Welcome to a special Saturday Night edition of the WinDaily NHL Between the Benches Article! Teams have just a few games left, as many are left jockeying for a Wild Card position. Especially in the east, where there is a big Final push in the Wild Card race (all four teams competing for the two spots will be in action tonight)! Tonight’s 4/8 NHL slate begins at 7:00 pm ET. Don’t forget to lock your lines and check the discord for any updates! Let’s get right into it!
4/8 NHL Stack Report
1. Seattle Kraken 1 (McCann-Beniers-Eberle)
— I truly cannot believe how good the Kraken have been compared to last season. They started hot and have ended hot enough to secure their first-ever playoff spot. Much of their success has been due in large part to the efforts of their top line, who have been ruthless over their latest winning streak. Each player on this line has at least three goals and three assists over their last five games. Truly an impressive feat, especially considering all three were shut out when they played against the Kings a few games back. Luckily for the Kraken, they’re not playing the Kings tonight. They’re playing the Chicago Blackhawks, a team whose only short-term future is the high draft pick they’ll be getting this offseason. The Blackhawks have been beyond bad on both sides of the puck, sitting in dead last for goals scored per game and 4th last for shots against per game (all their other stats are in the same neighbourhood). There is not much more that can be said about the positive prospects of this line tonight; they’re good players, they’ve been hot as of late, they’re affordable for DFS, and they’re up against a bad team. That checks all my boxes for a stellar line. Not to mention, all three top liners see power play time with McCann on the first unit and Eberle and Beniers on the second unit.
Ideal Defensive Partner(s): Vince Dunn
2. Florida Panthers 2 (Luostarainen-Lundell-Tkachuk)
— Florida is one of the four teams mentioned at the beginning of the article who are currently jockeying for a wild card spot in the east, and given their strength of schedule of their last three games of the season, I think they are going to have to fight hard to secure one of the two available spots. Even more so considering how their offence has been firing as of late. The teams leading scorer Matthew Tkachuk and his linemates have been insanely productive throughout the Panthers’ recent five-game winning streak. Amongst themselves, they have eight goals and eight assists over their recent win streak. Tonight, they’ll be up against a recently eliminated Washington Capitals, who are certainly the easiest of their final three games. It’s also worth noting that the Panthers have been an offensive juggernaut this season, sitting first in shots on goal per game and fourth in the league in goals per game. Even if the Panthers don’t pull two points out of this game, I expect the second line to do some real damage on the scoresheet.
Ideal Defensive Partner(s): Brandon Montour
Honorable Mention(s): Toronto Maple Leafs 2 (Marner-Tavares-Nylander), Colorado Avalanche 1 (Rodrigues-MacKinnon-Rantanen), New York Rangers 2 (Panarin-Trocheck-Tarasenko)
4/8 NHL Goalie Tracker
Best (Goalies to Roster)
- Filip Gustavsson
- Ilya Samsonov
Honorable Mention(s): Alex Lyon
Worst (Goalies to Target)
1. Alex Stalock
Honorable Mention(s): Carter Hart
4/8 NHL Wild Card Targets
Matt Boldy
– Boldy has been absolutely unstoppable as of late as the young forward sits third in his team in scoring, which was bolstered by his five goals, and two assists over his last five games. It will be interesting to see how the Wild’s lines shake up tonight, considering that the team’s leading scorer Kirill Kaprizov is set to return to the lineup tonight, but Boldy will be worth a look regardless, especially against the Blues, whose inconsistency struggles have seen them eliminated from playoff contention. One thing is for certain as the Wild prepare for the playoffs, I can see Boldy and Kaprizov finding an extra gear tonight.
Honorable Mention(s): Evan Rodrigues, Tyler Bertuzzi, Jack Hughes
Core Four: (ALWAYS BE STACKIN’)
Center – Matty Beniers
Winger – Vladimir Tarasenko
Defenseman – Justin Faulk (or Brandon Montour)
Goalie – Filip Gustafsson
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