FanDuel NHL Blue Line Power Plays: February 6
By Matt Rogers
Welcome to the FanDuel NHL Blue Line Power Plays column. This is the Tuesday, February 6th edition. We’re a daily fantasy hockey column focused on top FanDuel NHL plays for your lineups each day.
Yesterday’s NHL action was bizarre and exciting to watch. If you played Connor McDavid ($8,800), who’s been under the $9K FanDuel NHL salary range lately, man did you have a great night. With four goals and one assist, nine shots on goal, and two power play points, McJesus had an incredible 71.4 FanDuel NHL points. In his last four games, Connor has six goals and two assists, with a 26.1% goal per shot percentage. We’ll keep that in mind for the Oilers next game in L.A., on Wednesday night.
What makes last night bizarre, is the number of other really incredible results you could’ve played with McDavid. While Auston Matthews was a somewhat expensive $7,900 last night, you could afford to play Matthews with McDavid, and add another incredible 41.6 FanDuel NHL points to your team. Auston had two goals and one assist.
And get this, you had plenty of money to add Leon Draisaitl ($6,600), Corey Perry ($5,300), Kevin Fiala ($4,400), and Yanni Gourde ($4,900). Why is that important? Leon had two helpers and a goal for 38.1 FanDuel NHL points, Perry had four assists on all four Ducks goals (42.1 points), Fiala continues to tear it up again with two goals (27.2 points), and Gourde had a power play goal and assist for an additional 23.7 FanDuel NHL points.
If you were lucky enough to also play a hot Jake Gardiner ($4,400) on defense, adding another three assist and 32 points, along with Ben Bishop ($8,900), you had over 300 FanDuel NHL points and easily won every cash game or GPP you played. We haven’t seen lineups, like that, often this season. Bishop was one of the very few goalies who had a great night last night.
So with that in mind, we’ll take what we learned and look forward to the slate tonight. Let’s take a look at the NHL schedule for Tuesday, February 6th:
Ducks at Sabres (7pm ET)
Golden Knights at Penguins (7pm ET)
Flyers at Hurricanes (7pm ET)
Capitals at Blue Jackets (7pm ET)
Devils at Senators (7:30pm ET)
Bruins at Red Wings (7:30pm ET)
Canucks at Panthers (7:30pm ET)
Wild at Blues (8pm ET NBC SN)
Coyotes at Jets (8pm ET)
Flames at Blackhawks (8:30pm ET)
Sharks at Avalanche (9pm ET)
The vast majority of tonight’s eleven games start before the 8pm time frame, and FanDuel NHL Main slate lock is at 7pm ET tonight. With Mar-Andre Fleury likely starting in goal against the Penguins in Pittsburgh, that’s likely the most attractive game to watch tonight. However, from a FanDuel NHL perspective, it’s a revenge game we’re moving away from. Fleury has played well all season, but the Penguins are also heating up. It’s hard to understand how the outcome of that game will shape up.
The Flyers, Capitals, Devils, and Bruins each have a great offensive stack opportunity tonight, all on the road. Meanwhile, the Panthers offense in Florida has been outstanding and their match with the Canucks is attractive. Although, we’ve seen the Panthers defense struggle at home too, opening the door for some Canucks plays.
The Wild and Blues match up is likely a low-scoring goaltending-focused affair. But the Jets should have a great offensive opportunity against a terrible Coyotes defense in Winnipeg. The Flames continue to have a solid season, and score often on the road. They travel to Chicago tonight to play a Blackhawks team who can’t find it’s identity with Crawford off the ice. This could be another great opportunity to stack Jets players. And we end the night with another potentially high-score event between the Sharks and Avs in Denver, Colorado.
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 6th
As mentioned earlier, we’re fading the Penguins and Golden Knights tonight. It may turn out to be a mistake, but the narrative around this game may yield odd FanDuel NHL results tonight. The Penguins are hot right now, but so is Marc-Andre Fleury and the Knights and we know Fleury’s new team will pull hard for him against the team who finally gave up on the Stanley Cup champion. That takes Evgeni Malkin ($8,800) and Sidney Crosby ($8,600) off our board.
Instead, we love Patrice Bergeron ($8,300) in a juicy match up in Detroit against the Red Wings. The Red Wings are giving up three goals per game on home ice, ninth worst in the NHL. Meanwhile, Bergeron continues to play magnificently, even without Marchand on the ice, now with six goals and three assists in the last seven games. This should be another 20+ FanDuel NHL point night for Patrice.
The Ducks have only given up 2.68 goals per game on road-ice, tenth best in the NHL. However, of the last two games, in Toronto and Montreal, they’ve given up two goals! The Ducks travel to Buffalo where the Sabres have struggled on offense lately, but Jack Eichel ($7,900) is an exception. If you want to continue to ride on the Ducks defensive struggled on the road, fade Bergeron and save some money with another pick in Eichel.
The Flyers and Flames are ninth and tenth in the NHL in scoring on the road. Each team is dangerous to host, and the Hurricanes and Blackhawks are vulnerable tonight. For those reasons, we really like Sean Monahan ($7,600) and Sean Couturier ($7,300). Monahan has a goal in each of the last two games, and Couturier played a part in the Flyers getting to a shootout over the weekend, with a goal as well.
The Florida Panthers offense has been terrible on the road this season, but when back in Florida, the Panthers are ninth best in the NHL with 3.26 goals per game. Coupled with the fact that the Canucks are mediocre on the road, giving up at least three goals per game, and Aleksander Barkov ($7,000) and Vincent Trocheck ($6,500) are obvious great plays tonight.
On the flip-side of the Panthers game, is Bo Horvat ($5,700) and the surprisingly solid Canucks offense on the road. After spending most of December and January on the IR, Horvat has been back on the ice for the last six games, and scored two goals and provided two assists in that time.
However, Bo hasn’t played in a road game since January 21st. But with the Canucks scoring 2.72 goals per game on the road, we know Horvat has a solid shot at providing great value tonight, especially against the Panthers struggling defense and goaltending.
Now let’s take a look at the wings we want to stack along with our centers…
Top FanDuel NHL Wings: Feb 6th
Considering some of our top plays at center, we should immediately jump into stacking options. With the Flames playing very well on the road, Johnny Gaudreau ($7,800) is a great stacking pick with Monahan, if you can afford it. In the last six games, Gaudreau has four assists in a goal. In the last four away games, Johnny has two goals and six assists.
We love Bergeron tonight and, if you can afford another $7K+ winger, David Pastrnak ($7,600) is a great stack with Patrice. Again, even without Marchand, Pastrnak has four goals and six assists in the last eight games, a point in every game. With this match up, Pastrnak’s run should continue. And if you’re going with Couturier, grab one of either Claude Giroux ($7,600) or Jakub Voracek ($7,400). Giroux is a great play if you think Couturier’s line will have a great night. But Voracek is a better way to spread the scoring love around the lineup from the Flyers.
Jonathan Huberdeau ($6,900) and Brock Boeser ($6,600) are great stacks if you’re planning to play Trocheck, Barkov, and Horvat. Rookie Boeser has three goals and two assists in the last five games, including a two point and 28 FanDuel NHL point game against the Bolts last Saturday. Also on Saturday, Huberdeau had a goal and assists against the Red Wings on home ice.
The Blue Jackets offense has been off the radar lately, as they’ve struggled both at home and on road ice. But Cam Atkinson ($6,000) has been quietly heating up lately, starting to resemble his surge from last season. In the last four games, two at home line tonight, Atkinson has two goals and two assists, averaging nearly 20 FanDuel NHL points per game. This could be a great cheap, but high-value, pick at winger tonight.
In the last eight games, Travis Konecny ($5,200) has a goal or assist in seven of the eight games. Also in that time, Konecny has 18+ FanDuel NHL points in six of the eight games. The 20-year-old speedy wing man has played almost 18 minutes of ice time per game since moving to the Flyers top line, and while his salary is moving north, he’s still a tremendous value at this price-point.
Finally, we’re grabbing two Jets in Winnipeg for value at wing tonight. Mathieu Perreault ($4,500) is likely on everyone’s radar tonight. Perreault has nine goals and nine assists in 18 games at home this year, and a 22.5% goal per shot rate. The salary in this scenario seems dirt cheap. Likely off the radar is top-line winger Jack Roslovic ($3,500). After scoring his first NHL goal on January 25th against the Ducks, Jack added his second goal three games later, this past Saturday, against the Avalanche in Winnipeg. Roslovic is playing on the Wings top line and should have a great offensive opportunity again tonight.
Top FanDuel NHL Defenders: Feb 6th
While it’s not always best to pick an expensive defender for your FanDuel NHL lineup, tonight’s slate provides too many great picks at the top of the ladder. Brent Burns ($7,600), Erik Karlsson ($6,800), and Shayne Gostisbehere ($6,400) are all great picks tonight.
Between the three, Burns is a nearly must-have but if you can’t afford Burnsy tonight, grab Karlsson instead. Like Brent, Erik is a beast-ice who is involved in practically all his team’s production. Gostisbehere is a sharp-shooter who could have a goal or two against the Canes tonight.
The Ducks have struggled on defense lately, but Cam Fowler ($5,500) has seven assists in the last six games. Cam was quiet last night against the Maple Leafs, but with two assists against the Rangers, Bruins, and Canadiens, Fowler has been scoring nearly 20 FanDuel NHL points in several games over the last two weeks on a cheap salary.
For more mid-salary range options, Aaron Ekblad ($5,700) and Keith Yandle ($5,400) on home ice with tremendous Panthers offense against the Canucks should be a great play tonight. Either is a great play with Yandle providing 20+ points in each of the last three games, and Ekblad scoring a goal and providing a helper against the Red Wings on Friday. Aaron is better pick for goals.
Finally, Alexander Edler ($5,200) was hot for a while and cooled off recently, but with 20+ minutes of ice time each game, he’s able to build up sizable shots and blocked shots for a growing 12+ FanDuel NHL point-per-game average. Another emerging top defender pick is Ivan Provorov ($5,300) who remains cheap because he sometimes has inconsistent results, but has had a steadying 10+ FanDuel NHL point-per-game average over the last two months.
Top FanDuel NHL Goalies: Feb 6th
My favorite play at goalie tonight is Carter Hutton ($9,100). Each time he’s on the ice, we try to squeeze Hutton into our lineup. Over the last seven stars, Carter has one or less goals given up in six games. So with a 6-1 record Hutton has only given up seven goals in seven games. The Wild are a tougher team, with a better goalie match up, than the Blues have seen in a while. But, betting against Hutton is likely a losing bet right now.
Over the last couple of months, Hutton has been cheaper. It’s unfortunately his salary is finally growing to a level it likely should’ve been at for weeks. So if we don’t think we can afford Carter, there are other options. Of those options, we like Connor Hellebuyck ($8,400) on home ice against the Coyotes tonight. Connor has given up many more goals than Hutton lately, but he also has two shutouts in his last five starts.
For cheaper picks, but more risk, consider Mike Smith ($8,200) on road ice against the Blackhawks and Brian Elliott ($7,900) coming back for the Flyers tonight against the Hurricanes in Charlotte, North Carolina. Smith is the better bet, but the Flyers have looked better all season when Elliott is in goal too, and bad goaltending has muted an otherwise solid effort while Elliott was on the IR.
So, after reviewing all of our favorite options, here’s an example of a lineup we put together for Tuesday, February 6th:
C Bergeron (BOS $8,300)
C Horvat (VAN $5,700)
W Atkinson (CLS $6,000)
W Konecny (PHI $5,200)
W Perreault (WPG $4,500)
W Roslovic (WPG $3,500)
D Burns (SJ $7,600)
D Ekblad (FLA $5,700)
G Hellebuyck (WPG $8,400)
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!