Fantasy Hockey: NHL DFS FanDuel Power Plays for November 27

Welcome back to the NHL DFS FanDuel Power Plays column. We’re a fantasy hockey column focused on top lineup plays each day. This edition is focused on the Main slate for Tuesday, November 27th 2018.

Monday’s fantasy hockey slate was fairly successful again. If you used many of the recommended picks, depending on the combinations, you likely won some cash games. However, winning GPP plays was likely more difficult, depending on the tournaments you played.

Our big play of the night ended up being Tom Wilson, who piled up 43.7 FanDuel NHL points on top of a very modest $5K FanDuel salary. Mike Hoffman was a little more expensive, $6,200, but he added another goal with seven shots giving us an additional 24.8 points.

While we got 11.2 points from Matt Duchene, our top center pick, with an assist, Boone Jenner was a better play as he had an goal and assist, among the seven scored on the Red Wings, with a cheap $4.8K salary. But given the number of goals scored, that made Cam Atkinson‘s 11.2 points fairly disappointing.

Beauvillier was a big disappointment as a value pick, but we understood the risk there. Also disappointing was the 19.2 total points form Carlson and Chabot. I thought we could’ve done better. And while Bobrovsky gave up five goals on 32 shots from the Red Wings, he salvaged the play with a win and 13.6 points.

I like that we continue to find some solid big plays, especially the value plays, consistently with our lineup suggestions. However, I’d like to avoid having a few misses with some of the lineup picks each night, and set us up better for GPP plays.

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, November 27th 2018:

Sharks at Sabres 7pm ET

Senators at Flyers 7pm ET ESPN+

Hurricanes at Canadiens 7:30pm ET

Ducks at Lightning 7:30pm ET

Avalanche at Predators 8pm ET

Coyotes at Wild 8pm ET

Penguins at Jets 8pm ET

Golden Knights at Blackhawks 8pm ET NBC Sport Network

Stars at Oilers 9pm ET

Kings at Canucks 10pm ET

It’s a standard NHL scheduling week, which means Tuesday has a lot of games for the Main slate. We have ten total games, or 20 teams to pick through. That can make lineup building challenging and also adds more combinations to the total number of options, reducing our odds of winning.

However, this is also a great time to attack cash games, and the greater number of options may also present better situations for us to stack top NHL players together. We’re able to do that tonight, because we also have several value plays we can take advantage of on Tuesday night.

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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

On big FanDuel DFS NHL Tuesday nights, one of the most overwhelming positions in the center position. Especially this NHL season when we have so many top young talented skaters on the ice. So yes, Connor McDavid ($9,300) and Nathan MacKinnon ($8,900) are on the ice, and yes they’ll likely provide you with double digit points.

But, I don’t like MacKinnon’s match up in Nashville and McDavid could be overshadowed by some cheaper plays tonight. So while guys like MacKinnon and McDavid seem attractive to play, they’re not necessarily the best option for DFS NHL optimal lineups.

A pretty good example of that right now is how Jack Eichel ($7,600) and Brayden Point ($7,400) have been playing this season. Eichel, the young Sabres star who we focused on many times last season, has been more consistent so far this year.

Especially lately, Jack has at least a goal or assist in his last six straight games. That isn’t a big surprise given the Sabres have been on a long winning streak lately, but we know Eichel is a big part of that. Even more impressive, these wings and big games for Jack have been against teams like the Wild, Jets, Penguins, and Canadiens.

Over that period of time, Eichel only had one goal, but he also has eight assists and is averaging four to five shots per game, and sometimes throws in another blocked shot set of points to get you nearly 20 points per game. The set up against the Sharks in Buffalo is a good on for Eichel and the Sabres.

Brayden Point has been a consistent bigger play over the last couple of weeks. Now with eight goals in the last six games, adding additional points thanks to four assists, Point is on fire right now.

For the season, Point now has 17 total goals, fifth most in the NHL and Brayden’s 31 total points is sixth in the NHL. Even though he’s leading the Bolts second line, he’s become the Lightning’s top scoring option this year. Point is now averaging around 18 FanDuel NHL points per game, we’re only paying $7,400 for him on Tuesday night. Pairing Eichel with Point is an exciting option tonight!

Fantasy Hockey: NHL DFS FanDuel Power Plays Top Wingers

Before we get to the approach we’re going to take at the winger spot, just a quick reminder that we recommended Patrik Laine ($8,400) on Saturday and he rewarded us with five goals, including one of the power play variety, on just five shots, and added a blocked shot for 70.1 FanDuel NHL points.

That was the fourth straight game Laine had over 20 FanDuel NHL points, and the third of four where he had over 34 points. At home against a struggling Penguins defense lately, I don’t blame anyone for building a lineup around Laine. I’m still considering it, but I’m worried Laine has to have a drop off in production soon, as it’s unrealistic to assume he continues to score goals at this pace.

With that in mind, let’s talk about the winger strategy tonight. I don’t always go this route this year, but I’m going to take an approach I used many times last year, sometimes offering great results and sometimes hurting us. I think it works on Tuesday night though.

We’re going to look for a bargain sub-$4K pick, I know right away one is available, then we’ll look for another sub-$5K pick, follow that up with a third pick in the mid $5K range, and cap the four winger picks off with a decent top pick over $6K.

So, how do we get there? Well, remember Andrew Shaw ($3,900)? We’ve been touting Shaw for weeks now and he just continues to give us solid point production, even when not scoring. Shaw is on the ice 16 to 20 minutes per game, is consistently scoring goals or providing helpers, and gets enough shots on goal and blocked shots even when not scoring, to still get you around ten points.

For the next higher tiered pick, I love Brady Tkachuk ($4,500) against the Flyers in Philly. The Senators aren’t as good on the road, but the Flyers are top five worst in goals against, and Brady has three goals and two assist in the last five games. We’ve tapped Tkachuk several times this season, already, with great success. This should be another great setup.

I haven’t looked at Alex Tuch ($5,300) much this season but the Golden Knights offense finally seems to be heating up, and it looks like Tuch is a big part of that. In the last five games, Alex has two goals and four assists, and a goal and assist in each of the last two games. His match up against the Blackhawks should allow him to stay hot.

Finally, we’re capping our winger picks off with a consistently underrated DFS NHL option, Alexander Radulov ($6,400). Likely because he had to take some time off due to an injury, Radulov continues to dominate hockey, but I don’t see his ownership hit a very high mark each night.

Also, he’s averaging over 20 FanDuel NHL points per game, yet his salary is fairly cheap at $6.4K. The Stars top line is loaded with talent, so even with Radulov isn’t scoring goals, he’s doing things like providing four assists in the last two games. Even on road ice Tuesday, I love Radulov’s point potential against the Oilers in Edmonton.

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

Fantasy Hockey: NHL DFS FanDuel Power Plays Top Defenders

Alright, we have a decent amount of salary left to great two really good defense picks, and still manage to get a rock solid goalie option. I’ll get more into it when we discuss the goalie pick, but I’m not excited about Brent Burns ($7,100) or Erik Karlsson ($6,800) on Tuesday night.

Although, the rest of the top defensive picks create a bit of a debacle. I mean, Victor Hedman ($6,400), Kris Letang ($6,600) and Roman Josi ($6,300) are all generally outstanding picks and they have solid match ups for fantasy hockey purposes.

Of the three top picks, Hedman is my least favorite against the Ducks. I like Letang’s point potential against the Oilers, but Josi is a more consistent point producer. I’m likely going to stick with Josi as my type pick, but I’m willing to move Tuch out of my lineup for a cheaper winger option and pay up for Letang. You’re likely in a good place either way.

Oddly, I actually like my second defense pick the most. Mathew Dumba ($5,700) is on fire right now. The Wild’s top offensive option on defense now has five goals in the last six games. On home ice against the Senators, Dumba piled up two goals, including a power play goal, for 34.1 FanDuel NHL points.

One of the key reasons Matt is hot right now is that he’s firing a ton of shots on goal. That’s go for us either way, even if he doesn’t score, he’s building FanDuel NHL points, and as a defender he’s adding points for blocked shots.

Oh, and over the last six games, Dumba hasn’t given us less than 19.7 FanDuel NHL points, with the 34.1 ceiling. It’s a great play again on home ice against the Coyotes.

Fantasy Hockey: NHL DFS FanDuel Power Plays Top Goalies

I know center can be a tough lineup pick to figure out on big DFS NHL slates. But by far the hardest position to nail is the goalie spot. Instead of trying to pick the perfect shutout surprise goalie on Tuesday night, or any night really, I’m looking for the teams with better match ups for a win and will see how consistently good their goalie has been.

If you have enough cash, that makes Devan Dubnyk ($9,100) a great play on home ice against the Coyotes. The Wild’s top net-minder is one of the best in the NHL, and he’s in a decent spot to give you over 20 points on Tuesday, even though he’s struggled a big against better teams lately.

I don’t have that kinda salary, and I hate Semyon Varlamov‘s ($8,700) match up against Pekka Rinne ($9,200) and the Predators in Nashville. They’re both great goalies, but they could cannibalize points. The flip-side, though, is this is an opportunity to get solid points from a high amount of saves, you just have to pick the right winner. No thanks.

Marc-Andre Fleury ($8,400) is a solid play against the Blackhawks in Chicago. I mean, the guy had two straight shutouts in the last two starts, and now has three shutouts in his last six games. That’s very impressive and more Fleury-like. I just don’t expect another shutout tonight, and I’m not sure if I want to reach that high in the salary range for this position.

One goalie I do NOT like is Martin Jones ($8,300) against a hot Sabres offense in Buffalo. In fact, while the Sharks continue to hover in the middle of the NHL in goals scored and against per game, the Sabres are only giving up 2.75 per game, fifth best in the NHL.

One of the big reasons the Sabres have been so hard to score on is better defensive play, but also the net-minder Carter Hutton ($7,900). In 18 games, Hutton has only given up more than three goals three times.

On Tuesday night, he’s facing a Sharks team who struggles to score more than three goals each game. Also, we know Carter has an opportunity to make a higher amount of saves against a solid overall team, and has a decent shot at another win. This should be a 30 to 40 FanDuel NHL point night with the win in Buffalo. And this makes Hutton my favorite goalie pick.

Fantasy Hockey: FanDuel Power Plays November 27th 2018 Summary

Yes, the center position could be overwhelming on Tuesday night, with so many top expensive picks to play. But I think the better move to is play to young and hot centers together, Eichel and Point, who each have a modest salary considering their FanDuel NHL point output lately.

At the winger spot, we’re going to go with a tiered approach, grabbing a very cheap play like Shaw, moving up the salary ladder and grabbing Tkachuk against the Flyers while still saving money to then grab Tuch and Radulov to round out the winger picks.

On defense, I love the idea of picking either Letang or Josi with Dumba. Regardless, lock Dumba into your lineup, he’s red-hot right now. If you go with Letang, you need to find a cheaper option with one of your winger picks and I recommend swapping out Tuch.

At the goalie position, Hutton is by far my favorite pick from a value perspective. If I had more salary, I’d probably go with Fleury or Dubnyk. Although, Devan is awfully expensive for a goalie lineup spot, and with so many game son the schedule.

With that summary in mind, here’s a look at a sample lineup for the NHL DFS FanDuel Main slate on Tuesday, November 27th 2018:

C       Jack Eichel ($7,600)

C       Brayden Point ($7,400)

W     Alexander Radulov ($6,400)

W     Alex Tuch ($5,300)

W     Brady Tkachuk ($4,500)

W     Andrew Shaw ($3,900)

D      Roman Josi ($6,300)

D      Mathew Dumba ($5,700)

G      Carter Hutton ($7,900)

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!