FanDuel NHL Blue Line Power Plays: March 9
By Matt Rogers
Welcome back to the FanDuel NHL Blue Line Power Plays column. This is the Friday, March 9th edition. We’re a daily fantasy hockey column focused on top FanDuel NHL plays for your lineups each day.
Last night, the big play at goalie was Roberto Luongo ($8,300), who piled up an awesome 40 saves in a shutout win over the Canadiens, on home ice. Along with the eight FanDuel NHL points for the shutout, and 12 points for the win, Luongo gave you an incredible 52 points in your lineup.
Two more Panthers who could’ve helped you out lats night were winger Evgenii Dadonov ($6,000) and defender Keith Yandle ($4,900). Dadonov has been a consistent value play at winger over the last month, and he’s finally reaching a pricier salary. Still, Evgenii was worth a pick with a goal and assist for 25.3 FanDuel NHL points. Yandle is still a value play getting three assists last night and 29.2 points.
But there was plenty of great value plays last night. Ryan Dzingel ($3,900) had only three shots on goal, and a sub 15% FanDuel NHL ownership in cash games, but still provided two goals and 28.8 points on a dirt-cheap salary for the winger. At the defense position, our favorite pick Marco Scandella ($3,800) also had three shots on goal, scoring once, for 16.8 FanDuel NHL points.
We’ll try to grab some value plays again tonight, for the four-game slate. Here’s a look at the NHL schedule for Friday, March 9th:
Red Wings at Blue Jackets (7pm ET)
Flames at Senators (7:30pm ET)
Ducks at Stars (8:30pm ET)
Wild at Canucks (10pm ET)
The Red Wings are struggling as the seasons nears an end, and the Blue Jackets are still in the playoff race. So the Jackets offense and goaltending will be solid picks to target on home ice in Columbus, OH.
That game aside, we like all three other road-ice teams, the Flames, Ducks, and Wild. Of those three, the Wild’s offense has been absolutely on fire. The Flames offense has played significantly better on the road, all season, and the Ducks are hot right now, facing a Stars team who’s been inconsistent in Dallas 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: March 9th
We’re fading Tyler Seguin ($8,300) and the Dallas Stars tonight. As you’ll see later, we favor their goaltending and defense, and paying up for Seguin is just too risky. In stead, save some money and grab either Sean Monahan ($7,700), Ryan Getzlaf ($7,600), or Eric Staal ($7,500) as your top center pick tonight.
They may also seem pricey, but they’re the three best centers on the ice tonight, and fading all three is a mistake. Monahan has been cold until he scored a goal and provided a helper in Buffalo last game, and the Flames take their hot road offense to a popular scoring hole for road teams, Ottawa.
Getzlaf is our favorite pick of the three, he’s averaging over two assists per game in the last four games, he has 12 assists in his last seven games. Ryan also has two goals in that time, and will be on the ice for over 20 minutes tonight. The Stars have struggled on defense in Dallas lately as well.
Even if you’re playing a line with Monahan and Getzlaf, consider building a second with Staal in the lineup. The 33-year-old Canadian is absolutely on fire over the last two months, including nine goals in the last seven games, and is in a favorable scoring environment for the Wild, in Vancouver.
For a second center pick, we’re looking at mid-range or value level salaries. Wild veteran Mikko Koivu ($5,700) has been heating up lately leading the Wild’s second line, three goals and four assists in the last five games. If you’re not playing Staal at center, Koivu is another more affordable way to start your Wild stack tonight.
Mikael Backlund ($5,400) is a cheaper version of Monahan in Ottawa, but we also like the Senators scoring chances on home ice tonight, and Jean-Gabriel Pageau ($4,700) has been quietly productive lately. With around 20 minutes of ice time per game lately, leading the Sens second line, Pageau has two goals in the last four games. Even better, Jean-Gabriel is managing to score double-digit points without providing any offense. But tonight, Pageau should get on the stat sheet.
Now let’s take a look at the wings we want to stack along with our centers…
Top FanDuel NHL Wings: March 9th
Reminder, we fading the Stars so ignore Jamie Benn ($7,600). But we’re also not keen on paying up for Johnny Gaudreau ($7,800) or Mark Stone ($7,600). Instead, we’ll save a few hundred in salary and pick Artemi Panarin ($7,400) as our top winger pick.
The Blue Jackets leading scorer is hot again, and on the ice for around 20 minutes per game right now. The former Blackhawk has three goals and three assists in the last three games, he also has four goals and six assists in the last seven games. Even when not involved in the scoring sheet, Artemi is piling up shots on goal. On home ice against a Red Wings team effectively calling it a season, we love Panarin tonight.
Panarin is a little expensive, but we’re not done with big spending at the winger position. We’ll likely grab one or two $6K+ wingers to add to the Panarin pick. Matthew Tkachuk ($6,700) has a great situation in Ottawa, but so does Mike Hoffman ($6,400). Either is a great second wing pick tonight.
To continue with the Wild stack, you can add Zach Parise ($6,100) from Minnesota’s second line. Zach has at least one point in each of the last five games, and six of his last seven games. Mikael Granlund ($7,200) or Jason Zucker ($6,800) are also get Wild stack picks, but they’re expensive and you’ll likely need to dig for more value at the center and defense position. But Nino Niederreiter ($5,600) is also a great mid-salary range value on the Wild’s second line.
Looking back at the Blue Jackets, we think Cam Atkinson ($6,200) is a great mini-stack with Panarin. He was quiet at home against the Avs last night, but Cam has three goals and four assists in the last seven games, and is racking up a lot of shots on goal right now, for at least eight points per game, before scoring related points.
Finally, while the Wild’s defense has been solid this season, we’re still expecting the Canucks to get a few goals tonight. Brendan Leipsic ($3,400) has emerged, recently, as one of our favorite value picks, playing on the Canucks top line.
You’re paying a dirt-cheap price for a guy who’s on the ice nearly 20 minutes per game lately, and has two goals and four assists in the last four games. This pick also allows you to get three fairly expensive wingers, and still afford plenty of mid-salary range guys on defense.
Top FanDuel NHL Defense: March 9th
We’ve talked about the Flames offense, and with another road-ice game drawing our attention to the Flames, we have to consider captain Mark Giordano ($5,800) or Dougie Hamilton ($5,600) at the defense position. And given some of our value options, we can afford one or both of them tonight, and expect at least around 30 net points with these two in our lineup.
We don’t hate the Senators offense tonight, making Erik Karlsson ($7,100) somewhat attractive, but with that pick, we’re really limiting our options at center and winger, so we’re fading Karlsson tonight. Instead, we love Seth Jones ($5,700), who just racked up 41.3 FanDuel NHL points against the Avalanche on home ice last night.
If you are playing Jones on defense, consider stacking Seth with Zach Werenski ($5,100), who also had a great game last night. Zach had a power play goal, and an assist for 26.9 points. Werenski now has three goals and three assists in his last five games.
Looking back at the Wild stack, we love three options on defense. Ryan Suter ($5,600) and Jared Spurgeon ($5,200) have a combined seven assists over the last two games, leading the defense on the Wild’s top line. But if you need some value out of one of your defense picks, Matt Dumba ($4,700) is also on the ice for nearly 25 minutes per game, and has three assists in his last four games.
Top FanDuel NHL Goalies: March 9th
One of the great things about smaller slates, is that it’s typically easier to narrow down your to goalie options. However, your picks can be hit or miss, completely changing the outcome of your lineup because of one wrong, or right, position.
Sergei Bobrovsky ($8,700) is one of our favorite options for at least the 12 FanDuel NHL points with the win. However, Sergei is pricey compared to the rest of the starting goalies, so he’s not a necessity and isn’t the best value.
Devan Dubnyk ($8,600) has won six of his last seven starts, and should be able to pull off another win tonight in Vancouver. However, we have a similar problem with Dubnyk as we did with Bobrovsky. We’re not expecting over 30 saves from Dubs tonight, so you’re only getting a sub-30 FanDuel NHL point player for a hefty price.
The other two goalies we’re feeling good about wins for are Ryan Miller ($8,100) and David Rittich ($8,100). But we’re expecting a decent amount of scoring from the Senators even with a loss, putting Miller right at the top of our best plays tonight.
The Stars have solid offensive power on their top line, but it drops off significantly from there, with their play lately. Also, Miller recently shut the Stars out, in Anaheim, with 41 saves and 51.8 FanDuel NHL points on February 21st. We’re not expecting and identically great outcome, but we know we’ve got a very good shot at 30+ points with this play.
So, after reviewing all of our favorite options, here’s an example of a lineup we put together for Friday, March 9th:
C Getzlaf (ANH $7,600)
C Koivu (MIN $5,700)
W Panarin (CLB $7,400)
W Hoffman (OTT $6,400)
W Parise (MIN $6,100)
W Leipsic (VAN $3,400)
D R Suter (MIN $5,600)
D Dumba (MIN $4,700)
G Miller (ANH $8,100)
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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