FanDuel NHL Blue Line Power Plays: February 27

Welcome back to FanDuel NHL Blue Line Power Plays, for Tuesday, February 27th. We’re a daily fantasy hockey column focused on top FanDuel NHL plays for your lineups each day.

Like most of the weekend, we had some hits and misses yesterday. Brayden Point ($6,000) was a favorite top center pick because of the value he could offer. However, he only provided two shots on goal and had one of his worst DFS NHL nights in a while, with 3.2 FanDuel NHL points.

But if you paid up for Nathan MacKinnon ($7,900), who was quite chalky last night, he rewarded you with nine shots on goal, two shots, and a power play assist for an awesome 46.9 FanDuel NHL points.

We toyed with the idea of stacking MacKinnon with Mikko Rantanen ($6,600) at the wing position, but ultimately backed off of the idea. That was a mistake, as Rantanen added a goal and assist for 22.1 FanDuel NHL points.

We were focused on some value plays from the Caps last night, but it turns out the Blue Jackets had better outcomes. Winger Artemi Panarin ($7,300) was an expensive, and somewhat risky, option last night. However, as we noted, Holtby has been struggling. For that reason, we should’ve jumped on Panarin who had one goal and one assist for 25.8 FanDuel NHL points.

Even better, Cam Atkinson ($6,400) another top talented winger on the Jackets, had a short-handed goal (empty netter) and two power play assists, and five shots on goal for 39 FanDuel NHL points.

In edition to Seth Jones ($5,500) who had a goal and two assists as well, the Blue Jackets stack was one of the best options last night. Clearly it was a surprise to many, becuase most of the players were well below 10% owned.

Two plays we did have work out for us were Tyson Barrie ($5,400) and Semyon Varlamov ($7,700) defending and minding the net last night for the AVs. Barrie had two shots on goal and two blocked shots, along with a power play assist for 14.9 points. Varly had 31 saves, only letting one goal by, and the win for 32.8 FanDuel NHL points.

So, between the team, we got 47.7 points on modest salaries for the positions. We won some and lost some, and will take what we learned over the last couple of days and look forward to a big Tuesday night slate. Here’s a look at the NHL schedule for Tuesday, February 27th:

Hurricanes at Bruins (7pm ET)

Devils at Penguins (7pm ET)

Senators at Capitals (7pm ET)

Maple Leafs at Panthers (7:30pm ET)

Blues at Wild (8pm ET NBC SN)

Predators at Jets (8pm ET)

Flames at Stars (8:30pm ET)

Kings at Golden Knights (10:30pm ET NBC SN)

Oilers at Sharks (10:30pm ET)

Tonight, the Hurricanes likely run into a Bruins buzz saw in Boston. But the B’s are very expensive for FanDuel NHL so we’re likely fading most of the low-value in the lineup. The Hurricanes have some value opportunity, but against Tuukka Rask on Boston ice we’re not expecting much offensive production from the Canes tonight.

The new look Devils are in Pittsburgh after making several trades to beef up their offensive production. But on home ice, we like the Penguins DFS value more. Even though they have some high-priced centers, the Penguins are still in play and they have some value wingers, too, for stacking.

The Senators are in Washington, D.C. playing a Capitals team struggling to defend the net lately. But Braden Holtby was injured last night, and with Philipp Grubauer the Caps may actually be better off. While Grubauer has played better minding the net lately, the Sens are still in play tonight.

The Maple Leafs and Panthers are both great offensive options in Florida tonight. But the Blues playing the Wild in Minnesota could be a low-scoring game, and both goalies are expensive. The Predators offense is heating up, but the Jets have been on fire in Winnipeg. Something has to give, and we like the Preds value more than the Jets high-priced plays.

The Flames offense is fantastic on the road, so the Stars goaltending may struggle tonight, and Anze Kopitar and the Kings head to Vegas after hosting the Golden Knights in Los Angeles. Many of the same match up thoughts apply in Vegas, from Yesterday, but Kopitar is back on the radar. Finally, the Oilers have oddly played great hockey lately, and travel to San Jose where the Sharks score, but also give up, few goals on the ice.

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 27th

Our top three centers tonight are Evgeni Malkin ($9,200), Aleksander Barkov ($7,300), and Eric Staal ($7,200). The one three each of these three center have in common right now is that they’re hot, consistently scoring double-digit points each night, and they each seem un-phased by their match ups right now.

With 32+ FanDuel NHL points in three of his last four games, Malkin is quickly becoming the best FanDuel NHL skater on the ice this season. Over the last six games, Evgeni has six goals and seven assists.  That’s at least one goal and one assist per game, not including his shots on goal and blocked shots. On home ice in Pittsburgh against the Canes, he stays hot and should score over 20 FanDuel NHL points tonight, giving us a 2.17x return. So even though Malkin is expensive, he’s worth it.

Barkov and Staal are each likely to yield 2x returns as well. Aleksander has four assists on home ice in the last two games, including a 30.4 FanDuel NHL point result against the Penguins. When the Panthers played the Maple Leafs in Toronto, Barkov was quiet with only three shots on goal and a blocked shot. But on home ice, Aleksander is better and he’s been red-hot over the last three months.

If you’ve been playing FanDuel NHL consistently over the last week, you know Staal is a hot commodity. In the last seven games, Eric has six goals and three assists, but in the last three games alone Staal has four goals. Two of those goals were against solid a solid Devils and Sharks defense.

He’s not as consistently dominate as the top three picks tonight, but Sean Monahan ($7,800) is another top center value likely providing around 15 FanDuel NHL points on a modest salary. Monahan’s play tends to elevate on the road, like the rest of the Flames, and they’re in Dallas tonight.

For a mid-salary range pick at center, we’re going to continue to exploit the Caps struggles on defense, understanding the risk applied now that Grubauer is in net. Matt Duchene ($5,900) has foru goals and four assist in the last seven games, and is generally playing better hockey lately.

Finally for value, we like Ryan Strome ($4,700), Chris Tierney ($4,000), and Kyle Turris ($4,900). Of the three, we like Strome the most. While he’s listed as a fourth line center, Ryan is also heavily involved in the power play and sees around 15 minutes of ice time per game.

In the last five games, Ryan has five goals and one assist. The Sharks are stingy on defense, but the Oilers have exceeded offensive their standard offensive production during this road trip, including Strome’s three goals in the L.A. area. At worst, Strome should yield around ten FanDuel NHL points.

Tierney and Turris have more risk. While the Sharks are playing the Oilers on home ice tonight, the Oilers have played well away from Edmonton this season, and Cam Talbot and their defense have stepped up over the last couple of weeks. Paired with the Sharks poor offense this season, Chris could have a low point result. Also, Turris has a decent shot at around ten points tonight, but Winnipeg is a tough environment even for the Predators.

Now let’s take a look at the wings we want to stack along with our centers…

Top FanDuel NHL Wings: Feb 27th

The Preds likely have Pekka Rinne in net tonight, and he’s one of the better goaltenders in the NHL right now. However, Rinne is going to have his hands full with one of the best offensive teams in the NHL on home ice. So even though they’re expensive, we still love Blake Wheeler ($7,800) and Patrik Laine ($7,600).

Blake has points in ten of his last twelve games, often getting more than one point for 20+ FanDuel NHL points. Laine is on a scoring tear right now, with six goals in the last five games, at least one in each game. So with both plays, you’re likely getting 20+ points or around a 2.3x return on their salary. That’s one of the highest we’ll see tonight.

Even against the Predators, the Jets offense is likely chalky tonight. For that reason, we like Mark Stone ($7,500) as a top winger if you’re fading the Jets. As we’ve already mentioned, the Caps are giving up a lot of goals in D.C. right now, and Stone has at least two points in four of his last five games, very likely yielding another 20+ FanDuel NHL point outcome.

If you’re playing Monahan at center with a Flames stack focus, plug Matthew Tkachuk ($6,700) as a top-two winger pick. The 20-year-old Arizona native is red-hot right now and one of the best young skaters on the ice this season. Matthew has four goals and four assists in the last six games. The the entire Flames offense, Tkachuk plays best on the road.

For mid-salary range value picks, we like Reilly Smith ($6,600) against the Kings again tonight. Last night, Reilly had eight shots on goal, getting one past Quick for a goal and 24.8 FanDuel NHL points. Smith is heavily involved in the Golden Knights offense with 16-20 minutes of ice time each game, and has five goals and five assists in the last seven games.

In a similar position, Evgenii Dadonov ($5,800) is playing on the Panthers top line and is getting nearly 20 minutes of ice time each game. Dadonov’s ice time has climbed throughout the season, as has his scoring production. Including a hat-trick against the Penguins on home ice on Saturday,

Evgenii has seven goals and three assists in the last seven games. The Panthers have a touch match up against the Leafs tonight, but the Panthers score around three goals per game on home ice, even when losing. If Dadonov can get over 15 FanDuel NHL points again tonight, he’s one of the best values at this position.

While we mostly do not like the match up the Preds offense has tonight, Craig Smith‘s ($5,500) value can’t be avoided. Smith has a goal or assist, two goals and five assists, in each over his last seven games. So with an average of around 14 FanDuel NHL points in the last couple of weeks, we’re getting a 2.3x return on his salary, one of the top-ten at the position.

Finally, our top value pick of the night is one we’ve gone with before, and he may be low-owned again tonight. The Devils are a touch defense this year, even on the road. But the Penguins produce solid offense in Pittsburgh, and Bryan Rust ($5,100) is averaging double-digit points lately on a cheap salary. In fact, with Rust is a 2.4x with about 13 points tonight, a top three winger value.

Top FanDuel NHL Defense: Feb 27th

Even though we don’t love, most, of the Predators offense in Winnipeg, defense is a different story. If you can grab a defender who gets several shots on goal and several blocked shots because of high-shot activity and a large amount of time on the ice, you’re getting a consistent double-digit FanDuel NHL point scorer.

Roman Josi ($6,400) and Ryan Ellis ($5,400) are each on the Predators top defensive lines and both have become consistent point producers for just that reason. Between the two, Josi is more involved in offense, scoring a goal and providing seven helpers in the last seven games.

Lately, Ellis has also provided a lot of offensive production, with a goal and seven assists as well. But Ryan has nine blocked shots in the last three games, and is averaging around three shots on goal per game lately.

If you’re fading the Preds tonight, consider red-hot Dustin Byfuglien ($5,700) or Keith Yandle ($5,000) instead. We like the Panthers offensive production tonight, and Yandle has seven assists in the last seven games.

Byfuglien is emerging as more of an offensive producer in the second half of the season, which may be part of the reason why the Jets offense is so hot. In the last six games, Buff has a goal and ten assists.

Finally, for value, considering finally grabbing a Bruins player, rookie Charlie McAvoy ($3,800). As we mentioned earlier, we love the Bruins’ offensive production on home ice against the Canes tonight. But, most of the Bruins players are too expensive. McAvoy is dirt cheap.

He only has a goal and two assist in the last six games, but the rookie is on the ice for 20-25 minutes per game and adds shots on goal and blocked shots for nearly ten FanDuel NHL points-per-game lately. That’s a 2.7x return on such a cheap salary.

Top FanDuel NHL Goalies: Feb 27th

With nine games on ice tonight, we have 18 goalies to pick through. Also, we aren’t aware of all of the starting goalies at this point, and keep in mind there are several injuries and trades which occur ed over the last couple of days, so be sure to check on the goaltender availability before the 7pm ET lock. So, we’ve narrowed this down to two options, to make it easier.

Tuukka Rask ($9,100) is our favorite goalie tonight, but boy is he expensive. With 12 FanDuel NHL points for the wing and likely around 25 saves tonight against the Hurricanes on home ice, Rask is a solid 25 to 30 point pick. However, if you grab a cheaper goalie giving you 20-25 points, you’re getting a better value. A cheaper goalie allows you to grab a more valuable offensive play like Malkin at center, for example.

A lower-ownership play with some risk, but high value, we’re grabbing Cam Talbot ($8,000) to mind the net for us tonight against the Sharks. The Sharks are tough to beat in San Jose, but they’re offense is also a low scoring team.

That improves our odds of getting at least ten to 15 points. Also, Talbot has been red-hot the last couple of weeks, after a terrible first half of the season. Cam is 3-2 in the last five starts, but beat the Avs in Denver and the Kings in Los Angeles. Also, he hasn’t given up more than three goals in his last five starts.

So, after reviewing all of our favorite options, here’s an example of a lineup we put together for Tuesday, February 27th:

C     Malkin (PIT $9,200)

C     Strome (EDM $4,700)

W   Stone (OTT $7,500)

W   Dadonov (FLA $5,800)

W   Smith (NSH $5,500)

W   Rust (PIT $5,100)

D    Ellis (NSH $5,400)

D    McAvoy (BOS $3,800)

G    Talbot (EDM $8,000)

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.

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