Allan Fabrykant Welcome back to another Friday Night WinDaily NHL Between the Benches Article! Only a small three-gamer slate tonight but there will be lots to enjoy this evening! Tonight’s 12/16 NHL slate begins at 8:00 pm ET. Don’t forget to lock your lines and check the discord for any updates! Let’s get right into it!
12/16 NHL Stack Report
1. Minnesota Wild 1 (Zuccarello-Steel-Kaprizov)
— This is the clear mismatch of the night as the second worst team in the NHL, the Chicago Blackhawks, face off against their Central division rivals in the Minnesota Wild. Where do we begin with this one… for starters, the star of the Wild’s top line has been scoring at an insane clip, Kirill Kaprizov has points in 16 of his last 17 games and both Zucarello and Steel have been putting up points on a regular basis. One major advantage in their hopes of getting on their scoresheet tonight is their opponent. Right off the bat they have a 4.1 implied goal total, and that makes a lot of sense as the goalie they’re facing is Petr Mrazek who allowed 7 goals in his last start and holds a goals against average of 4.37 and save percentage of just .873. On top of that embarrassing stat line, the Blackhawks have lost their last five games while the Wild have won their last three. Over those five losses for the Blackhawks, they were shut out twice and gave up at least three goals a game. This is a prime opportunity to exploit the one pure mismatch of the night, yes they will be chalky but you won’t want to be left behind when they hit bit.
Ideal Defensive Partner(s): Jared Spurgeon (cheaper alternative Calen Addison)
2. Calgary Flames 1 (Dube-Kadri-Mangiapane)
— Despite Calgary’s recent struggles this line has been putting together some solid performances on the ice. Both Dube and Mangiapane have three points over their last three games and Kadri has six points over his last six games, with all three getting on the score sheet in the razor thin loss against the Vancouver Canucks last Wednesday. Tonight, they’re up against a Blues side who is not only on the second half of a back-to-back but the game they took part in last night was extra exhausting as they came back late against the Oilers to tie the game with a short-handed goal, only to give up a goal to McDavid in overtime which was then called back for offside and then the Blues were finally able to win it in a shootout. After a rollercoaster like that, any team would be rightly exhausted going into their second of two games on the road. This gives the Flames an excellent opportunity to capitalize against backup keeper Thomas Greiss who holds a 3-4-0 record along with a 3.69 GAA and a Save Percentage just below .900. The Flames are also coming into this game with the second highest implied total of the slate at 3.7 and every member of the Flames second line sees time on the Flames power play with Kadri on the top unit and Dube and Mangiapane on the second unit. I would recommend including some of the Flames second line in your Daily Fantasy lineups tonight!
Ideal Defensive Partner(s): Rasmus Andersson
Honorable Mention(s): New York Islanders 1 (Lee-Barzal-Wahlstrom), Calgary Flames 1 (Huberdeau-Lindholm-Toffoli)
12/16 NHL Goalie Tracker
Best (Goalies to Roster)
- Marc-Andre Fleury
- Ilya Sorokin
Honorable Mention(s): Dan Vladar
Worst (Goalies to Target)
1. Karel Vejmelka
Honorable Mention(s): Petr Mrazek
12/16 NHL Wild Card Targets
Frederick Gaudreau
– Even though he is not alongside Kaprizov and Zuccarello. Gaudreau has been putting together a couple of solid performances as of late as he has three goals over his last two games and he’s steadily seeing over 13 minutes of ice time per game. We previously discussed the weaknesses of Petr Mrazek earlier in the article and Gaudreau is an affordable way to get some exposure on the Wild as I recommend that you target Mrazek in one form or another tonight, whether it is through the top line of the slate or a value piece like Gaudreau or Matt Boldy.
Honorable Mention(s): Brock Nelson, Matt Boldy, Mikael Backlund, Lawson Crouse
Core Four: (ALWAYS BE STACKIN’)
Center – Nazem Kadri
Winger – Kirill Kaprizov
Defenseman – Rasmus Andersson
Goalie – Marc-Andre Fleury
12/16 NHL Monkey Knife Fight NHL Prop Picks – Win With These Picks Here and Get a 100 Percent Bonus!
CHI @ MIN (8:05 pm start) Goal Rush
Honorable Mention(s): Main Slate (8:05 pm start) Rapidfire 2/2
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