FanDuel NHL Blue Line Power Plays: February 17 Early
By Matt Rogers
Welcome to the FanDuel NHL Blue Lines Power Play column. The is the Saturday, February 17th Early edition. We’re a daily fantasy hockey column focused on top FanDuel NHL plays for your lineups each day.
We had a so-so FanDuel NHL night last night. Our example lineup wasn’t great enough to win cash games, but we had several suggestions, like stacking the Jets, which worked out perfectly. Kyle Connor ($5,100) was a cheap way to get a play on the Jets top line, and he worked out well. In Winnipeg, the Jets crushed the Avalanche, as expected, but they piled up a 6-1 win, more goals than we anticipated.
Still, Connor had a goal on four shots, and with 18.4 FanDuel NHL points, he was a great value. But Blake Wheeler ($7,300), one of our top picks at wing, was the play of the night. Yes, Blake was expensive, and chalky, but with two goals and one assist, along with five shots on goal and a blocked shot, you were in trouble if you didn’t have Wheeler’s 43.7 FanDuel NHL points in your lineup.
One value play at center which was missed, was Andrew Copp ($3,600). For some odd reason, the Jets put Patrik Laine and Nikolaj Ehlers, two of the Jets top goal scorers, on the third line with Andrew. But that worked out in Copp’s favor, and increased his value significantly. Cop had two shots on goal, a short-handed goal (additional two points), and a blocked shot for a total of 18.8 FanDuel NHL points.
On defense, we had modest returns. While the Flyers won 2-1, it was lower scoring than we expected. Shayne Gostisbehere ($6,600) assisted in one of the goals, and had three blocked shots, but 14.4 FanDuel NHL points felt like a rip-off for his salary.
At goal, Thomas Greiss was a surprise start and shocked us with the Islanders second-straight shutout. Greiss and Halak had back-to-back shutouts which were the only two shutouts they’ve had all season. That is bizarre! But we did nail Connor Hellebuyck ($8,100) and his 30 saves and win for 32 FanDuel NHL points. However, Connor was chalky last night, a 75% play in nearly all cash games.
We’ll try to find you some more Jets-like stacks for the Early slate today, and follow that up with the Main slate article later today. Let’s take a look at the NHL schedule for ‘Early’ slate on Saturday, February 17th:
Kings at Sabres (1pm ET)
Rangers at Senators (2pm ET)
Ducks at Wild (2pm ET)
Anze Kopitar ($7,300) is red-hot and his Kings are in Buffalo playing a sub-par defense. But the Kings have struggled to win games over the last two weeks, so we are likely going to limit our exposure to the team. Buffalo has also struggled with wins late, but even with Jack Eichel on IR, they’ve been productive on their top line, like the Kings.
The Rangers are in a terrible downward spiral, while the Senators are trying to make moves to save their season. While the Sens have been dreadful on the road, they’re 4-1 in their last five games. In their last ten games, the Senators have a 66.7% penalty kill on the road but improve to 81.8% in Ottawa. The power play also improves from 12.5% to nearly 30% on home ice. So we know this could be an opportunity to grab value from the Senators this afternoon.
The Ducks have played fairly well in their last twelve games on the road. They’re 5-5-2 with a 19.4% power play and 82% PK. While they have a better win rate in Anaheim, their power play and PK rates are actually better on the road. However, the Wild are 9-1-3 in their last thirteen home games and match up well against the Ducks. These teams statistics effectively cancel each other out, so we may want to avoid them.
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 17th Early
With Jack Eichel out with an injury, Anze Kopitar ($7,300) is the most expensive option at center, and he’s also your best play this afternoon. In his last twelve games, Kopitar has double-digit FanDuel NHL points in eleven games. Anze’s worse game, during that period, was in Nashville against a very good Predators team. But Kopitar was been match-up proof since the start of the calendar year.
On home ice, the Sabres are giving up 3.25 goals per game, one of the worst in the NHL. The Sabres have a modest 81.7% PK in Buffalo, but they’re struggling essentially the same at home as they are on road ice. While the Sabres are 2-1 in their last three home games, they’ve given up 13 total goals. So regardless of the outcome, it’s highly likely Kopitar registers another point today, and he could have a two or more points with a 20+ result today.
While we like Kopitar and the Kings offense today, we also like the Sabres against the Kings and struggling Jonathan Quick in goal. So Ryan O’Reilly ($6,400) and even Evan Rodrigues ($4,000) are both solid plays with plenty of ice time due to the Eichel injury. O’Reilly has a clear shot at 20+ points, but even Rodrigues has two goals and three assists in the last five games.
The Senators are in hot trade talks right now, but we love stacking them today assuming they don’t trade any of these players. Matt Duchene ($6,200) is now leading the Sens top line, and his NHL DFS value is rapidly climbing, but so is his salary. In the last five games, Duchene has two goals and six assists, three assists in Ottawa against the Sabres on Thursday night. Derick Brassard ($5,900) is a great stack at center with Duchene, as he has four goals in the last five games, three straight lately. This stack could yield about 40+ FanDuel NHL points this afternoon.
Now let’s take a look at the wings we want to stack along with our centers…
Top FanDuel NHL Wings: Feb 17th Early
If you want to keep the Senators stack going, we have value picks later on in this article. Mark Stone ($7,100) and Mike Hoffman ($6,800) are rumored to be on the trading block today, but they’re both great plays against the struggling Rangers defense.
Hoffman has four goals and three assists in the last seven games, and is averaging nearly 13 FanDuel NHL points on a consistent basis this season. Stone is more of an assist guy, but he has a goal and six assists in the last seven games, getting two assists in two of the last four games. A double-assist and 20+ day is in the card for Stone today.
Looking back at the Sabres, we don’t like Evander Kane‘s ($6,000) play lately, so we’re fading him, but on the same line Kyle Okposo ($6,200) has played inspired hockey lately, five assists in the last six games. Sam Reinhart ($4,900) is also a great top-line stack with O’Reilly, and Okposo is the best option on the second line of the Sabrers.
Finally, for value plays, we like Marian Gaborik ($4,000) at right wing on the Senators top line, and Alex Iafallo ($3,700) on the top line with Kopitar for the Kings. After the recent trade from the Kings to the Sens, Gaborik had a goal and assist in his first game for his new club.
Iafallo can be inconsistent, but with 15+ minutes of ice time, he has two goals and two assists in the last six games. Either play at wing also allows you to stack some expensive centers and wingers while providing double-digit FanDuel NHL point upside.
Top FanDuel NHL Defense: Feb 17th Early
Erik Karlsson($7,000) is a slam-dunk top pick at defense with a Senators stack as a target against the Rangers this afternoon. Karlsson is one of the unique ice-beasts, spending nearly 30 minutes each game on the ice, getting multiple shots on goal and blocked shots, and often involved in all scoring opportunities. Erik is the rare defender who can consistently get you more than ten FanDuel NHL points each game, without registering a goal or assist.
If you can’t afford Karlsson, Drew Doughty ($5,700) is the second best defender on the ice today, before 4pm ET, and you save $1.3K with his pick. Doughty isn’t quite as consistently dominate as Karlsson, hence the variance in salary. But assuming the Kings top line scores a few goals today, you’ll want Drew in your line. Even better, you can stack Drew with Jake Muzzin ($4,800).
In fact, Muzzin is our favorite value pick at defense, and is a great pick with either Karlsson or Doughty today. Muzzin can also get you around ten points per game, with only his shots and blocked shots. In the last five games, Jake has 5+ shots in tow games.
Against the Penguins in Pittsburgh on Thursday night, Muzzin piled up three shots on goal and three blocked shots and provided 9.6 FanDuel NHL points without being involved in any scoring. That’s a solid non-scoring return for such a cheap salary.
Two other top plays on defense we like, especially for value, is Sabres second line defender Rasmus Ristolainen ($4,900) and new Kings second line defender Dion Phaneuf ($4,700). Ristolainen is a rising star for the Sabres, and cheap because he has been offensively quite over the last couple of months, but he’s heating up. Meanwhile, Phaneuf was just traded by the Senators to the Kings, and he already registered a power play goal for the Kings in his first game.
Top FanDuel NHL Goalies: Feb 17th Early
With only three games in the ‘Early Only’ FanDuel NHL slate, we have only six goalies to pick through today. Devan Dubnyk ($8,800) and John Gibson ($8,700) are two great goalies, but it’s risky to play either given we aren’t confident who will take the 12 points for the win. And while Henrik Lundqvist ($8,600) and Jonathan Quick ($8,500) are also top-career goalies, they’re both struggling lately, with poor defense in front of the crease.
So, that oddly narrows our search down to the two cheapest goalies in this slate, Craig Anderson ($7,600) and Robin Lehner ($7,500). While we like either goalie, Anderson is our favorite. Lehner has given up three to five goals per game in the last four starts, but Craig hasn’t given up more than three goals in a game for the last eight straight games.
In fact, Anderson hasn’t given up more than two goals in either of his last two appearances on the ice. So with the Rangers struggling, and just being shutout recently by a terrible Islanders defense, we really like Anderson’s FanDuel NHL value this afternoon!
So, after reviewing all of our favorite options, here’s an example of a lineup we put together for Saturday, February 17th Early:
C Kopitar (LA $7,300)
C Duchene (OTT $6,200)
W Hoffman (OTT $6,800)
W Okposo (BUF $4,900)
W Reinhart (BUF $4,900)
W Iafallo (LA $3,700)
D Karlsson (OTT $7,000)
D Muzzin (LA $4,800)
G Anderson (OTT $7,600)
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: Perfect Landing Spot for Kirk Cousins?
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!