Fantasy Hockey: NHL DFS FanDuel Power Plays for November 29

Welcome to NHL DFS FanDuel Power Plays. We’re a fantasy hockey column focused on top lineup plays each day. This edition is focused on the Main slate for Thursday, November 29th 2018.

I wasn’t able to get a Fantasy Hockey article out for NHL DFS FanDuel Power Plays on Wednesday, but I wish I had time. If you follow me on twitter, I was focused on playing Nathan MacKinnon ($9,000) against Sidney Crosby ($8,800) in the same lineup.

I also wanted to stack Mikko Rantanen ($8,400) with MacKinnon, a move I typically like to make when ever I feel like we can afford MacKinnon. Making them affordable last night wasn’t too difficult, given we used a cheap Rittich ($7,500) in goal, played Montour ($4,300) on defense, and had Vatrano ($3,100) and Kase ($3,900) at winger, each for under $4K.

I’m still a little bitter Rittich didn’t get the win last night, as that would’ve helped us more in GPP, but man did we do well with cash games. Crosby’s hat-trick, and MacKinnon’s goal and three assists already provided over 86 points.

That helped us build our way to over 170 points in most lineup combinations, and I had a nearly 10X return focusing mostly on cash plays, but also some GPP plays. This was as similar result to a solid 180+ night on Tuesday. Hopefully, we can keep this train moving on Thursday night as well.

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 29th 2018:

Islanders at Bruins 7pm ET

Wild at Blue Jackets 7pm ET

Rangers at Senators 7:30pm ET

Sabres at Lightning 7:30pm ET

Coyotes at Predators 8pm ET

Blackhawks at Jets 8pm ET

Kings at Oilers 9pm ET

Golden Knights at Canucks 10pm ET ESPN+

For a Thursday, the NHL schedule is actually relatively mild. We usually see ten ore more games on a night like tonight. But with so many games being played this week on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, we’re only down to eight games.

With the Senators on home ice, especially against the Rangers, I am likely going to continue to use the insane value that young lineup provides us every week. There are some hot Blue Jackets I’ll late at on home ice, even with a more difficult match-up. The defenders won’t surprise you, and we have some fantastic fantasy hockey goalie options on Thursday 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

When I first looked at the winger options for Thursday night, I was going to grab a pricey play and a value play, as we typically do. However, we may go a substantially different route for Thursday, to make big plays at other parts of the lineup affordable.

I’ll get to that in a minute. But first, in the case that you’re not sold on that option, let’s talk about some of the better and more pricey picks.

The Kings are generally dreadful, but Jonathan Quick being back on the ice may make scoring on them more challenging. However, that doesn’t mean you should stop targeting their defense with offensive picks. Connor McDavid ($9,200) is a solid top pick play with this match up on home ice, I just don’t like it as much as some of the top picks in the winger spot.

Another play I continue to love is Brayden Point ($7,700). If you’ve been following my posts, you know we continue to ride Points over-performance of points in relation to his salary. Unfortunately his salary is beginning to climb, and I don’t love the match up against a likely Hutton in net and a Sabres team who’s won ten in a row.

For a cheaper top pick, Matt Duchene ($6,600) is a great play on Thursday night. In fact, frankly, I like Duchene more than Point and McDavid as I think the Senators are in another great position to pile up goals. Again, I just think you’ll get better value at the winger spot from that team.

If you grab any of those three top picks, you should put one of these two along with them at the center position. However, I plan to use two cheap value plays at center on Thursday, so I can load up at the winger spot, more than usual, and afford a decent goal and two defenders getting more expensive each day.

Aside from the value, another thing I like about these picks is they’ll likely be low-owned on FanDuel NHL.

We talked about him recently as a value play, and Boone Jenner ($4,800) has continued to be more productive on the Blue Jackets offense in the last couple of weeks. If you look at his seasonal stats, you’re probably unimpressed, five goals, eight assists, for 13 total points in 24 games. So almost just a point each game.

Frankly, that’s not typically someone I like to target. However, hockey has a lot of ebbs and flows and it’s typically best to ride those hot hands as value plays, along with the sure bets.

Right now, Jenner is hot. Boone has at least one point in eight of the last twelve games, a better average, and two goals and eight assists in that time. But even when not scoring points, Jenner is getting more shots on goal and is piling up blocked shots, at least one per game.

So Boone is almost a lock for six to eight points as a floor, and is averaging well over ten points per game right now. Boone also has a shot at 20 points tonight on home ice. Given the other picks I plan to make at winger, I love this as a value play for center.

A very similar pick to Jenner, but in an even better match up on Thursday, is Colin White ($4,100) leading the Senators second line against the Rangers on home ice. White has slightly better stats for the season, yet is somehow $700 cheaper for FanDuel NHL, and he’s also about as hot at Jenner lately. I love playing these two together, giving us plenty of cash to spend big at winger.

Fantasy Hockey: NHL DFS FanDuel Power Plays Top Wingers

OK, we have plenty of salary to spend big at the winger spot. We’re going to start off with two big expensive plays from two red-hot goal, and point, scorers.

I didn’t play Patrik Laine ($8,400) against the Penguins because I figured the Penguins were going to focus their defense around Laine and he had to cool off at some point, after scoring five goals in one game against the Blues, but eleven in just four games.

Patrik is now tied for the NHL lead in total goals with 19 on the season. While he likely won’t have another hat-trick or five goal night on home ice against the Blackhawks, Thursday, the potential is still there.

Also, Laine is likely to be involved in an offense that should score a lot of goals tonight. Even if he doesn’t hit 70 points, he’s likely to be around 20 to 40 points in a big game for the Jets offense. And, we know what his ceiling could be.

Thanks to Laine and some other hot offensive players, Cam Atkinson ($7,200) continues to provide consistent goal-scoring or points daily. Over the last 19 days, Atkinson had at least one point in each of the last eight games. In that time, Cam piled up nine goals and five assists, often providing more than just one each game.

In a similar vein, but likely earlier in the heat-streak cycle, is Alex Tuch ($5,400). Alex spent the early part of the season off of the ice with an injury. It didn’t take Tuch long to get back up to speed, scoring two goals against the Senators in his third game, and providing three total points after three games.

On Thursday night, Tuch and the Golden Knights continue to stay hot on offense against a decent  Canucks team in Vancouver who’s struggling on defense lately. Not to mention, Alex has a goal and assist in each of the last three games. He could be in for another big game with 15 to 18 minutes of ice time Thursday.

Finally, with value at center and spending big with the first three winger picks, I’m going to grab an obvious value play for my fourth wing pick, Brady Tkachuk ($4,900). We’ve played Brady often over the first two months of fantasy hockey.

Why wouldn’t we? The rookie is averaging over 17 FanDuel NHL points-per-game and is somehow still only $4,900 to play on FanDuel. In the last three games, Brady has three goals and three assists, sticking with his average for the year. Play this kid again!

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

Fantasy Hockey: NHL DFS FanDuel Power Plays Top Defenders

There are some great expensive options at the defensive position Thursday. I do like Roman Josi ($6,600), again, against the Arizona Coyotes on home ice, in Nashville. Josi had a big night for us earlier this week, averaging well over 20 FanDuel NHL points over the last two games.

But, we did spend big at the winger position and I want to have a decent amount of salary left for my goalie picks, because there are some good ones on Thursday.

As you skim down the list, by salary, of the remaining defenders tonight, my top two picks might seem obvious. Especially if you’ve been following this post, but also if you’ve been playing DFS NHL a lot this season, you know Mathew Dumba ($5,900) and Thomas Chabot ($5,600) have not only been hot lately, but most of the year.

Dumba had a decent October, but his November has been insane, which is partly why his salary is climbing. Not only is Matt starting to piling up a large amount of shots and give us several blocked shots each game, but he has five goals and five assists in the last seven games. For a defender, that’s hard to find.

Chabot has been a common name in these posts all season. The kid is just having a dominating year and he’s starting to remind me of unique defenders like Brent Burns. With 31 points in 25 games, Duchene is now the Senators new point leader this season, but Thomas still has 29 points in the same amount of games, well over a point per game.

And like Dumba, Chabot is only the ice most of the game and provides tons of shots and blocked shot points as well. This combination is exciting to play together, again, on Thursday.

NHL DFS FanDuel Power Plays Top Goalies

If you have enough cash left over, and similar to the Josi but but it’s unlikely you can afford to play both in the same lineup, Pekka Rinne ($9,100) is set up well to succeed on Thursday night.

The Coyotes offense is getting better and should have more shots on goal tonight, than we’ve seen last year, but Rinne and the Predators should dominate the game and 20 to 30 points from Pekka is nearly a lock.

Devan Dubnyk ($9,000) has struggled lately, which is why I like the Blue Jackets against Dubnyk on home ice Thursday, and Sergei Bobrovsky ($8,800) doesn’t have a great match up against Dumba and the Wild.

Typically, I’d like a hot Louis Domingue ($8,600) between the pipes against the Sabres. Especially in Tampa, Florida. But playing a goalie against a team who’s won ten straight games, especially a young one with a short-term memory, isn’t ideal for fantasy hockey.

And, we know we have plenty of cash left, assuming you took the value play at center route. Fortunately, there’s a fantastic play from Marc-Andre Fleury ($8,600) on Thursday night.

We talked about playing Fleury earlier in the week, and he remains hot heading into Vancouver. How hot? Well, in his last seven starts, Marc-Andre has three shutouts, is 6-1-0, and is averaging around 30+ saves per game. So we’re getting a solid 20+ goalie pick with a ceiling of over 40 points. And this pick has one of the best match-ups of the night.

Fantasy Hockey: FanDuel Power Plays November 29th 2018 Summary

You can go the typical route at center tonight by playing McDavid, Point, or Duchene with one of our two value plays. But for now, we’re considering stacking the value at that position with Jenner and White.

The total value play at center gives us plenty of cash to do something like play a red-hot threesome of Laine, Atkinson, and Tuch along with a value play from Tkachuk. Speaking of, at some point Brady will be above $5K, so keep playing him until FanDuel no longer knocks the rookies salary down because of inexperience.

At the defense position, smoking hot Dumba and Chabot are back on the ice and I love playing the pair against tonight. Along with a great goalie opportunity from Fleury tonight, we should be able to keep the cash rolling in this week, on Thursday.

With that summary in mind, here’s a look at a sample lineup for the NHL DFS FanDuel Main slate on Thursday, November 29th 2018:

C       Boone Jenner ($4,800)

C       Colin White ($4,100)

W     Patrik Laine ($8,400)

W     Cam Atkinson ($7,200)

W     Alex Tuch ($5,400)

W     Brady Tkachuk ($4,900)

D      Mathew Dumba ($5,900)

D      Thomas Chabot ($5,600)

G      Marc-Andre Fleury ($8,600)

Remaining Salary: $100

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!