Allan Fabrykant 
We’re back with another edition of WinDaily’s Between the Benches. Now that the holidays are officially behind us, we can dive into the first Friday Night slate of the year! We have a nice three-gamer for tonight’s Friday Night 1/4 NHL slate. The first puck drop begins at 7:00 pm ET. Don’t forget to lock your lines and check the discord for any updates! Without further ado, let’s get right into it!
1/4 NHL Stack Report
1. Carolina Hurricanes 1 (Svechnikov-Aho-Teravainen)
— The Carolina Hurricanes have been one of the hottest teams in hockey as of late. With four wins and 19 goals over their last four games, they have simply been unstoppable. The Hurricanes have gotten contributions from up and down the lineup but none have contributed quite like the top line (specifically Aho and Svechnikov). Aho has put up 12 points over the four game streak and Svechnikov has recorded eight points, which equates to 1/3 of his season total in points, in only four games. Their opponents the Capitals have gone a little cold as of late dropping five of their last six games and giving up five goals or more in three of the five games. Now, with this being a small slate, this is actually one of the closer matchups of the night, but, despite that, the oddsmakers still have the Hurricanes scoring big tonight with a 3.4 implied goal total. There will be a a lot of goals in this matchup, and with the way the Hurricanes’ top line has been playing as of late, they are my top choice for a line stack on tonight’s slate. (Although Teuvo Teravainen is not a bad option in this spot, I would recommend completing the stack with Brent Burns as he has been getting more points during the Hurricanes current winning streak)
Ideal Defensive Partner(s): Brent Burns (Value: Brady Skjei)
2. New Jersey Devils 1 (Toffoli-Hughes-Bratt)
— The Devils are the heaviest favorites on this slate for a reason. Despite their overall record, they have one of the strongest offenses in the league, regularly recording 3 or more goals per game with their scoring largely coming from their top line talents. This is especially true with the Devils top center, Jack Hughes who despite getting a little derailed following an injury, has managed to jump on a five-game point streak and register 45 points over just 31 games. His linemate Jesper Bratt is not too far behind with 43 points in 36 games and five points over his last three games. All these offensive stats are further enhanced by the fact that the Devils are facing off against the Chicago Blackhawks. Not only are the Blackhawks on the second half of a back-to-back (lost 4-1 to the New York Rangers) while the Devils are coming into this game rested, but the game is in New Jersey’s home arena. Statistically, this is a terrible matchup for the Blackhawks. They currently sit 31st in Goals allowed per game (3.76) and are on the wrong end of a four game losing streak. All this while the Devils are coming in to this game with one of the best offenses in the league, scoring an average of 3.53 goals per game. The statistics clearly favor the Devils over the Blackhawks tonight and the oddsmakers agree with the Devils coming in with the highest implied total (-4.5) and best odds (-400) on the slate.
Ideal Defensive Partner(s): Luke Hughes
Honorable Mention(s): Winnipeg Jets 3 (Neiderreiter-Lowry-Appleton)
1/4 NHL Goalie Tracker
Best (Goalies to Roster)
- Pyotr Kotchetkov
- Vitek Vanacek
Honorable Mention(s): John Gibson
Worst (Goalies to Target)
1. Arvid Soderblom
Honorable Mention(s): Darcy Kuemper
1/4 NHL Wild Card Targets
Dawson Mercer
– Mercer has been making quite a splash as of late. Over his last four games, he has four goals and two assists and has consistently been seeing around 20 minutes of ice-time a game following his promotion to the Devils second line. He currently heads up the Devils second power play unit and is coming up against the Chicago Blackhawks who as mentioned earlier,sit second last in the league and are in the midst of a four-game losing streak. The oddsmakers are giving the Devils an incredibly high implied total of 4.5 and the Devils have statistically one of the best offenses in the league (6th overall in Goals scored per game) and are coming up against the second worst defense in the league (31st overall in Gaosl allowed per game).
Honorable Mention(s): Cole Perfetti, Seth Jarvis
Core Four: (ALWAYS BE STACKIN’)
Center – Sebastian Aho
Winger – Jesper Bratt
Defenseman – Luke Hughes
Goalie – Pyotr Kotchetkov
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