Welcome to WinDaily’s third edition of the NHL Between the Benches! In this article, the 8/9 NHL Between the Benches, we will look at the top NHL stacks on the slate, rank the best and the worst goalie spots to target and provide a core four that you can use to start building your lines! There are only three games for tonight’s main slate of the play-in series, check out the top plays below.
8/9 NHL Stack Report
- Toronto Maple Leafs One
Hyman – Matthews – Marner (FanDuel: $21,300 | DraftKings: $19,600)
– The Leafs ended up going back to the top line that provided them with so much offensive success over the past season. The last game alone proved it when they came back with three goals in under for minutes to take this play-in series to a fifth and final game. Coming into this game, it’s hard to deny the Leafs “carryover momentum” and sheer offensive firepower. At this point, it’s hard to tell who the Jackets will start in goal but it looks like both of them have had their confidence absolutely shattered by the Leafs offensive core. This line will be a little chalky so it may make sense to go with the second line (Robertson, Tavares, Nylander) in a GPP format for the lower ownership. If this game gets close, expect Tavares to see top-line play alongside Matthews and Marner. If Werenski is out for Game 5, fit this line in.
Ideal Defensive Partner: Morgan Rielly (FD: $5,400 | DK: $5,100) - St. Louis Blues Two
Sanford – O’Reilly – Perron (FanDuel: $17,700 | DraftKings: $14,800)
– Ryan O’Reilly has been an absolute stud against the Dallas Stars this season and although a lot of time has passed since the regular season, there aren’t too many other stats to gauge from. He’s already recorded points in both round-robin games and I wouldn’t be surprised if he found his way past Khudobin with his teammates collecting the supporting points in the process. Not to mention this line eats a gross amount of minutes, ROR has averaged 22 minutes per game during the round-robin games. Look to this game for scoring as both teams will be resting their starters for the playoffs. This game would make an ideal GAME STACK!! (with DAL1 Seguin, Hintz, Benn)
Ideal Defensive Partner: Alex Pietrangelo (FD: $5,600 | DK: $6,200)
Honorable Mention(s): Washington Capitals Two – Kempny, Dallas Stars One – Heiskanen
8/9 NHL Goalie Tracker
Best
- Jake Allen (FD: $7,700 | DK: $7,800)
- Frederik Andersen (FD: $8,600 | DK: $8,200)
Honorable Mention(s): Tuukka Rask, Joonas Korpisalo
Worst
- Anton Khudobin (FD: $7,600|DK: $7,400)
- Braeden Holtby (FD: $8,400 | DK: $7,600)
8/9 NHL Wild Card of the Day
John Tavares (FD: $7,300 | DK: $6,400)
– Yes, I know he’s not really a “wild card” in the conventional sense, he’s been a bonafide NHL star for many many years now but I think he is an interesting option in a power-play stack alongside Matthews and/or Marner its a little unconventional but depending on how the game goes they could find themselves seeing even-strength time together and seeing crazy minutes. Towards the end of the last game, this super line was getting double/triple shifted when seeking to claw their way back into the series with Matthews and Tavares assisting each others goals. Not to mention Matthews saw 28 minutes of ice time with Tavares clocking 27 minutes. So they will definitely see the ice tonight. As mentioned above Tavares works well in a TOR 2 stack, especially in a GPP.
Honorable Mention(s): Stephen Johns, Ilya Mikheyev
Core Four:
C – Auston Matthews
W – Zach Hyman
W – Zach Sanford
D – Alex Pietrangelo
8/9 NHL Monkey Knife Fight NHL Prop Picks – Win With These Picks Here and Get 100 Percent Bonus!
Matthews-Tavares-Kucherov – Putting Up Points – As mentioned earlier I’d be foolish not to recommend the Leafs in this spot the carryover momentum is just too strong. Taking their top two pieces from their overloaded first power-play unit and one of the league’s top scorers in Ovechkin. You could easily swap Tavares for Pastrnak and have two or even three of the leagues top scorers (with Ovechkin in for Kucherov) in the same line but Boston’s top line and Ovechkin have been a bit too cold for my liking and I don’t know if they’re going full throttle during the round-robin.
Honorable Mention: Auston Matthews to break the expected fantasy point total.
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