FanDuel NHL Blue Line Power Plays: February 18 Main
By Matt Rogers
Welcome back to the FanDuel NHL Blue Line Power Plays. This is the Sunday, Main Slate, February 18th edition. We’re a daily fantasy hockey column focused on top FanDuel NHL plays for your lineups each day.
Last night’s ‘Main’ slate of FanDuel NHL games was a series of hits and misses for this article. Some value suggestions like Nick Bonino ($3,600) didn’t pan out. Despite being nearly 20% owned in cash games, Bonino only had one shot on goal for 1.6 FanDuel NHL points. But rookie winger Zach Aston-Reese ($3,800) was a fantastic value play, getting four shots on goal and a goal for 18.4 FanDuel NHL points, while playing alongside Sidney Crosby.
Nikita Kucherov ($8,900) was expensive, but with an incredible 11 shots on goal and a power play assist, Kucherov provided 26.1 FanDuel NHL points. Also, Aleksander Barkov ($7,100) was one of our top plays at center last night, and with a goal, two blocked shots, and two assists including a power play assist, Barkov had an awesome 34.9 FanDuel NHL points in a 6-3 blowout of the Flames in Calgary.
One winger we didn’t cover in our article but we snagged for our lineups later on in the night was Golden Knights winger Reilly Smith ($6,100). We had a heavy focus on the Golden Knights wings, but missed Smith when talking about the slate. Realizing the potential later, we snagged him, which was fortunate. With two goals, one of the power play variety, and one assist, Smith has 40.5 FanDuel NHL points.
So we lost some and won some yesterday, but did especially well in cash games. Now, Let’s take a look at the NHL schedule for ‘Main’ slate on Sunday, February 18th:
Penguins at Blue Jackets (6pm ET)
Maple Leafs at Red Wings (7pm ET)
Panthers at Jets (8pm ET)
Stars at Sharks (8pm ET)
With only four games on the slate tonight, we can narrow our focus better, to limit our GPP and cash lineup plays for tonight. The Penguins are firing on all cylinders as they quickly approach the play off race in the Metropolitan Division. Meanwhile, the Blue Jackets continue to struggle in Columbus, and Crosby and Malkin’s lines likely continue to thrive tonight.
The Maple Leafs are having a consistently solid season, this year, and they’re in Detroit tonight facing a Red Wings team in a downward program spiral. The Leafs continue to have some great plays tonight, and maybe even some value in goal.
The Panthers and Jets are two very good offenses right now, facing off against each other in Winnipeg. While Connor Hellebuyck is having a great season, he could struggling against a red-hot Panthers offense. We’re not necessarily looking for the Panthers to hit a wall tonight. But the Jets have a better offensive match up, and while they’re expensive, they’re a top play again tonight.
Finally, the Stars and Sharks are two teams in a similar situation. The Sharks aren’t allowing many goals to be scored in San Jose, but on both defense AND offense. Meanwhile, aside from the Stars top offensive players like Tyler Seguin, they’re struggling to score consistently, and have been more focused on the defensive side of the game lately.
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 18th Main
Yes, again, the Evgeni Malkin ($9,000) and Sidney Crosby ($8,800) plays are rock-solid but expensive. However, that’s why we continue to try to avoid them. With either Malkin or Crosby in your lineup, you’re severely limited to picking only three to four great picks, and desperately searching for value across the rest of the lineup.
Instead, we like Mark Scheifele ($8,100) or Auston Matthews ($7,900) as the top two picks tonight. While Matthews has been fairly cold lately, he’s entering a very favorable scoring environment tonight. Auston is typically a hot goal-scorer, one of the better scorers in the NHL, but he only has three goals in the last seven games. Instead, Matthews has five assists in the last seven games, very un-Matthews’ like.
Since returning to the ice on February 9th, after an injury-related hiatus since December 27th, Scheifele immediately picked up where he left off. Mark and the Jets offense are having a fantastic season, and in the last four games, Scheifele has two goals and five assists. The Panthers should have James Reimer in goal, which won’t scare the Jets.
Yes, the Jets are playing at home in Winnipeg and yes, Connor Hellebuyck is one of the better goalies in the NHL right now. However, the Panthers offense is playing at another (higher) level during their Canadian road-trip right now. So we’re not afraid to play Vincent Trocheck ($7,200) and Aleksander Barkov ($6,900) again tonight. They’re just too good right now to avoid. We talked about Barkov’s great night last night, but Trocheck also had a power play goal and assist for 24.2 FanDuel NHL points. We’d stack the two together, or at least play one with a value pick tonight.
If you need cheaper picks, your best options are Nazem Kadri ($6,400), basically a cheaper version of Matthews on the Leafs second line, and Andrew Copp ($3,600) who, for some reason, is leading the third line with Patrik Laine and Nikolaj Ehlers. Copp is clearly a top value pick, but each of these centers benefits from the talent around them, goal-scorers on each side of the ice.
Now let’s take a look at the wings we want to stack along with our centers…
Top FanDuel NHL Wings: Feb 18th Main
If you’re playing Copp at center, you can easily afford to have Patrik Laine ($7,500) and Nikolaj Ehlers ($6,100) at wing, and should stack the three together. However, we prefer Blake Wheeler ($7,400) over Laine and Ehlers, especially if you don’t go with Copp at center. Wheeler has two goals and four assists in the last four games, a point in four straight games. Tonight’s match up won’t stop Blake.
For some mid-salary range options, veteran Patrick Marleau ($5,700) has three goals and four asists in the Sharks last four games. Marleau is seeing between 15 to 17 minutes of ice time each game, and while the crafty hockey player often scores goals, he was cold until the last two weeks. If you’re playing Kadri at center, this is a great stacking option.
Evgenii Dadonov ($5,200) has been playing way beyond his salary during this road trip, four goals and one assist in the last three games. In fact, he has at least one goal in all three games in Canada, and likely gets a fourth tonight.
Either Kyle Connor ($5,100) or Timo Meier ($5,000) are great $5K mid-salary range plays tonight. Meier may not be obvious to many as he’s been fairly cold over the last two weeks, but he does have a goal in Anaheim recently, and scored a power play goal and added an assist against the Golden Knights in San Jose on February 8th. Connor continues to play on the Jets top line with Scheifele, and has two goals in the last four games.
He’ll be a popular pick because of his hot streak, but Mitchell Marner ($6,600) isn’t playing as well away from Toronto. After having four goals and five assists in five straight home games, Marner only had two shots on goal and 3.2 FanDuel NHL points against the Penguins yesterday. However, in the last road-ice game prior to the Pittsburgh game, Mitch had a power play goal against a very good Bruins team in Boston. With this match up against the Red Wings in Detroit, he’s worth a bounce-back pick for GPP and cash games.
Finally, for value we like both Nick Bjugstad ($4,600) and Zach Aston-Reese ($3,800) again. Penguins rookie Aston-Reese is playing on Crosby’s top line, and we wrote about him yesterday. Zach rewarded our promotion with four shots and a goal for 18.4 FanDuel NHL points. Bjugstad has also been on our radar lately, with a goal and two assists during the Canadian road trip, but also five assists in the last seven games.
Top FanDuel NHL Defense: Feb 18th Main
With the Sharks and Stars on the ice tonight, either Brent Burns ($7,600) or John Klingberg ($6,400) are consistently awesome picks. Burns has played more wing lately, further inflating his potential, but Brent and John are both rare ice-beasts spending the vast majority of the game on the ice, and often involved in scoring plays.
But if you can’t afford Burns or Klingberg, we like Aaron Ekblad ($5,900), Dustin Byfuglien ($5,400) or Keith Yandle ($5,300) as top picks tonight. If you’ve been following our column for the last couple of days, you’re probably sick of Yandle and Ekblad on defense, but with the Panthers consistently scoring lots of goals in each Canadian road game, they can’t be avoided. Both Yandle an Ekblad also spend the majority of their game-time on the ice, and along with passing well, take shots at the point often, and provide great defensive stats.
Byfuglien is a scrappy veteran who spend some time off the ice recently due to injury. But since returning, Dustin has looked more aggressive on the offensive side of the puck. In fact, Buf has at least two assists in each of the last two Jets games, and a goal and six assists in the last six games. Dustin also isn’t afraid to get in front of several shots each game for blocked shots points.
For value picks on defense, we like Maple Leafs top-line defender Morgan Rielly ($4,500), Sharks top-line-mate of Burns’ Marc-Edouard Vlasic ($4,500), or Tyler Myers ($4,400). Vlasic has an asisst in each of the last three-straight games, and four in the last six games, and if you’re looking to differentiate your lineup with a Sharks play, he’s a great pick on defense. Vlasic can also be a great stack with Burns. Myers is a value fade from Byfuglien, or can be stacked with Buf.
Top FanDuel NHL Goalies: Feb 18th Main
Ben Bishop ($8,800) and Sergei Bobrovsky ($8,700) are two good goalies with crappy match ups tonight. Fade them. Martin Jones ($8,400) could be a good play, giving up more than two goals in only one of his last seven starts. And the Sharks typically have tremendous defense in San Jose. But we’re nervous about the match up against a solid Stars defense, and the 12-point win may be in danger.
Frederik Andersen is getting the night off, handing over the goal-minding duties to 34-year-old veteran Curtis McElhinney ($7,700). Not only do we love the match up against the Red Wings, even on the road, for the Maple Leafs, but McElhinney has only given up two goals within the last 81 shots.
That’s an incredible .975 save percentage. And, we know the Maple Leafs tend to give up too many shots. So with 30-40 saves and a win tonight, Curtis should see about 30 to 40 FanDuel NHL points, with a high ceiling possible if they can manage a shutout.
We obviously don’t love Jimmy Howard ($7,700) tonight, and while we like the Penguins odds against the Blue Jackets, Tristan Jarry ($7,900) may struggle on the road against the Jackets team who has surprised at times lately. The only other two goalie options are James Reimer ($7,300) and Connor Hellebuyck ($8,200) who we’ve mentioned multiple times. If you’re fading the Panthers, Hellebuyck is definitely a great option.
So, after reviewing all of our favorite options, here’s an example of a lineup we put together for Sunday, February 18th Main:
C Scheifele (WPG $8,100)
C Barkov (FLA $6,900)
W Wheeler (WPG $7,400)
W Marner (TOR $6,600)
W Bjugstad (FLA $4,600)
W Aston-Reese (PIT $3,800)
D Byfuglien (WPG $5,400)
D Vlasic (SJ $4,500)
G McElhinney ($7,700)
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?
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