Allan Fabrykant 
Welcome back to WinDaily’s NHL Between the Benches article. We’ve had an excellent start to the season, and it’ll keep getting better! Tonight’s 10/27 NHL slate begins at 6:00 pm ET, and we have six games taking place. Don’t forget to lock your lines and check the discord for any updates! Without further ado, let’s get right into it!
10/27 NHL Stack Report
1. Carolina Hurricanes 2 (Bunting-Kotkaniemi-Necas)
— To begin the article, we have, far and away, the strongest offensive team on the slate. With the talent on their top two lines facing off at home against a team that has not won a game this season, played last night in a 6-0 loss on the road in Tampa and has lost by the Puck Line (-1.5) or more over their last five games. San Jose is in for a rough season, and it doesn’t look like it’s going to get any better tonight in what is the most lop-sided game on the slate. Moreover, the Canes and Sharks have already played each other this season in California, where the Sharks blew a 3-2 lead with four unanswered third-period goals. (at that was against their starter, Mackenzie Blackwood). With this info, it should come as no surprise that the Hurricanes have the best odds of the slate (-400) and the highest implied goal total (4.4). Although I will have shares of both of Carolina’s top two lines tonight, Carolina’s second line has actually been outperforming their top line, with Necas and Kotkanemi exploding with nine points in eight games to start the season. Despite early power play struggles, Necas and Bunting will see lots of Power Play time on Carolina’s top unit alongside Tony DeAngelo, while Kotkaniemi is centring the Canes’ second unit.
Ideal Defensive Partner(s): Tony DeAngelo (Honorable Mention(s): Jaccob Slavin)
2. New Jersey Devils 1 (Toffoli-Hughes-Meier)
— Unsurprisingly, the New Jersey Devils find themselves in a top spot on tonight’s slate as the high-powered offence faces off against a Sabres team that has had defensive problems for years. New Jersey has a lot to look forward to in the present and the future, with one of the league’s top stars breaking out this season. In just six games, Jack Hughes has notched 17 points (4 goals, 13 assists) and has averaged over 22 minutes of ice time per game. Paired alongside strong supportive talents in Tyler Toffoli and Timo Meier, this line is simply too much for teams to handle, especially considering the defensive woes of the Buffalo Sabres. Buffalo is allowing just over three goals per game and over 30 shots per game. Even if they had one of the league’s best goaltenders, the amount of pressure the defence leaves for the goalie to handle on their own is often too much.
With both teams having heavy firepower on offence, I can see this game hitting the over very easily but at the end of the day, the Devils are far more reliable on the back end, and their offensive pressure will be too much for Eric Comrie tonight. They have the second-highest implied total of the slate for a reason (4.1). Despite the price, I recommend paying up for New Jersey’s top line.
Ideal Defensive Partner(s): Dougie Hamilton (Honorable Mention(s): Luke Hughes)
Honorable Mention(s): Vancouver Canucks 1 (Kuzimenko-Petterson-Mikheyev)
10/27 NHL Goalie Tracker
Best (Goalies to Roster)
- Adin Hill
- Karel Vejmelka
Honorable Mention(s): Thatcher Demko, Vitek Vanacek
Worst (Goalies to Target)
1. Kappo Kahkonen
Honorable Mention(s): Eric Comrie, Jordan Binnington
10/27 NHL Wild Card Targets
Ilya Mikheyev
– There is no better word to describe Ilya Mikheyev than “Wild Card,” given his position in today’s slate. He recently returned from ACL surgery, and he looks like he hasn’t missed a beat over his first two appearances. He has points in each of his two games and has recorded four shots in each game as well. He will also be seeing top-line minutes tonight against one of the worst defensive teams in the league, the St. Louis Blues. Mikheyev is a risky play, but he has a lot of upside and can provide some salary relief on a slate that doesn’t have many strong value plays. (Vancouver also has one of the highest implied totals of the slate at 3.8.)
Honorable Mention(s): Paul Cotter, Trevor Moore, Kaedan Korczak, Andrei Svechnikov
Core Four: (ALWAYS BE STACKIN’)
Center – Jack Eichel
Winger – Martin Necas
Defenseman – Shea Theodore
Goalie – Adin Hill
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