Allan Fabrykant Welcome back to the Friday Night WinDaily NHL Between the Benches Article! Teams are building up for the final stretch as we approach trade deadline day! Tonight, we will have a small 5-game slate, some great teams hitting the ice tonight! Tonight’s 2/17 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!
2/17 NHL Stack Report
1. Los Angeles Kings 1 (Byfield-Kopitar-Kempe)
— It’s actually unreal to me how good the Kings have been as of late. They’ve won five of their last seven games, and their top line has been absolutely firing. Especially Adrian Kempe, who has a whopping eight goals and two assists over his last five games. He’s been putting up points at an unreal pace, and his linemates have been benefitting too as centreman Anze Kopitar has seven points and Byfield has three. Both Kempe and Kopitar are seeing around 18 to 19 minutes of ice time per game, with Byfield coming in around 14 to 15 minutes over his last five. It should come as no surprise that with this level of production, all three of the Kings’ top-line forwards appear together in the Kings’ top power-play unit. On top of that, the Kings are currently boasting one of the leagues best power plays at an over 25% conversion rate which is even more significant considering they’re facing off against one of their California rivals, the Anaheim Ducks, who are currently sporting one of the leagues worst power plays with a mere 74% penalty kill rate. The Ducks themselves have the worst defence in the league. They allow the most goals per game in the league and allow the most shots on goal, and it’s truly been an embarrassing season on both sides of the ice. On top of that, the Ducks have lost their last three games, and the last time these two teams faced off, both Kempe and Kopitar got on the score sheet. The odds have this one as a wash, with the Kings coming in at -275 favourites with an implied total of 4.2 goals, the joint highest of the slate. At this point, the only hope the Ducks have to succeed this season is winning the Draft Lottery at the end of the season, which long term, doesn’t look so bad…
Ideal Defensive Partner(s): Drew Doughty
2. Ottawa Senators 1 (Tkachuk-Stutzle-Joseph)
— Today’s article features two teams who would rarely be the focal point of an article, but today’s slate is very different. Now, the Sens have not been a great team this season by any stretch. They’re outside a playoff spot, and it doesn’t seem like they’ll get into a playoff spot this season. However, tonight they’ll be facing off against the last-placed team in the league, the Chicago Blackhawks. Now, statistically, the Blackhawks are not as bad as the Ducks, which is part of the reason why the Kings are the top team in the article, but the Blackhawks are not much better, sitting near the bottom of the league in nearly every defensive stat and having abysmal defensive stats, scoring the least about of goals per game in the entire league and second last in shots on goal per game in the league. It has been so bad for the Blackhawks tonight that even a mediocre team like the Senators are coming into tonight’s matchup as -280 favourites. The Senators are also coming into this matchup with the joint highest (with the Kings) implied total of the slate of 4.2. Both of the top two lines for the Senators are playable, but the top line has been decisively better, with Stutzle scoring ten points, Tkachuk scoring seven points, and Joseph scoring four points over their last five games. Tkachuk and Stutzle also see time on the Sens’ top power-play unit. Statistically, the Kings and Sens are far and away the best options for tonight’s slate.
Ideal Defensive Partner(s): Thomas Chabot
Honorable Mention(s): Edmonton Oilers 1 (Nugent-Hopkins-McDavid-Hyman), Minnesota Wild 1 (Kaprizov-Hartman-Zuccarello)
2/17 NHL Goalie Tracker
Best (Goalies to Roster)
- Filip Gustavsson
- Mads Sogaard
Honorable Mention(s): Pheonix Copley
Worst (Goalies to Target)
1. Petr Mrazek
Honorable Mention(s): John Gibson
2/17 NHL Wild Card Targets
Mat Barzal
– It was hard to find someone who was a clear representation of a ‘Wild Card,’ but an interesting option which may go under-owned would be Mathew Barzal. Barzal has recorded seven points over his last six games and has seen lots of ice time, even getting up to well over 25 minutes of ice time against the Sens a few nights back. Pittsburgh is a good team, but their defence has really held them out of the top three in their division, as they are the third worst in the league for shots on goal allowed per game, and they average over three goals allowed per game. I can see Barzal performing well tonight and getting on the score sheet a few times against the struggling defence of the Penguins.
Honorable Mention(s): Kevin Fiala, Brock Nelson
Core Four: (ALWAYS BE STACKIN’)
Center – Anze Kopitar
Winger – Brady Tkachuk
Winger – Adrian Kempe
Goalie – Ilya Samsonov
2/17 NHL Monkey Knife Fight NHL Prop Picks – Win With These Picks Here and Get a 100 Percent Bonus!
Goal Rush (7pm): LAK v ANA
Honorable Mention(s): Rapid Fire 2/2 OTT vs CHI
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