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Friday 1/7 NHL Breakdown
Welcome back to Win Daily Sports’ Friday Night Forecheck! On this first Friday of the new year, we have a small 2 game slate. These can be fun, but they can also be heartbreaking at times! It is totally up to you how to approach this slate. You can definitely do the 2-gamer, or you can break it up and run some showdown lineups for each game. Either way, we will do our best to guide you into the right plays. Good luck!
Since this article was written prior to some important news breaking, there will be updates listed below in bold italics. As usual, it is always best to keep an eye on news all the way up until lock, as we may end up with more news breaking.
Goalies
Antti Raanta Frederik Andersen – Carolina Hurricanes: The Canes host the Flames tonight, and they are in a good spot with the Flames on the back end of a traveling back to back. In those situations, targeting the home goalie is usually a good payoff, and tonight should be no different. The Flames are definitely a little scary, but the shot upside is there and there is ample opportunity for Carolina to win. Andersen is likely to get the start tonight, and that makes this play even better, even though he could be chalky.
Bonus GPP Goalie Pick – Jordan Binnington – St. Louis Blues: The Blues host the Capitals tonight in what should be an interesting matchup. Binnington is usually a tough pill to swallow, but the truth is, the Blues have been playing well on home ice, giving up under 2 goals against per game over their last five home games. As of 4:15pm, Ville Husso is projected to get the start for the Blues, and is also still in a good spot for GPP. He becomes a little riskier, but is worth a look if in fact he suits up over Binnington.
The Others – Dan Vladar (CGY) Jacob Markstrom and Ilya Samsonov (WSH): The reason all four goalies are listed is because, on a 2 game slate, it makes sense to just correlate your lineups with your stacks. When stacking a team, you are basically saying that they will win. This is not ALWAYS optimal, but it makes sense. Frankly, all four goalies are risky, but as mentioned above, Raanta feels the safest. Don’t be afraid to be different with these two either, though.
Lines to Build Around
These lines are considered top plays for the night and can be considered the focal point of your builds. They will be listed by position in the following order: Center/Winger/Winger/Correlating Defenseman (if applicable).
Carolina Hurricanes Power Play – Sebastian Aho/Vincent Trocheck/Teuvo Teravainen/Martin Necas/Tony DeAngelo: The Canes top two lines are in decent spots, which is a good time to target the power play unit. While the power play matchup is not amazing, playing this unit gets you access to scoring up and down the lineup, which is a good approach in this matchup.
St. Louis Blues 2 – Robert Thomas/Vladimir Tarasenko/Jordan Kyrou/Scott Perunovich Robert Thomas/Brayden Schenn/Jordan Kyrou/Justin Faulk: The Blues’ second line has a VERY nice matchup tonight against the Washington 2 line. These guys have been rolling, as well, so there should be decent ownership on them. Running Perunovich with them gets you access to the second power play unit, and feel free to add in Brayden Schenn as another power play piece. Tarasenko and Perunovich were added to the COVID list, so they are of course not in play. With that news, this line is still squarely in play, and even more appealing with Kyrou and Schenn alongside Thomas.
High Risk Lines
These are plays that carry significantly more risk, but could pay off at low ownership. They will be listed by position in the following order: Center/Winger/Winger/Correlating Defenseman (if applicable).
Washington Capitals 1 – Evgeny Kuznetsov/Alex Ovechkin/Tom Wilson Garnet Hathaway/John Carlson: The Caps have a nice looking matchup against the Blues and Binnington. This top line for the Caps should have a matchup with O’Reilly’s line in a plus matchup. Expect ownership to be pretty high on these guys tonight.
Carolina Hurricanes 3 – Jordan Staal/Jesperi Kotkaniemi/Martin Necas: This is a play that starts to head into risky/deep GPP territory, but this is the type of play that can take down those contests on a small slate. CAR3 should be matched up against the second line for the Flames tonight, and will still be up against Vladar, who is a backup to Markstrom and has not played in a while.
Other Deep GPP lines to Consider:
Washington 3 (Nic Dowd/Carl Hagelin/Garnet Hathaway Brett Leason) Leason was added to this line after Hathaway moved up to the top line with Backstrom out
St. Louis 3 (Ivan Barbashev/Brayden Schenn/Pavel Buchnevich) (Oskar Sundqvist/Brandon Saad/David Perron) – Line shuffling due to COVID – this one isn’t as appealing as it was with Buchnevich and Schenn, but it could work.
Calgary 3 (Dillon Dube/Andrew Mangiapane/Milan Lucic) (Sean Monahan/Dillon Dube/Andrew Mangiapane) – Line shuffled around just a touch and seems a little more appealing with Monahan in the middle.
Value Options – DraftKings
Center: Sean Monahan ($2800) – Calgary Flames – third line, but slots into the top power play
Wing: Seth Jarvis ($3100) – Carolina Hurricanes
Defense: Oliver Kylington ($3200) – Calgary Flames
Value Options – FanDuel
Center: Jordan Staal ($3700) – Carolina Hurricanes
Wing: Brandon Saad ($5100) – St. Louis Blues
Defense: Rasmus Andersson ($4900) – Calgary Flames
Cash Considerations – DraftKings
Cash is not recommended on a two game slate
Cash Considerations – FanDuel
Cash is not recommended on a two game slate
Make sure to hop in our Expert Discord Chat for FREE! Jon and the NHL team will be there answering questions right up until lock! Be sure to be on the look out for future articles at https://windailysports.com/daily-fantasy-hockey/
All line combinations are courtesy of www.dailyfaceoff.com, and the advanced rates referenced in the above article are pulled from www.naturalstattrick.com.
