHL. Steven Stamkos ($8,400) is a solid possibility leading the Bolts top line tonight, but he’s very expensive. While his salary is growing, Brayden Point ($6,200) is more attractive at center tonight. In his last eight games, Point has four goals and five assists. Point also leads the Bolts top power play line, a unit scoring 21.1% of the time or eighth best in the NHL.
Now let’s take a look at the wings we want to stack along with our centers…
Top FanDuel NHL Wings: Feb 1st
Again, there are plenty of great options at winger tonight, and many are expensive. With a common theme of the Flames struggling on defense, and to score, in Calgary, the Bolts top player Nikita Kucherov ($8,500) is an obvious great play if you can afford him. But, we like the Devils beast-ice Taylor Hall ($8,000) more, at home, against the Flyers.
The Devils have played the Flyers twice this season, once at home and once away. In each game, Hall has failed to score a goal. That’s not too surprising, as Hall has 18 goals but 31 assists. So while he has no goals against the Fly-guys, he does have three assists in two games. Two of those assists were during a power play, and two were at home. Away from home, and as we saw last night, the Flyers are struggling to kill the penalty, currently at a 77.1% rate. So facing the eighth worst PK on the road, Hall and the Devils should pile up a few goals.
For a tad cheaper, Jamie Benn ($7,800) is a great stack with Seguin, who we already like against the Coyotes in Phoenix. But we love Alexander Radulov ($6,900) even more. Over his last twelve games, Radulov has at least one goal or assist in ten games. As we mentioned earlier, the Stars were shut out by the Kings on Tuesday, but Alex still piled up an incredible six blocked shots and give shots for 17.8 FanDuel NHL points. So over the last month, we’re typically getting a 15 to 30 point play with each Radulov buy.
We’re generally fading Blues players like Vladimir Tarasenko ($8,200) tonight against a hot Tuukka Rask in net for the Bruins tonight. The B’s have also played solid hockey on home ice over the last month. However, there’s an exception we like tonight. Alexander Steen ($5,700) is a sneaky play on road ice.
Steen has played in 27 games at home and 19 on the road this season. Even though there’s an eight game difference, he has 56 shots both on the road and at home. Even better, Alex has six goals on the road, more than his five goals at home, and a solid 10.7% goal rate over the 8.9% rate at home.
While he’s not getting as many helpers on the road, six versus 14 at home, his goal rate is worth a shot on the road when he’s hot. And it just so happens that Steen has five goals over his last six games, along with three assists. We also expect Alex to be low-owned, as this advantage likely isn’t obvious to many FanDuel NHL players.
Finally, digging for value we like another sneaky play at winger, Mathieu Perreault ($4,500). Perreault is on the Jets second line and has a tough match up against the Golden Knights in Winnipeg. Unlike Steen, Mathieu is significantly more efficient on home ice, with 17 points in only 16 games.
While Perreault also has eight assists in 16 games, one every other game, his most impressive state at home is scoring goals. With only 37 shots, Mathieu has nine goals. That’s an incredible 24.3% rate, and a goal in more than every other game. That’s also incredible considering he’s only getting around 13 to 14 minutes of ice time. We’d typically be more attracted to Perreault with a better match up, but the Knights have struggled on the road lately, making this a sneaky pick up.
Top FanDuel NHL Defenders: Feb 1st
With so many great mid-salary range options, and expensive goalies, it may be hard to grab some of the top defenders tonight. If you can afford them, try to get either John Klingberg ($6,800) or Victor Hedman ($6,700). Over the last two months, Klingberg’s consistent dominance on the ice has resembled the play of Brent Burns, Hedman, or Erik Karlsson ($6,500). Typically each of those defenders are a must-have in cash games, but now Klingberg joins that list. With ten shots and five blocked shots over his last two games, John is averaging double-digits without even getting involved in offense.
Hedman finally got back on the ice this week after an injury-related absence. Victor was injured against the Flames in Tampa on January 11th, after going on a bit of a tear at the end of December and into early January. With 25 minutes of ice time in Winnipeg, Hedman only provided two blocked shots. But with the juicy offensive match up for the Bolts tonight, he’s likely to get on the scoring sheet again.
With the Avalanche’s Tyson Barrie ($5,400) finally back on the ice for the first time, Tuesday, since December 23rd, we were nervous about the impact Barrie’s time on the ice may have to fantasy value Erik Johnson ($5,200) has provided over the last month. Fortunately, Johnson still saw 26 minutes of ice time, had an assist, and three shots on goal along with two blocked shots for 16 FanDuel NHL points.
Tyson also had an assist and shot on goal with 17 minutes of ice time. It’ll be interesting to see if the Avs keep things the way they are tonight, but with the Oilers dreadful defense in Edmonton this season, you could stack these two on defense, or at least play Johnson for a solid double-digit play.
This time last season, Jake Gardiner ($4,100) was one of our favorite plays on defense, and his salary was rapidly climbing. We may see the same thing occur again this season, but later on. After a very slow start, Gardiner has been absolutely on fire over the last three weeks. In his last six games, Jake has an assist in all six games, totaling ten in that time. At this salary, Gardiner remains a top value option for FanDuel NHL tonight.
Top FanDuel NHL Goalies: Feb 1st
With 24 goalie options tonight, and several of the top ten goalies in the league on the ice, picking just one is going to be overwhelming. There are also some interesting value options on the board tonight, like the Panthers Harri Sateri ($7,200). We faded, and in fact targeted part of our offense at, Sateri on Tuesday, and he surprised us with 32 saves, only giving up one goal, and 33.6 FanDuel NHL points with the win against the Islanders.
However, after watching the Islanders get shut out against the Maple Leafs last night, we’re less impressed with Sateri. It’s an interesting value pick against the Sabres weak offense in Buffalo. But this pick could also be a trap, and a huge mistake given his 14 goals given up over his previous three starts.
From a match up standpoint, Jonathan Bernier ($8,100) is likely set up best in Edmonton. The Oilers have been terrible at home, sometimes terrible in general, and the Avalanche are on fire right now. However, with MacKinnon off the ice, there’s risk the Avs could look flat tonight and give up a surprise loss.
For the most part, many of these match ups tonight yield a problem. Several great goalies are facing other great goalies, making their play a risk of losing the 12-points for the win. But, even with Mike Smith ($8,400) in net for the Flames, we like Andrei Vasilevskiy ($9,100) for the Bolts in Calgary tonight.
The Flames average 33.7 shots on goal per game at home this season, ninth best in the NHL. But they’re only scoring 2.63 goals per game in Calgary, sixth worst in the NHL. That sets Andrei up well tonight, likely getting 30 to 40 shots on goal, maybe only giving up one to two goals, with the higher potential for a shut out, and the likely win. Vasilevskiy could be a 40+ FanDuel NHL point play tonight.
So, after reviewing all of our favorite options, here’s an example of a lineup we put together for Thursday, February 1st:
C Point (TB $6,200)
C Henrique (ANH $5,300)
W Hall (NJ $8,000)
W Radulov (DAL $6,900)
W Steen (STL $5,700)
W Perreault (WPG $4,500)
D Johnson (COL $5,200)
D Gardiner (TOR $4,100)
G Vasilevskiy (TB $9,100)
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!