Los Angeles Kings Vs. Detroit Red Wings
This matchup makes me want to projectile vomit all over my computer screen. Both teams are #NotGood and are playing on back-to-back nights. This matchup has all the makings of a 6-5 finish, but could also finish 1-0 because neither team can score goals.
Let’s start with the god awful Red Wings, who are coming off a 2-1 victory over Montreal thanks to Jonathan Bernier stopping pretty much everything. It’s going to be hard to get information today on lines and goalies, but let’s go with what we know here. There’s a good chance that Kopitar’s line matches up against the Larkin line, so we will look to avoid that matchup as possible. FanDuel has Zadina priced at $3300, and he’s playing with Mantha five-on-five, so I’ll most likely mini-stack those two. It’s a bummer that they aren’t playing on the same power play unit, but we can’t get greedy here. Apart from those two, there’s nothing else to consider.
On the flip side, the Kings are probably even worse, and that’s saying a lot. They have Toffoli playing on the fourth line, have Jeff Carter between Trevor Lewis and Kyle Clifford, and I’m not about to start rostering Dustin ‘GOAT’ Brown again. Despite all that, Kopitar is priced well at $5800 on DraftKings and he could be a nice single-bullet option. The Kings may not score many goals, but there’s a good chance Kopitar will be the player to do it. Iafallo joins him on the top power play unit and he’s reasonably priced on both sites.
The mini-stack I would look to go with is Kopitar-Doughty. The veteran defenceman is the second most expensive option on DK, but his matchup on paper is elite. That duo might be popular tonight because they are favourite to win, but I can’t see many DFS players jumping on this boat in great numbers, so a Iafallo-Kopitar-Doughty power play stack in a GPP is something to consider.
Minnesota Wild Vs. Chicago Blackhawks
This is a matchup that may get slightly overlooked, but shouldn’t. The Hawks were well on their way to an easy victory against the Blues last night, and then the wheels fell off the bus. They gave up four unanswered goals to lose 4-3. The Wild on the other hand are coming off a 4-1 victory against the Philadelphia Flyers. Minnesota started the season off pretty bad, but they’ve played much better of late and are scoring more goals! Chicago is a small favourite in this contest, but they probably shouldn’t be.
Minnesota is the team to target, specifically the second line of Parise, Donato and Fiala. The trio also play together on the second power play unit, so that’s a nice added bonus. There’s a good chance that Eric Staal’s line matches up against the Toews’ line, which opens the door for Minnesota’s second line to do some damage. Patrick Kane and Alex DeBrincat aren’t defensive specialists, they are out there looking to score goals. I’m not really on board to pay up for those two when we can get the opposing team’s line at a discount that can have just as much success.
On the blueline, Ryan Suter is the player to target on DK, but Dumba is a steal on FD. For some reason, Dumba is $3600 on FD, but $600o on DK, the most expensive defenceman on the slate. There’s no reason to explain the difference, but It is what it is.
There’s a good chance we see Kappo Kahkonen in goal for Minnesota tonight.Alex Stalock wasn’t tested in his game yesterday against the Flyers-- facing only 18 shots-- so we could see him start back-to-back games, but if we stick to the trend of coaches not playing their goalies on consecutive nights, Kahkonen is a strong candidate to start. He’s $7400 on FD, so that would be the best spot to use him.
If you want to target Chicago and play a couple of players, then it should be their second line. As mentioned earlier, Kane and DeBrincat aren’t defensive specialists, but they do know how to score goals. If anyone is going to score on that team, it’s one of them.
Vancouver Canucks Vs. Las Vegas Golden Knights
It was a tough night for the Vancouver Canucks yesterday, as they fell 4-2 to the terrible San Jose Sharks. Now they travel to Las Vegas to take on a well rested Golden Knights team. Las Vegas comes into tonight projected to score 3.6 goals, the highest team total of any team on the slate, so we should expect them to be very chalky in cash games. That also means that their price tags are going to be inflated, but we should be able to fit a couple of their superstars into our lineups.
For us, it’s really VGK1 or nothing. There will be a lot of temptation to use their second line, especially if Chandler Stephenson sticks as the center between Pacioretty and Stone, but don’t let that temptation talk you into Chandler Stephenson! William Karlsson is expensive on DK, but you can balance out his high price tag with Reilly Smith, who has 13 goals this season and is still priced below $6K. Both Karlsson and Marchessault are priced exactly the same on DK, so if you don’t want to use both, pick whichever player fits into your roster.
On the blueline, only Shea Theodore has any appeal to me. Their defence doesn’t contribute much offensively, and that probably won’t change tonight. He’s $5500 on DK, so avoid him there if you can and play him on FD where he’s $4600.
In goal, Marc-Andre Fleury is an easy choice to go with, if you can find a way to fit him into your lineup. He’s the most expensive goalie on both sites, but he still has a chance to hit value. I’m not a fan of paying up for the most expensive goalie on a slate, but Las Vegas is a -192 favourite and there really isn’t another elite second option. He’s the safest bet in cash games.