Fantasy Hockey: NHL DFS FanDuel Power Plays for February 11

Welcome to NHL DFS FanDuel Power Plays. This is a fantasy hockey post focused on top lineup plays each day. This edition is focused on the Main slate for Monday, February 11th 2019.

I intended to write several fantasy hockey articles for the Saturday and Sunday FanDuel NHL slates. However, family oriented events got in the way. One of those events was a lovely stomach flu my son happened to get early Sunday morning.

As a result, he and I spent most of the day Sunday watching hockey. I was still able to get a FanDuel NHL lineup in for the Sunday Main slate, at least, and boy did it go well. While we’re both Flyers fans, we’ll get to them later, we also like following the Blackhawks. Lately, the Hawks have been on fire.

The Hawks playing a vulnerable Red Wings team on home ice seemed like a great time to stack Chicago. And that’s exactly what we did. While we missed out on Kahun’s great day, we had Toews, Strome, Kane, and DeBrincat all in our lineup. They were all involved in scoring, giving us a total of over 116 FanDuel NHL points with just four picks.

We also had Pulock and Ristolainen as defenders, another 22.9 points, and flipped to Domingue as our goalie, once the bolts confirmed him as the starter. With the Lightning winning 5-2 over the Panthers in Florida, we landed just under 170 FanDuel NHL total points with that lineup, and cashed in just about every GPP and Cash-game plays we entered.

Hopefully we can replicate something like that for Monday night. It may be feasible, too, because we have two red-hot hockey teams on the ice tonight. So, we’ll look to likely stack each of those teams into our lineup, while trying to find the best goalie option 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 Early Only slate on Monday, February 11th 2019:

Penguins at Flyers 7pm ET NBC Sports Network

Kings at Capitals 7pm ET

Sharks at Canucks 10pm ET ESPN+

All three games on Monday night have some interesting narratives. The Penguins travel to Philly to play a smoking hot Flyers team, right now, in what feels like a primer to the eventual stadium series game in Lincoln Financial Field later on this month. The battle of Pennsylvania starts tonight!

The Capitals are hosting the Kings, in what should be an easy one for the Caps to help get themselves back on track. But the Kings have been a pesky team on the east cost over the last couple of days, even beating the Flyers in Overtime, the first loss they’ve had in ten games.

Another red-hot team, probably the hottest in hockey right now, the Sharks travel to Vancouver to play another pesky team, the Canucks, in a game that should be an easy with for the Sharks. Mostly because Edler is out, I expect the Canucks to struggle. But they still have some solid offensive team on the ice Monday.

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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

I’m not spending a ton of money on Sidney Crosby ($8,500) Monday night facing a tough goaltender right now, Carter Hart, on road ice. Sure, Crosby should be involved in some scoring, but the other options provide significantly better value.

Two options who could yield about just as many points as Sidney are Evgeny Kuznetsov ($7,600) and Tomas Hertl ($6,300). In the last three Caps games, Kuzy has three goals and three assists, or an average of a goal and assist per game. That’s all on home ice against the Panthers, Avs, and Canucks. Facing the Kings, Evgeny should give us around 20 FanDuel NHL points again Monday.

Hertl is significantly cheaper than Crosby or Kuznetsov, yet he’s had over 40 FanDuel NHL points twice in the last six games. In that time, including a hat-trick, Tomas has six goals and four assists. Three of those goals were during the power play, adding additional points. Hertl should stay hot again Monday, and he’s a great play with Kuznetsov, if you can afford both.

But, I like the idea of flipping Kuzy to Sean Couturier ($7,000). I could play either one as my top center pick, but we’re saving $600 in FanDuel NHL salary while playing a guy who has four goals in the last four straight games, two during the power play, along with three assists in that time.

Coots is hot, and all three of these guys should land over 20 FanDuel NHL points. It’s just a matter of which two fits best in your lineup given the salary you’re using throughout the rest of the open lineup spaces.

Fantasy Hockey: NHL DFS FanDuel Power Plays Top Wingers

While you may be tempted to play Alex Ovechkin ($8,700) on home ice against the Kings, I think you have better options to use while getting as many, or more, FanDuel NHL points out of the top winger spots.

First of all, there is fantastic value at the winger position. Kevin Labanc ($4,000) and Oskar Lindblom ($4,100) don’t appear to be great fantasy hockey options if you just look at their sub-ten point FanDuel NHL point-per-game average this season. But it’s a mistake to only look at the average.

Labanc has been playing closer to 15 minutes on the ice lately, and Kevin now has four goals and two assists in the last four games. Granted, three of those goals game during a hat-trick performance on Saturday against the Oilers, but one of those goals was during a power play.

Now is a good time to grab a cheap Labanc while he’s hot. Lindblom hasn’t been as dominate a fantasy hockey option lately, but he’s starting to develop consistent scoring points and is a big part of the Flyers resurgence over the last couple of weeks.

Oskar has been playing on the Flyers top lines lately, is getting around 15+ minutes of ice time, and has at least one goal or assist in six of the last nine games. For a goal who’s only average 6.98 FanDuel NHL points-per-game, that’s a major pendulum swing in offense.

So, now we have two great points picks for value in two of our four winger spots. That leaves us with plenty of cash to spend for the top winger picks. Jakub Voracek ($7,500) and Evander Kane ($7,700) are likely the top best winger picks for Monday night.

I’m going to play one or both of Voracek and Kane. It depends on how much I want to spend at the defense position. If I spend heavy, I’ll grab either Jake or Evander, and plug Timo Meier ($5,300) into the second winger spot.

Meier should be another double-digit FanDuel NHL point play. However, if I go a little cheaper with the defensive picks, then I’ll likely have both Voracek and Kane as my top two winger picks for Monday.  Alright, let’s finally look at a few top picks on defense…

Fantasy Hockey: NHL DFS FanDuel Power Plays Top Defenders

Before I get into the top options for the defense position, there’s a very solid value play here on Monday night. Similar to the winger picks, Travis Sanheim ($4,300) doesn’t appear to be a great DFS NHL play this season.

However, if you’ve been following the Flyers offensive surge this calendar year, you know Sanheim is a big part of the offense right now. Playing over 20 minutes of ice time each game, usually on the Flyers top line, it should be a surprise that Travis has a goal and three assists in the last five games. They’re scoring often, lately, and he’s usually on the ice during each goal.

With Sanheim as my second defense pick, I know I have plenty of cash to spend on my top defense pick. However, the player I pick will likely depend on the path I chose with my top two winger picks.

Kris Letang ($7,200), John Carlson ($6,500), and Brent Burns ($7,800) are the three best fantasy hockey picks on defense Monday. All three are nearly a lock for double-digit FanDuel NHL points. However, of this group, Burns should be a clear favorite. In fact, I think it’s highly likely Burnsy gives us over 20 points on Monday. So, I’m likely going to plug Meier in my second winger spot, and grab Brent for my top defense pick.

Fantasy Hockey: NHL DFS FanDuel Power Plays Top Goalies

During smaller slates, it’s easier to narrow down who you like at goalie. However, picking the wrong goalie during a small slate often immediately leads to losing money in your FanDuel NHL plays.

We have three games, so six total goalies to consider. However, at the time of writing this post, many of the starting goalies are unknown. We do know Carter Hart ($8,800) is starting for the Flyers and is one of, if not the, best options at this position.

If we haven’t taken up the four open Flyers spots already, and have enough cash left, I’m likely going with Hart as my goalie pick. I like the Flyers against on Monday night to win. However, I may have to fade Carter, in which case I like either Martin Jones ($8,600) over the Canucks or Braden Holtby ($8,400) and Pheonix Copley ($7,700) over the Kings.

I think it’s very likely Jones will start on Monday, so he and Hart are a safer bet in the case that you don’t have time to keep checking your phone for starting goalie calls on Monday. However, if you do have the time a pivot to Copley could open up a bunch of DFS NHL value in your lineup, and allow you to move a winger or defender from value to big points play.

Fantasy Hockey: FanDuel Power Plays February 11th Main slate Summary

At the goalie position, I’m going with the Flyers, Sharks, or Caps on Monday night. If I can make it work, I like Carter Hart the most, but I feel just as confident with Jones or Holtby, and I love the value Copley gives us.

On defense, Sanheim makes it easier to play Carlson, Letang, or Burns. Of that threesome, I love Burnsy the most, and will likely find away to play him on Monday night. That shouldn’t be too difficult, because Labanc and Lindblom have fantastic value at the winger position.

Also, Meier could even be a great winger play in the two-spot. However, I do have plenty of cash to also play Voracek with Kane, depending on how much money we spend at the defense and goalie positions.

And at the Center position, Coots is my favorite pick, but Hertl likely gets us nearly as many points with a cheaper salary. We can afford both int he same lineup in almost ever scenario. With that summary in mind, here’s a look at a sample lineup for the NHL DFS FanDuel Main slate on Monday, February 11th 2019:

C       Sean Couturier ($7,000)

C       Tomas Hertl ($6,300)

W     Jakub Voracek ($7,500)

W     Timo Meier ($5,300)

W     Oskar Lindblom ($4,100)

W     Kevin Labanc ($4,000)

D      Brent Burns ($7,800)

D      Travis Sanheim ($4,300)

G      Braden Holtby ($8,400)

Remaining Salary: $300

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 winter!