Fantasy Hockey: NHL DFS FanDuel Power Plays for November 15

Welcome to the NHL DFS FanDuel Power Plays column. We’re a fantasy hockey column focused on your top lineup plays each day. This edition is focused on the Main slate for Thursday, November 15th 2018.

After a very solid week, last week, I had to take some time off this week from posting Fantasy Hockey. As always, I was able to continue playing NHL DFS on FanDuel and mostly landed in the 120-140 point range. That’s OK, but typically not good enough to win most GPP’s and only some cash plays, depending on the night.

For Thursday, I’m hoping to get back into the higher 180-220 range, where we can win money with all lineup combinations in most formats. We have nine great match ups tonight, plenty of options at each position, and some red-hot skaters we’re going to target.

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 Thursday, November 15th 2018:

Rangers at Islanders 7pm ET

Devils at Flyers 7pm ET

Lightning at Penguins 7pm ET ESPN+

Panthers at Blue Jackets 7pm ET

Red Wings at Senators 7:30pm ET

Canucks at Wild 8pm ET

Canadiens at Flames 9pm ET

Predators at Coyotes 9pm ET

Maple Leafs at Sharks 10:30pm ESPN+

At first look of the Thursday night slate, there are some awesome rivalry games to consider. The Rangers and Islanders stay in New York on Thursday and face off against each other, battling for the NYC area.

The Flyers are hosting their Devil neighbors from New Jersey, and the Penguins have a great match up against one of the better teams in hockey, the Lightning. The Panthers, Red Wings, and Senators each have some intriguing value plays on Thursday.

Those value plays should go well with great options from the Canadiens, Predators, and Maple Leafs. But, some of our focal points are going to be expensive, so we may need to get really cheap in some parts of our lineup.

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

Fantasy Hockey: NHL DFS FanDuel Power Plays Top Centers

With Sidney Crosby ($9,000) likely not on the ice tonight, Evgeni Malkin ($9,300) is your top play from a good Penguins offense. But, they have a match up I’m fading tonight, so John Tavares ($8,600) is more attractive.

Speaking of Tavares, he hasn’t gone pointless in a game since October 29th. In fact, John has a goal in each of the last three straight games, and four of the last five games. In the Leafs last nine games, Tavares has five goals and six assists, or at least one or more goals and assists in each game.

Also encouraging, Tavares seems to be re-gaining steam on the ice after the Leafs lost Auston Matthews, for the time being, to an injury. Even against teams like the Sharks in San Jose, John should continue to provide points, and his 20 point-per-game average is consistent with the production we’re seeing almost nightly.

While Tavares is expensive, I’m not going too cheap with my second center pick. It’s tempting, but as we’ll see with our winger picks, I don’t think I need to spend too much money across those four lineup spots, and that allows me to pay up for someone like Max Domi ($7,100) at the center position.

Domi had sort of a cold start to the season, but he’s bee absolutely fantastic since Mid-October. In the last 14-straight Habs games, Max has only produced under 10 FanDuel NHL points once, and under 15 points three times. That’s incredible consistency!

Lately, Domi has a goal or assist in seven straight games. Among those seven games, Max has five goals and six assists. Max is also getting two to three shots on goal most nights, and isn’t afraid to block a shot or two each game. Even in Calgary, Domi is a top play for our NHL DFS lineups on Thursday.

Fantasy Hockey: NHL DFS FanDuel Power Plays Top Wingers

Instead of giving you a wide array of winger possibilities, I’m focused on four guys I love on Thursday. I’ll mention a few other picks in case you’re not going with the salary heavy position at center, like I plan to do tonight.

We already mentioned Domi as a top play from the Canadiens second line. Likely benefiting from Max’s streak is Jonathan Drouin ($5,700). Drouin is fairly cheap right now because he had a cold start to the season and has been relatively inconsistent this year.

But, over the last three games, Jonathan has at least one goal and assist in each game, and a total of a goal and three assists. In the last five games, Douin adds another goal and assist. The Flames may be a good team on their top lines, but they’re giving up easy goals at times, especially to hot lines like the Habs have right now.

Before we get to the Red Wings and Senators match up I also like for wingers today, I want to grab a very good mid-salary range value from Mike Hoffman ($5,700).

For whatever reason, Hoffman spent some time on the lower lines for the Panthers in the early part of the season. Lately, Mike has been playing 17-20 minutes per game on the ice and playing with the top-lingers.

That’s a big fantasy hockey improvement for Hoffman, because there are some top skaters on those top lines, and his offensive production is now spiking. So, for as long as this happens at a sub-$6K salary, I’m going to play Hoffman and his consistent 15-20 FanDuel NHL points-per-game in the last couple of weeks.

OK, now to Ottawa. The Red Wings offense has really been heating up lately, and I want to get a piece of that offense. Also, the Senators continue to have tremendous value options like Brady Tkachuk ($3,900) who remains dirt-cheap.

I realize Brady only gave us 3.2 FanDuel NHL points last outing, but the rookie is scoring and provide helpers at a high rate per game already this season, and he’s on the ice for 14 to 16 minutes each time out. So paying only $3.9K at a shot for 20 to 30 points, while likely at least getting double-digit points is a no-brainer.

Staying in that game, and back to the Red Wings, another easy value play is Andreas Athanasiou ($4,800). During the Red Wings hot streak, and in each of the last three straight games, Athanasiou has one goal and one assist, landing between 23 and 28 points each game. It’s worth taking another shot at 20 to 30 points with this salary.

He’s a little more on the expensive side, but I’ve also considered finding a way to pay up for Jonathan Huberdeau ($6,100). One way to do this is flipping another winger pick to a cheap flier like Oskar Lindblom ($3,700).

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

Fantasy Hockey: NHL DFS FanDuel Power Plays Top Defenders

When we grab our goalie, you’ll see why these defensive picks are no-brain-ers. First of all, how on earthy is Thomas Chabot ($4,900) still a sub-$5K option on FanDuel?! This consistently makes no sense to me. Not only has Chabot been the leading scorer for a solid Senators defense most of this season, but he’s also piling up shots and blocked shots.

For example, over the last two games, Thomas has neither a goal or assist, after piling up two goals and seven assists in the previous five games. But, while scoreless in the last two, Chabot still had 12.8 and 11.2 FanDuel NHL points thanks to seven shots and eight blocked shots in the last two games.

So Thomas continues to be a lock for fantastic fantasy hockey value, especially in NHL DFS optimal lineups.

Now, the other obvious play. He’s FINALLY becoming more expensive, but it’s still quite easy to own one of the top-scoring NHL DFS defensive-men. Morgan Rielly ($6,200) continues to be an ice beast this season.

In the last three games, Rielly has two goals and three assists, two to four shots per game, and one to two blocked shots each game. Like Chabot, even with Morgan is quiet on the offensive end, he’s still piling on shots and blocked shots, like he did when scoreless against the Golden Knights on November 6th. That night, Chabot still had 12.8 FanDuel NHL points.

I’m plugging these two into my defensive picks, regardless of how the rest of my lineup combinations work out.

Fantasy Hockey: NHL DFS FanDuel Power Plays Top Goalies

OK, for the longest time I was hung up on using Thomas Greiss ($7,800) on ‘home ice’ against the Rangers. Greiss is on a hot streak lately, giving up only one to three goals per game since mid-October, but adding a shutout against a good New Jersey Devils team as well.

I still like Thomas tonight, he’s a solid play likely getting over 20 points with a win against a weak Rangers team lately. But the reason I pause should be obvious, Henrik Lundqvist ($7,800) has also been hot lately. Lundy won four of his last five starts, only losing to the Red Wings in Detiort in overtime.

For that reason, I kept looking for other hot goalie picks, especially if someone is playing a struggling or inconsistent team. Early in the season, we liked Keith Kinkaid ($7,800), but he’s given up 20 goals in the last six games played, or three to four goals per game and six or more goals in two of his last six.

For that very reason, I’m now more intrigued by the Flyers goalie options. This has typically been a goaltender crew I’ve stayed away from. Since the start of the season, Philly’s biggest issue often seems like it’s net-minders, although I’d argue it has more to do with defense.

Fortunately for the Flyers, their streaky starting goaltender Brian Elliott ($7,900) happens to be red-hot right now. Elliott hasn’t given up more than two goals since October 22nd against a good Avs offense.

Last Thursday, Brian replaced Pickard mid-game against the Coyotes and stopped all 16 shots he saw on goal for the win. He followed that up with a shutout of the Blackhawks and a tough 1-2 loss against the Panthers, each on home ice.

But Elliott still has only given up eight goals in his last six games (you read that correctly). That’s a very low goals-against average, and he’s piling up 20 to 30 saves per game averaging over 20 points-per-game lately. If this streak continues, this is a great value for Thursday night, between the pipes in Philly.

Fantasy Hockey: FanDuel Power Plays November 15th 2018 Summary

Alright, we focused on value at the goaltender position, because we really like expensive picks like Tavares and Domi at the center spot. Regardless of lineup combinations, I’m sticking with expensive picks at that position.

We found a decent value with Elliott likely in net for the Flyers on Thursday night. And before we figure out how to afford top picks at the winger position, we’re also locking in Maple Leafs ice beast Rielly and the Sens top scorer Chabot in the two defensive positions.

From there, I realize he need to start the wingers with some mid-range salary picks, but great scoring possibilities from guys like Drouin and Hoffman. Of the two, Hoffman is more of a lock for double-digit points, but I like Jonathan’s stack with Domi. And from there, I love the value we’re getting from the Rookie Tkachuk on the Sens lines, and Athanasiou of the Red Wings in the same game.

With that summary in mind, here’s a look at a sample lineup for the NHL DFS FanDuel Main slate on Thursday, November 15th 2018:

C       John Tavares ($8,600)

C       Max Domi ($7,100)

W     Jonathan Drouin ($5,700)

W     Mike Hoffman ($5,700)

W     Andreas Athanasiou ($4,800)

W     Brady Tkachuk ($3,900)

D      Morgan Rielly ($6,200)

D      Thomas Chabot ($4,900)

G      Brian Elliott ($7,900)

Remaining Salary: $200

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!