FanDuel NHL Blue Line Power Plays: March 12

Welcome to the FanDuel NHL Blue Line Power Plays column for Monday, March 12th. We’re a daily fantasy hockey column focused on top FanDuel NHL plays for your lineups each day.

We took Saturday and Sunday off, but we’re back again for another exciting week of FanDuel NHL, starting with Monday night. If you played FanDuel NHL yesterday, there were some surprising and obvious plays.

Darcy Kuemper was an underrated backup goalie having a fantastic season for the Kings, before he was traded to the Arizona Coyotes. Antti Raanta is also having a solid season for the Yotes, and it appears the Coyotes may have their two goalies for the foreseeable future already on their roster.

But with Raanta already starting, Kuemper hasn’t seen much action with the Yotes. That’s changed recently, with Antti taking time off the ice to deal with an injury as the season closes. That allowed Darcy to start in goal last night, and he put on a show shutting out the Canucks on home ice last night. If you plugged Kuemper into your lineup last night, he was a great value and you likely had the beat on most FanDuel NHL players for both cash and GPP plays.

Meanwhile, the Blackhawks also shocked the Bruins with a 3-1 win yesterday. Patrick Kane, Artem Anisimov, and Brent Seabrook each scored for the Blackhawks. If you were lucky another to have a Hawks stack with two or three of these guys, and Kuemper, you were a sure bet for a win yesterday, in the All Day slate.

We’re going to talk about some obvious, chalky, plays for tonight’s slate, but we’re also going to dig through the lineups and see if we can grab value like we saw yesterday. At this point in the season, it gets harder to see it, but the value plays emerge more often as teams settle into the playoffs, or the transition to off-season moves. Here’s a look at the NHL schedule for Monday, March 12th:

Hurricanes at Rangers (7pm ET)

Golden Knights at Flyers (7pm ET)

Jets at Capitals (7pm ET)

Canadiens at Blue Jackets (7pm ET)

Senators at Panthers (7:30pm ET)

Blues at Ducks (10pm ET)

Canucks at Kings (10:30pm ET)

Red Wings at Sharks (10:30pm ET)

With eight games on the ice tonight, we have 16 teams to pick through. That’s unusual for a Monday, as we typically see this level of play from the Tuesday and Thursday slates, along with typically big days on Saturdays. But with only 10-to-15 games left on each team’s schedule, the NHL heats up through early April.

The Hurricanes are struggling to end the season, and they’re in Madison Square Garden facing another team who’s struggling right now, the Rangers. But, either team could have hidden value potential, and this game may get overlooked by players.

With the Golden Knights playing in Philly and the Jets playing the Caps in Washington, D.C., there’s great entertaining games tonight. Each game has playoff impacts for all four teams. However, from a FanDuel NHL perspective, all four teams provide very expensive players who have tough match ups. For the most part, we’re fading those games.

Instead, we love the Panthers home-ice match up against the Senators, and the Ducks have a great offensive opportunity at home against a Blues team appearing to fold-in for the season. We’re likely stacking plays from both the Sens and Ducks tonight, with some players from the Kings, who are also on home ice against a lesser opponent.

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 12th

Go with expensive at the center position tonight. There are too many great plays at center tonight, and if you get too cute, you’re going to lose with this position alone. Aleksander Barkov ($7,700), Ryan Getzlaf ($7,600) and Anze Kopitar ($7,400) all have fantastic match ups. It’s worth paying up for one or two of any of these three, as you’re most likely to get 20+ FanDuel NHL points from each player.

Barkov is leading the Panthers top line, and will see 20 to as much as 28 minutes of his time on the ice at home in Florida. Aleksander has 20+ FanDuel NHL points in six of his last eight games. If Barkov is a tad too expensive, don’t be afraid to save $600 in salary and drop down to grab Vincent Trocheck ($7,100). While Vinny had been quiet over a few games, he has two goals and three assists in the last three games.

Of the top three centers, we like Getzlaf the most. We were high on Ryan last week, after he had 10 assists in four games. While Getzlaf didn’t have an assist on Friday, he did have four shots on goal, three blocked shots, and a goal for 23.2 FanDuel NHL points in 21 minutes of ice time. The Ducks are on home ice tonight, were Ryan and the top line play best. Pay up for him again, as they continue to roll in Anaheim tonight.

Kopitar, like Getzlaf and Barkov, has been red-hot over the last two months. Barkov has more consistently dominate, but Anze has quietly provided a point in almost every game since early December. In the last three games, he has four assists, and two goals and eight assists in the last seven games.

However, again, if Kopitar is a bit two expensive, especially for a second pick at the center position, don’t be afraid to drop down and snag Jeff Carter ($6,500). Very similar to the Panthers situation, Carter isn’t as consistently dominate as Kopitar right now, but Jeff has been out most of the season with an injury, and appears to be in playoff form with four goals and two assists in the last six games.

While we don’t love value at this position tonight, if you’re desperate for a lower cost center, consider Rangers second line leader Kevin Hayes ($5,800) on home ice, dropping down to the Panthers third line for Jared McCann ($3,600), or Jean-Gabriel Pageau ($4,800) for a sneaky GPP play.

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

Top FanDuel NHL Wings: March 12th

While Alex Ovechkin ($8,600) is a popular, and obvious, chalky play at winger tonight, if you’re going chalky with your top wing pick, we prefer Patrik Laine ($8,100). Ovi will have the challenge of facing the Jets top line, while the Caps will have the challenge of finding a second-liner who can contain Laine’s hot scoring streak right now.

In five straight games, Patrik has at least one goal, and an incredible nine goals during that time. In fact, Patrik now has a goal in ten of his last eleven games, and 15 goals in just those eleven games. Not only is Laine likely to have a goal again tonight, but he’ll likely have several shots on goal, may have an assist, and will have several power play opportunities. Laine is a must play tonight, even though he’s chalky.

Getting back to some stacking options, we love Rickard Rakell ($7,100) with Getzlaf on the Ducks top line. While Ryan has been hot, it’s beneficial to Rickard as well, who has eight goals and two assists in the last six games. In fact, Getzlaf’s assist run has mostly been related to Rakell’s scoring run. The two stacked on home ice against the Blues is even affordable with Panthers or King stacks, or Laine at winger.

To make these lines somewhat affordable, the rest of your stacks at wing will have to pull value in, like grabbing Nick Bjugstad ($5,300) from the Panthers top line, or even flipping Rakell or Laine to Evgenii Dadonov ($6,300).

Of the two, Dadonov is obviously the more dominant and consistent, providing 20+ FanDuel NHL points in five of his last six games. But Bjugstad had a hat-trick last week against the Lightning, and has four goals and four assists in the last six games. So of the two, Nick is the better value.

Digging further for value, we like new Rangers winger Ryan Spooner ($5,300), Sharks top-line value play Joonas Donskoi ($4,300), or our favorite Canucks top-line value play Brendan Leipsic ($3,600). Regardless, you’re likely to need at least Donskoi or Leipsic to make this lineup affordable, along with some value plays on defense.

Top FanDuel NHL Defense: March  12th

While it’s tempting to pay up for more expensive top defense-man picks like Brent Burns ($7,000) against a terrible Red Wings team (right now) on home ice, or red-hot Seth Jones ($6,000) against a struggling Habs team, also on home ice in Columbus, we prefer to fade the expensive chalky players on defense and use this position to add value into our lineups.

Instead of adding Jones to your lineup, consider his line-mate Zach Werenski ($5,400) who benefits from Jones’ play, but also cane take some FanDuel NHL points away from Seth as the Canadiens try to focus on Jones. Zach has three goals and three assists in the last six games.

While the Panthers centers and some of their wingers are expensive, their top-line defenders are actually reasonable to afford. Aaron Ekblad ($5,500) and Keith Yandle ($5,200) have been underrated NHL DFS optimal lineup plays all season. Yandle’s averaging a consistent 11+ FanDuel NHL points per game this season, and while Ekblad’s average is just under eleven points, he has an assist or goal in six of the last seven Panthers games.

On the Panthers second line, Mike Matheson ($4,300) is averaging around ten FanDuel NHL points this season but is scoring over eleven points per game lately. Of the three Panthers defenders, Mike also has the best match up against the Senators.

Two more value plays at defense are Hampus Lindholm ($4,600) from the second line for Anaheim helping you potentially completely a Ducks stack, or an underrated Ben Chiarot ($3,700) from the Jets top line. Chiarot may be off the radar for many FanDuel NHL players, but he has a goal or assist in five of the last six game, and should see 15 to 20 minutes of ice time in Washington, D.C. tonight.

Top FanDuel NHL Goalies: March 12th

The goalie position is easier to pick through in smaller slates. Unfortunately, we have 16 starting goalies tonight, so we’ll try to help you quickly narrow down to the best picks and best value. For starters (pardon the pun), we love Jonathan Quick ($8,900) on home ice against the Canucks, Sergei Bobrovsky ($8,700) against the Canadiens on home ice, and John Gibson ($8,600) against the Blues on home ice.

All three of those top goalies tonight may seem obvious. We like the Kings, Ducks, and Blue Jackets to win at home tonight, but each may be to expensive for your lineup, and Gibson may be tough to squeeze into our line if you already have four Ducks.  With that in mind, consider Roberto Luongo ($8,500) or Martin Jones ($8,500). If you’ve already spent four picks on the Panthers, grab Jones for the slam-dunk win in San Jose.

However, for a few off-the-radar or value plays, you should also consider Henrik Lundqvist ($8,400) on home ice against a Canes team who’s struggling to score lately. Additionally, if you’re fading the Jets who just lost a low-scoring game against the Flyers this weekend, Philipp Grubauer ($8,000) should be starting in goal for the Caps tonight. Grubauer just shut out the Sharks in San Jose this weekend, a very difficult outcome to obtain. Philipp could stay hot and keep the Jets scoring to a minimum tonight too.

So, after reviewing all of our favorite options, here’s an example of a lineup we put together for Monday, March 12th:

C     Getzlaf (ANH $7,600)

C     Carter (LAK $6,500)

W   Rakell (ANH $7,100)

W   Dadonov (FLA $6,300)

W   Bjugstad (FLA $5,300)

W   Donskoi (SJ $4,300)

D    Yandle (FLA $5,200)

D    Matheson (FLA $4,300)

G    Lundqvist (NYR $8,400)

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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