FanDuel NHL Blue Line Power Plays: March 5
By Matt Rogers
Welcome to FanDuel NHL Blue Line Power Plays for Monday, March 5th 2018. We’re a daily fantasy hockey column focused on top FanDuel NHL plays for your lineups each day.
Patrik Laine caught fire on offense recently, and with a hat-trick last night against the Hurricanes, in Raleigh, North Carolina, Laine continued to benefit FanDuel NHL players who are rolling with Laine right now. The Jets get the night off tonight, but Patrik should be on everyone’s radar for the game tomorrow in Madison Square Garden.
Ryan Getzlaf was a valuable pick last night, the hard way, with three assists for the Ducks in a 6-3 route of the Blackhawks. And Ryan Ellis, a top-line defender on the Predators playing alongside Roman Josi, continues to be a huge mid-salary range play. If Ellis is sub-$6K again tomorrow against the Stars on home ice, we’re grabbing Ryan once again for our lineups.
It’s Monday, so the NHL usually takes a step back with a smaller schedule. Tonight, however, is a fairly decent five-game slate, with a nationally televised game in Buffalo. Here’s a look at the NHL schedule for Monday, March 5th:
Flames at Penguins (7pm ET)
Maple Leafs at Sabres (7:30pm ET NBC SN)
Senators at Stars (8:30pm ET)
Coyotes at Oilers (9pm ET)
Islanders at Canucks (10pm ET)
The Flames offense has been incredible on the road this season, and they’re in Pittsburgh were we could see a battle between two back-up goalies, and therefore may stack each offense in that game, and fade the goalies.
The Sabres have struggled both away from Buffalo and on home ice this season. The Maple Leafs are in town tonight, likely with Frederik Andersen in net. We think Andersen is a high-probability win in goal, and we like the Leafs offense in Buffalo.
The Senators offense has been more impressive in Ottawa, as have opponents scoring on the Sens home ice. Tonight, they travel to Dallas were we think there’s a more favorable match up for the Stars.
The Coyotes have played better hockey lately, and they get the Oilers in Edmonton tonight. For some reason, the Oilers are playing terrible hockey on home ice this season, continuing to have the worst home-ice penalty kill in hockey.
Finally, the Islanders have a great offense both on home and road ice, and they take on a mediocre Canucks team who’s looked better down the stretch. In fact, either of these teams could have a great offensive night, and should be considered for stacking, much like the Flames and Penguins match up.
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: Mar 5th
While Connor McDavid ($9,200) and the Oilers have played poorly on home ice this season, it’s mostly been on the defensive side of the game. McDavid is red-hot right now, with three goals and five assist in the last four games. During that time, he’s averaging around 25 FanDuel NHL points-per-game, and Connor has an ideal match up against the Yotes tonight. He’s chalky, but McDavid is a solid top pick in all formats, for the center position.
With McDavid on the ice and in many FanDuel NHL players minds, fading Connor for Evgeni Malkin ($9,100) or Sidney Crosby ($8,800) is a solid play, especially in GPP. Crosby has been less consistent lately, but does have three goals in the last five games. The Penguins also moved the lines around and Crosby now has a better supporting cast on the top line.
The lineup moves paired with the beneficial match up for the Pengs, and Crosby is a great top pick tonight. But for value we also like newly acquired Derick Brassard ($5,400) leading the Penguins third line and their second power play line. Brassard has a goal and assist in just three games with the Penguins, averaging over 15 minutes per game.
If you’re fading the Penguins and stacking the Flames, grab Sean Monahan ($7,700) as your top Flames pick at center. Mikael Backlund ($5,200) may seem like a better value, but he’s very inconsistent, and Monahan has played great hockey on the road this season, one of the reasons the Flames are so good on the road.
We didn’t mention the Stars too much earlier, but we do love their offensive match up tonight against the Senators on home ice. Craig Anderson is currently projected to start, and he’s struggled all season. Tyler Seguin ($8,200) has five goals and four assists in his last five games, and will give Anderson fits all night. He’s a solid 20 to 40 FanDuel NHL point top pick at center tonight.
Now let’s take a look at the wings we want to stack along with our centers…
Top FanDuel NHL Wings: Mar 5th
Depending on what you did with your center picks, there are a few routes you could take at winger tonight. There are plenty of great top-winger picks who are expensive, like Phil Kessel ($8,200), Johnny Gaudreau ($7,900), or Jamie Benn ($7,400). Kessel has been more inconsistently lately, but for much of the season he’s averaged nearly 20 FanDuel NHL points-per-game, getting a large amount of points from man-advantage opportunities. But with Brassard leading the third line, Phil is a great play again, and likely will smooth out his recent inconsistencies.
Gaudreau is a great part of a Flames stack with Monahan at center, and Benn makes the same case with Seguin at center. However, if you’re playing that Flames or Stars stack, you’ll either need to find a second value pick at center, or you’ll need at least two to three value picks at wing, or both. The other option, which could be as effective or better, is to smooth out your winger picks with mid-to-upper salary range picks.
With that in mind, our two favorite sub-$7K winger picks are Matthew Tkachuk ($6,600) and Alexander Radulov ($6,500). They stick with any Flames or Stars stacking theme you’re trying to build tonight, and each player has been a beast on the ice all season. In fact, we’re likely going to play both in most of our lineups.
Ironically, Radulov’s only quiet game in the last two weeks was when the Stars hosted the Flames, but he still has three goals and one assist in the last five games. Even when not scoring, Alexander will still get three to six shots on goal, and he’s capable of piling up blocked shots as well. Turning just 20-years-old this season, Tkachuk looks more like a veteran on the ice this season, and he has three goals and four assists in the last seven games. Matt also gets at least three to six shots on goal each game.
Even with Radulov and Tkachuk in your lineup, you can still afford some other mini-full stacks like the Penguins top-line wingers Jake Guentzel ($6,000) and Patric Hornqvist ($6,000). Each moving to the top line with Crosby in the middle of the year-end playoff push seems like a great value opportunity. Guentzel is the younger and more inconsistent of the two, so we prefer Hornqvist, who just signed an extension with the Penguins.
For value, we’re not digging to deep because we shouldn’t need to tonight. We like both Sam Reinhart ($5,100) and Clayton Keller ($5,100). Reinhart has been red-hot for the Sabres over the last month, playing on their top line. And Keller is a budding star for the Yotes. They’re also both a pivot from our stacks, allowing us to complete a few four-player stacks while adding value.
Top FanDuel NHL Defense: Mar 5th
On defense, we frankly didn’t give you much room to grab expensive picks, unless you’re going with Reinhart, Keller, and Brassard in the same lineup. If you are, we like John Klingberg ($6,400), Dougie Hamilton ($5,900), or Mark Giordano ($5,800) as your top pick on defense. Klingberg is obviously the best of the three, getting enormous ice time and producing numbers similar to Brent Burns this season. Between the Flames starting defensive man, Hamilton has been the more consistent scorer over the Flames captain Giordano.
For GPP, Rasmus Ristolainen ($5,400) has been a consistent value you likely gets overlooked while playing 25-30 minutes of ice time against the Maple Leafs in Buffalo tonight. Ristolainen should get you double-digit points on a modest salary.
But, if you went expensive in the center and winger picks, much like we expect to do, our favorite two picks are also value plays. Maple Leafs starting defenseman Morgan Rielly ($4,700) and one of the Oilers top D-men Kris Russell ($3,900) each offer around 2.5x value tonight.
While Russell has been relatively quiet on the offensive stat sheet, he has 21 blocked shots in just five games. So with a few shots on goal or an assist, Kris has enormous double-digit point value on a cheap salary. Morgan is averaging over 11 FanDuel NHL points-per-game all season, and has three points in the last five games. He also has 15 shots on goal in the last five games, and averages a blocked shot per game.
Top FanDuel NHL Goalies: Mar 5th
We’ve got five games and ten teams on the ice tonight. That leaves us with a modest ten starting goalies to pick through. However, making the decision easier, we know there are some games we’re fading for the goaltender position.
The Penguins and Flames are likely each starting back-up goalies, and the result of that game is relatively unpredictable. We don’t like the Sabres or Senators match ups, and the Islanders and Canucks game resembles the Penguins Flames game, but with two starting goalies playing in a very equal match up.
That narrows our list down to Frederik Andersen ($8,700), Ben Bishop ($8,600), Cam Talbot ($7,700), and Antti Raanta ($7,500). Between these four, we feel more comfortable with Andersen and Bishop snagging the win for 12 FanDuel NHL points. And between those two, Bishop is the only one on home ice, and should see about as many shots as Andersen. So we prefer grabbing Bishop for the 25 to 35 points, on a slightly cheaper salary.
So, after reviewing all of our favorite options, here’s an example of a lineup we put together for Monday, March 5th:
C Seguin (DAL $8,200)
C Brassard (PIT $5,400)
W Tkachuk (CGY $6,600)
W Radulov (DAL $6,500)
W HornQvist (PIT $6,000)
W Reinhart (BUF $5,100)
D Rielly (TOR $4,700)
D Russell (EDM $3,900)
G Bishop (DAL $8,600)
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.
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