Welcome back for another FanDuel NHL Blue Line Power Plays column, the Friday February 2nd edition. We’re a daily fantasy hockey column focused on top FanDuel NHL plays for your lineups each day.
We certainly whiffed in a few plays last night. While the Lightning scored seven goals against the Flames, in Calgary, Brayden Point only had one assist, one blocked shot, and one shot on goal. However, he did have a power play assists, and totaled 11.7 FanDuel NHL points. But given the volume of scoring, we were expecting better from our $6,200 buy.
Adam Henrique was one of our favorite value plays of the night, with the Senators giving up a lot of goals in Ottawa this season. But the Sens stone-walled the Ducks, with Mike Condon only giving up one goal, and Henrique had a measly two shots on goal for 3.2 FanDuel NHL points.
The best play at center was one of the most expensive last night, Connor McDavid ($8,800). Wth four shots on goal, McDavid scored two goals and added a blocked shot for 32 FanDuel NHL points. It was even feasible to play McDavid with one of our other top centers of the night, Tyler Seguin, who had a goal and 18.9 points.
Several winger picks had low to mid double-digit points last night and were affordable. On defense, John Klingberg ($6,800) stayed hot again last night, even though he only had three shots on goal and one blocked shot. But with a power play assists, John had double-digits yet again, totaling 14.9 FanDuel NHL points.
Finally, at goalie, we did OK with Andrei Vasilevskiy ($9,100). But while he had 42 saves and a win, Vas gave up four goals, knocking our point total down to 29.6 FanDuel NHL points. With at least only two goals, we would’ve been closer to 40 points, as expected. Meanwhile, Cam Ward ($7,400) was on our radar too, and he provided a shutout and win, along with 27 saves for 41.6 FanDuel NHL points. Clearly, Ward was the better pick last night.
With that recap in mind, let’s take a look at the NHL schedule for Friday, February 2nd:
Capitals at Penguins (7pm ET)
Red Wings at Hurricanes (7pm ET)
Sharks at Blue Jackets (7pm ET)
Golden Knights at Wild (8pm ET NBC SN)
With only four games on tonight’s slate, and eight teams to pick through, winning both cash and GPP will be hit-or-miss. These smaller slates can be more exciting, because if you pick a a couple of goal scorers, or stack the right offense, you’re flying high immediately. However, if you pick the wrong stack, you’re in trouble. Some FanDuel NHL players like to get to get a piece of all of the action, to hedge, and avoid the stacking technique. We prefer to stack, and go for it all!
The Capitals are in Pittsburgh playing in a classic rivalry game. After the Caps win in D.C. over the Flyers, there may be attention given to the Caps offense again tonight. But Murray should be back in goal, and we think there’s risk playing the Capitals offense in Pittsburgh. The Red Wings and Hurricanes are both coming off of surprising, and low-scoring, wins. Petr Mrazek is hot and should be in net for the Red Wings, but the Canes may switch to Scott Darling to give Ward the night off.
Aaron Dell is likely in goal for the Sharks in Columbus. Dell has been solid this season, but struggled in his last couple of starts. But the Blue Jackets have struggled with offense all season. While the Sharks offense has picked up lately, they shouldn’t expect to score many goals with their power play unit. The Blue Jackets have a 85.9% penalty kill in Columbus, second best at home in the NHL.
Finally, the Golden Knights are still away from Vegas tonight, playing the Wild in a good one in Minnesota, with the game covered on NBC Sports Network. The Knights are likely to give Marc-Andre Fleury the night off, meaning Malcolm Subban is likely in goal. Subban has only three losses in 14 starts. But can Malcolm beat a hot Devan Dubnyk on road ice? We’ll take a look.
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 2nd
While Holtby and the Caps beat the Flyers on Wednesday night, Braden gave up three goals to the Flyers. The Caps have struggled lately, and while they won that game at home, they still struggled on defense throughout the game. Tonight, the Caps have Sidney Crosby ($9,100) and Evgeni Malkin ($8,300) to contend with at center on the Pengs top two lines. They’re both hot right now, and playing either is a great top play at center, but dig for value for your second pick at center. Stacking both will be very difficult.
Malkin has five goals and one assists in his last two games, and while Crosby hasn’t scored a goal since January 14th, he has at least one assist in each of his last ten games. In fact, Sidney has 17 assists in his last ten, and amazing run. Between the two, we like Malkins goal upside, but Crosby is a lock for 15+ FanDuel NHL points tonight.
For cheaper top picks at center, we like William Karlsson ($7,100) and Logan Couture ($6,700). Karlsson has been dry lately, but with 27 goals this season, he’s tied for second in the NHL for most goals scored this season, and is only three behind top-scorer Alex Ovechkin. William has to face a tough Devan Dubynk on his own ice, but Devan has given up around three goals per game over his last four starts.
Couture has five goals and two assist in his last ten games. Three of those points were of the power play variety and four of his recent goals were in the last four Sharks games. With four shots on goal against the Red Wings on Wednesday, Logan didn’t score. But with a nearly 17% scoring rate and another five to six shots tonight, it’s very likely Couture scores against Bob and the Jackets tonight.
We considered digging for deeper value at center, but it’s possible to afford any one, or more of those top four picks, or plug in Erik Haula ($6,000) with one of those four to get more bang for your salary buck. While we like Karlsson’s season-long scoring, Haula has a goal in each of his last four games. And when not scoring, Erik is at least providing an assist, providing a point or more in each of his last seven games. Haula gets a several shots at his old tea tonight, and a Golden Knights stack is a juicy options.
Now let’s take a look at the wings we want to stack along with our centers…
Top FanDuel NHL Wings: Feb 2nd
While Alex Ovechkin ($8,800) averages over 18 FanDuel NHL points-per-game, the highest of any of the non-goalie options tonight, he’s been very inconsistent lately. Also, we don’t like the Caps offensive match up against Murray in Pittsburgh. If you’re going to spend $8K on a winger, go with Phil Kessel ($8,000) instead. He hasn’t been as dominate as he was earlier in the season, but he’s a better, and more consistent, bet at 20 FanDuel NHL points tonight.
There are solid picks above $7K, but most of our winger focus is going to be on players below the $7,000 threshold. Jason Zucker ($6,400) had a fine January, and really should have a higher salary than Aho, Panarin, or Granlund tonight. Even Joe Pavelski ($7,300) seems like a rip-off compared to Zucker.
Subban is in goal for the Golden Knights tonight, and as we’ll focus on later, he’s giving up too many goals in his last couple of starts. Jason, meanwhile, has five goals and two assists in his last seven games. After an inconsistent, up and down, start to the season, Zucker appears to be consistently providing offense each game, and we should see that continue tonight, with another 15 to 20 FanDuel NHL point result.
If you think Kessel is too expensive, so do we. There’s a more affordable way to get involved in the Penguins scoring tonight, and that’s through Patric Hornqvist ($6,100) and Bryan Rust ($3,300). While Bryan’s FanDuel NHL point-per-game average is only just under nine points, his value has jumped over the last week. Rust is playing with Crosby on the Penguins top regular line, and has two goals and three assists in his last four starts. His performance may not be sustainable all season, but he’s currently hot and dirt-cheap.
Hornqvist is playing with Malkin on the Penguins second regular line. But the big value comes into view during the man-advantage, when Patric meets Crosby, Malkin, and Kessel on their top power play line. Hornqvist has been quiet lately, but added an assist on Tuesday against the Sharks. The last time that happened, Patric had three goals and one assist in the following four games. Also, this rivalry game will be energy-charged, which works in Hornqvist’s favor.
Finally, looking back at the Golden Knights lines, we are sticking with David Perron ($6,300) yet again this week. Like Karlsson, the Knights top line center, Perron has re-charged the Vegas second line with four goals in his last seven games. Perron also had six assists in that time. If you have Haula at center, this is a great stack, as they both play together on the Knights second regular and power play units.
Top FanDuel NHL Defenders: Feb 2nd
In our view, Brent Burns ($7,400) is a slam-dunk play tonight, especially in cash games. Burnsy has a goal and/or assist in 17 of his last 20 games. That’s incredible offensive production from a defensive player, but not surprising for Brent. On Wednesday against the Red Wings, Burns didn’t have a goal or assist, but with a blocked shot and 9 shots on goal, Brent still provided a solid 16 FanDuel NHL points. It’s likely Brent is involved in scoring tonight, and gets over 20 FanDuel NHL points.
If you don’t like Burns, or think he’s too expensive, Seth Jones ($6,000) or John Carlson ($5,900) are your next top three picks tonight at defense. In January, Jones was consistently involved in the limited scoring we saw from the Blue Jackets, and is helper-hot lately. Carlson is on a tear right now, two goals and three assists in his last four games, and is the Penguins biggest problem of the night. Between the two, we like Carlson the most.
Why Marc-Edouard Vlasic ($4,400) doesn’t have a higher FanDuel NHL salary yet is beyond us, but we’re taking advantage of this value option while we have it. We’ve talked about Vlasic over the last couple of weeks, and he continues to award us with double-digit FanDuel NHL point returns.
Marc-Edouard was quiet against the Penguins on Tuesday, but he bounced back with five shots on goal and three blocked shots against the Red Wings, stats similar to Burns. Prior to those two games, Vlasic had three goals and four assists in five games. With 20 to 25 minutes of ice time on the Sharks second regular and power play lines, we expect Vlasic to have another 10+ FanDuel NHL point night on a cheap salary. At some point, we have to wonder if the Sharks will move Vlasic to the top line, and if FanDuel will increase his salary.
Top FanDuel NHL Goalies: Feb 2nd
Braden Holtby ($9,100) has been solid lately, but he’s also been inconsistent, like the Capitals defense. Also, while Holtby is averaging around 21 FanDuel NHL points-per-game, he’s struggled to consistently hit 20 points over the last two weeks. Worse, Braden doesn’t have a game above 29.6 FanDuel NHL points since December 6th, or over 16 straight starts. For $9.1K against a surging Penguins defense in Pittsburgh, this seems like a rip-off!
In early January, Devan Dubnyk ($8,700) was beginning to look like the incredible wall of a goalie he appeared to be last season. But in his last four starts, Devan is giving up nearly three goals per game, including two games in Minnesota, like tonight. Against a solid road-ice offense from the Knights, we’re also fading Dubnyk.
We’re also likely fading Sergei Bobrovsky ($8,500) and Martin Jones ($8,200) tonight, targeting both to utilize their offenses in what we hope is a high-scoring game. We’d typically be excited about the Hurricanes hosting the Red Wings, but Scott Darling ($7,300) has struggled in several starts lately, giving up seven goals in his last two homes starts.
That narrows our top three goalies down to Matt Murray ($8,200), Petr Mrazek ($7,600), and Malcolm Subban ($7,900). Subban has won 11 of his 14 starts this season, but with less time on the ice has been giving up three to four goals per game. Still, he could get the wing tonight even if he gives up three. But that narrows his point total to between 20 and 30.
Murray is our favorite play tonight, expecting a lot of shots on goal from the Caps, and 30-40 saves for Matt. We also think Murray has a solid shot at the win over the Caps, while a shutout is unlikely. We’re not expecting a shutout from anyone, but with the highest potential for Mrazek. Petr is on fire right now, and is the best value at goalie tonight.
So, after reviewing all of our favorite options, here’s an example of a lineup we put together for Friday, February 2nd:
CÂ Â Â Couture (SJ $6,700)
CÂ Â Â Haula (VGK $6,000)
WÂ Â Zucker (MIN $6,400)
WÂ Â Perron (VGK $6,300)
WÂ Â Hornqvist (PIT $6,100)
WÂ Â Rust (PIT $3,300)
DÂ Â Burns (SJ $7,400)
DÂ Â Vlasic (SJ $4,400)
GÂ Â Murray (PIT $8,200)
Note: This is a recommended lineup after discussing our top options for the week. Â You should use this as a guide, and provide your own input when building FanDuel NHL lineups. Â 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!