NHL DFS FanDuel Power Plays: October 30th

Welcome back to the NHL DFS FanDuel Power Play column. We’re a fantasy hockey post focused on the top FanDuel NHL players for your lineups each day. For this edition, we’re focused on the Main slate for Tuesday, October 30th 2018.

With a monster 11-game Main slate for Tuesday, October 20th approaching for our NHL DFS plays, I took the last several days off. Leading up to Friday, many of our plays last week worked out well, after a slow start to the week.

This week’s NHL schedule is a bit abnormal. With the Halloween on Wednesday of this week, there is only one NHL game on the schedule tomorrow, the Blackhawks playing the Canucks in Vancouver on the NHL Network.

And on Monday, we only had two games, but still an NHL DFS slate to play. While I didn’t take much action last night, a trend continues. Since Saturday, we’ve seen some bizarre scoring results. For example, the Coyotes piling up a 7-1 win over the Lightning was alarming.

The Bolts have Victor Hedman off the ice for right now, and gave Vas a night off, but that score still signals a warning from the Lightning and is exciting for Yotes fans of the young team. Results like that will make me look harder at the metrics between each match up, to ensure I’m getting the right results.

Before we get there, a reminder to never take a NHL DFS optimal lineup as ‘bible’ for your personal lineup each day. Use the suggestions as guidance. Also, make sure you follow final lineup thoughts throughout the day on our twitter account @FantasyCPR or me @MattyMcMatt17 look for late breaking lineup news.

Here’s a look at the NHL schedule for the Main slate on Tuesday, October 30th 2018:

Flames at Sabres 7pm ET 

Islanders at Penguins 7pm ET

Bruins at Hurricanes 7pm ET

Red Wings at Blue Jackets 7pm ET

Stars at Canadiens 7:30pm ET 

Devils at Lightning 7:30pm ET ESPN+

Golden Knights at Predators 8pm NBC Sports Network

Wild at Oilers 9pm ET

Senators at Coyotes 10pm ET

Flyers at Ducks 10pm ET

Rangers at Sharks 10:30pm ET

While that appears to be a long list of games, and likely overwhelming for many NHL DFS players trying to find their stacks, I can tell you I already know what I like on Tuesday night.

Of the teams starting the season off with a struggle, the Rangers look the worst. In five road games, the Rangers are now 0-4-1 and travel to San Jose Tuesday night to play a Sharks team currently at the top of the Pacific with only one road loss.

The Sharks defense is heating up, and they’re a team I love to stack with this match up.  And two other teams are my radar are the Senators and Sabres. Both are not getting much attention because their results look mediocre. But these young teams each have a lot of scoring talent and have great match ups tonight.

The Sens are on the road but are scoring at a 3.5 goals per game pace this season. Meanwhile, the Sabres have been tough to be at home, 3-2-1, and are also scoring around three goals per game this year. These are teams we’ll look to target for each lineup spot, before we narrow in on our goalie for tonight.

So, let’s start building our NHL DFS optimal lineup by looking at the top centers for this slate…

NHL DFS FanDuel Power Plays: Top Centers

At first, I was more focused on using the Senators as offensive plays when they were in Ottawa. On their home ice, the Sens have been tough to beat this season and have produced some high-scoring offense, even against good teams.

But watching Matt Duchene ($6,000) score two goals against a very good Avalanche team (revenge game) in Colorado last Friday, and following that up with a goal against the Golden Knights in Vegas on Sunday, changed my mind. They may be on a brief early-season run, but right now the Sens offense is for real.

Even when not scoring, the former Avs center has been getting several shots on goal, blocking some shots, and piling up seven assists in the first 10 games. Matt’s 15.46 NHL DFS FanDuel point-per-game average is almost misleading, as he’s averaged closer to around 20 points per game in the last six starts.

While Duchene isn’t too expensive, his mid-salary range does take some cash off the board for another big spend at the center position. But, we’ve had some pretty good success spending a good chunk of our salary at this position, so we’re going to get someone more expensive for our second pick.

You can always make an argument fro Connor McDavid ($9,300), Sidney Crosby ($8,900), and Evgeni Malkin ($8,700) when they’re on the ice. I do like Crosby and Malkin’s match up, but the Wild’s net-minding worries me about paying that much for McDavid. I’d rather pay up for Connor on another date with a better match up, which is most of the time.

Patrice Bergeron ($7,900) is also always a solid play but I don’t love the Bruins in Carolina on Tuesday night. I’d rather have someone like Jack Eichel ($7,400) facing a Flames team who may sit Mike Smith after playing last night.

But even better, Logan Couture ($7,200) has a point in each of his last six games, a hat trick already this season, and a total of six goals and seven assists in the first eleven games. Couture is also well-known for getting a blocked shot or two each game.

So we’re looking at a decent shot for 15-20 points as a floor against a team who’s giving up too many goals on the road. With Duchene, this is a great value play at center, even though it seems expensive.

NHL DFS FanDuel Power Plays: Top Wingers

We could stack some Senators with Duchene likely already in our lineup. My Favorite two options are Mark Stone ($5,600) and Ryan Dzingel ($5,000). Both Stone and Dzingel play with Duchene on the Sens top regular line, but only Mark plays with Matt on on their top power play line.

Still, Dzingel is on the ice 17 to 19 minutes per game playing on the second power play line and has a two goals and one assist in the last two games.

But, instead of stacking the Senators, with so many games on the ice tonight, I’m going to do a mini-stack of the Sabres, a team I mentioned liking for center too. Instead of paying up for Eichel, I’m getting value from Duchene and stacking his line-mates Jeff Skinner ($6,500) and Jason Pominville ($4,300).

The veteran former Canes and Wild wingers are each on fire over the last four games. Pominville has four goals and four assists in the last four games, and Skinner has five goals and five assists in the last five games. That’s right, they’re both averaging a goal and assist per game in the last two weeks. Skinner even had a hatty in Los Angeles.

Again, both Skinner and Pominville are affordable. Jeff is on the pricier side of what I call a mid-salary range play, and Jason is a value play almost at the $4K mark. So we have plenty of cash to play with.

But, I’m still going with mid-salary range picks for my second two wingers. You’re probably sick of me talking about Tomas Hertl ($5,700) and Timo Meier ($5,200), but as long as they each have an NHL DFS FanDuel salary of below $6K, I have to keep playing them.

Both of these underrated Sharks wingers play with Couture on the second regular lines, and Hertl centers the second power play line with Meier at left wing. Meier now has a goal in each of the last four games, five total, and is adding assists and power play goals as well. Hertl also has two goals in that time, but more assists thanks to Meier’s scoring productivity.

So we went with some-what expensive picks at the center position, but got tons of cash back from our mid-salary range wingers, and Pominville’s value. That leaves plenty of salary on the table to grab at least one big-name defender or goaltender.

Alright, let’s look at a few top picks on defense…

NHL DFS FanDuel Power Plays: Top Defenders

Before I get to the top play at defense, can we all talk about how Thomas Chabot ($4,400) is still dirt-cheap for NHL DFS? The 21-year old Canadian was drafted 18th overall in the 2015 NHL Draft. Now in his rookie season, Chabot is already averaging 17.03 NHL DFS FanDuel points-per-game after ten starts.

With 20 to 25 minutes of ice time each game, Thomas has a goal or assist in all but one game. Chabot also has an assist in all but two games, scoring against the Bruins in one of his games without a helper. Chabot is getting the puck on net, and piling up blocked shots as well, easily making him a great value play on defense for Tuesday night against the Yotes.

OK, now with Chabot also in our lineup, the obvious top pick for us on defense is Brent Burns ($7,300). At least Burns salary makes sense. Obviously, FanDuel’s salary formula is assuming Chabot has a drop-off in production. We know that’s highly unlikely for Brent.

The former winger is one of the best offensive scorers, on defense, in the NHL. Add that to Brunsy’s 20+ minutes of ice time, high shots on goal volume, and several blocked shots, and he’s consistently landing around 20 points per game each tie you pay for him. And, against the Rangers on home ice is a great time to buy Burns.

NHL DFS FanDuel Power Plays: Top Goalies

First of all, let’s quickly address the 7-1 loss of the Bolts against the Yotes in Arizona. A couple of keys to that game is the Lightning was missing their top defense-man. But also, Andrei Vasilevskiy ($9,200) was not between the pipes for the bolts. Even if the Coyotes offense was hot that game, it likely would’ve been a different outcome with Vas in goal.

And while the Devils look good this season, and the Lightning are coming off a terrible loss, those are not great reasons to fade Vasilevskiy in Tampa tonight. If you have the cash left over, likely fading Burnsy on defense, Vas is your best play at goalie.

I don’t have that much salary left. And my two favorite plays after Vas are Matt Murray ($8,700) and Martin Jones ($8,500) in juicy match ups likely leading to wins. However, in each of those match ups, we may see a lower volume of shots on goal by the opponents, limiting save scoring.

That’s exactly why I like Juuse Saros ($8,400) in net on home ice against the Golden Knights. I know, Saros again from this guy, right? Yes. Saros has given up 12 goals in the last three starts, but in that time he’s also averaging 30 saves per game. And we’ve already seen Juuse shutout the Oilers (full game) and Flames (only 14 minutes) this season.

I’m expecting some goals from the Golden Knights Tuesday night, but I also think Saros and the Preds get a win, and Juuse gives us another 20 to 30 points on top of an already well-performing lineup.

FanDuel Power Plays: October 30th 2018 Summary

With eleven games, and 22 teams, on the ice tonight, we’re narrowing our focus down to the Sharks for a full-four player stack, along with some mini-stacks from the Senators and Sabres, in match ups we consider ideal for each team.

We’ll start off by paying up for Couture and Duchene at the center position, but have plenty of cash to grab Skinner as the top winger. For some reason Meier and Hertl are still dirt-cheap mid-salary plays, and Pominville is a top value play for wingers with a salary of only around $4K.

I want Brent Burns in all of my lineups, in all formats. But paying up for Burns limits my goalie picks to likely Saros for the Preds on home ice against the Golden Knights. Fortunately Chabot is still a dirt-cheap value play at the defense position, and has been insanely productive this season.

With that summary in mind, here’s a look at a sample lineup for the NHL DFS FanDuel Main slate on Tuesday, October 30th 2018:

C       Logan Couture ($7,200)

C       Matt Duchene ($6,000)

W     Jeff Skinner ($6,500)

W     Tomas Hertl ($5,700)

W     Timo Meier ($5,200)

W     Jason Pominville ($4,300)

D      Brent Burns ($7,300)

D      Thomas Chabot ($4,400)

G      Juuse Saros ($8,400)

Remaining Salary: $0

Note: This is a recommended lineup after discussing our top options for the slate. You should use this as a guide, and provide your own input when building NHL DFS FanDuel lineups.  We are not telling you, or selling you, to use this lineup.

Best of luck in your NHL DFS FanDuel contests and stay tuned to Fantasy CPR for all your DFS news and analysis across College Football, NFL, NBA, NHL, MLB, EPL, PGA, and NASCAR this fall!