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Friday 3/4 NHL Breakdown
Welcome back for another installment of the Friday Night Forecheck here at Win Daily Sports! March already?! This season is flying by, and we will soon be talking about the playoffs. Tonight’s slate is a bigger-than-normal-for-a-Friday slate, with seven games going. It also features an unusual number of teams playing on back to back nights (CAR, PIT, MIN, TBL, and VGK). With that many back-to-back scenarios, it makes the goaltending pretty dicey. Let’s dive into the plays. Good luck and be sure to keep up on news through the day and during warmups!
Goalies
John Gibson – Anaheim Ducks: There is no doubt that Gibson has been struggling recently, but he is still a very solid goalie. With the matchup against Vegas tonight, he should see plenty of shot volume. The good thing is that the Knights have only been scoring 2.2 goals per game over their last five road games. This is a good spot for Gibby to be himself and steal the Ducks a win.
Connor Hellebuyck – Winnipeg Jets: Helle, what have you been doing to us? He seems to show up in bad spots and blow up in good spots. Tonight is an interesting matchup against the visiting Dallas Stars. The Stars have been struggling on the road recently, so this spot looks good for Helle and the Jets.
Igor Shesterkin – New York Rangers: Igor and the Rangers host the Devils tonight, and admittedly, this play is a little bit riskier than we would hope. Igor’s numbers have been very good this year, and even recently, so this is a good chance for him to stifle the Devils who have been scoring quite a bit recently.
GPP Goalie Pick – Antti Raanta – Carolina Hurricanes: The Canes host the Penguins tonight in what should be a high event game. If Raanta does in fact get the nod, then he should be peppered with shots. Since the Pens played last night, and dominated, we are going to hope they are a little tired and maybe lose some steam here tonight. The shot volume should keep Antti relevant, we just need him to not give up 5.
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).
New York Rangers Power Play – Mika Zibanejad/Ryan Strome/Chris Kreider/Artemi Panarin/Adam Fox: The Rangers, as mentioned above, are playing a Devils team that has been scoring recently, but they have also been giving up goals at a whopping 4.2 goals allowed over their last five games. The Devils also give up quite a bit of shots per game, and their goalie situation is not ideal. This is a very good spot for this power play unit that has proven to be lethal at times this season.
Tampa Bay Lightning 1 – Brayden Point/Nikita Kucherov/Ondrej Palat/Victor Hedman: The Lightning put up an absolute dud last night against the Penguins at home, and tonight have a chance to make up for it when they host the Red Wings. The main thing about this play is the goalie matchup. Nedeljkovic has the worst numbers on the slate over his last five starts, posting a whopping 4.89 GAA. This will likely be a chalky play, but their lack of production last night could (hopefully) pull some ownership off of them tonight.
Winnipeg Jets 2 – Pierre-Luc Dubois/Kyle Connor/Evgeny Svechnikov/Josh Morrissey: Keep an eye on the line combos here tonight, as it looks like Ehlers might be set to return. If he does, he very well could slot into this line to replace Svechnikov. Hopefully, this line stays intact, though, because they have a fantastic even strength matchup with Dallas 2 tonight. Don’t be afraid to play Svechnikov, because not many people play him, and he has been playing really well recently with this line.
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).
Carolina Hurricanes 1 – Sebastian Aho/Andrei Svechnikov/Teuvo Teravainen/Jaccob Slavin: The matchup tonight for this line is a decent one, and they should definitely see their chances. The other good thing about this play is that they get to face Desmith, who is the worse of the goalies for the Penguins. This line has a chance to put multiple tallies on the board, and they are a borderline top play. The Penguins have been playing well recently, so this very well could be a tight game, which is the only reason they didn’t make it up there.
Buffalo Sabres 2 – Dylan Cozens/Casey Mittelstadt/Kyle Okposo: The numbers in the matchup for this line look very, very good tonight, and they will be up against Kaapo Kahkonen, who has been shaky of late. This line will be way under the radar, and should see a surprising number of chances tonight.
Los Angeles Kings 2 – Phillip Danault/Trevor Moore/Viktor Arvidsson/Drew Doughty: Lately, this line has seemed like a constantly good play, and they have a very nice matchup tonight against the Blue Jackets. They become high risk because Merzlikins actually has decent numbers recently, but it is very hard to trust him. This line could make a splash tonight.
Detroit Red Wings Power Play – Dylan Larkin/Lucas Raymond/Tyler Bertuzzi/Robby Fabbri/Moritz Seider: The Lightning gave up 5 goals to the Pens last night on home ice with Vasilevskiy in net. Now, the Red Wings are not the Penguins. However, the Lightning will have Elliott in net, who only plays when there are back-to-back situations. This power play unit gives you direct access to the top two lines for Detroit, who are in a spot where they could fly under the radar with high upside.
Honorable Mentions: ANH1, MIN1, PIT1, DAL1, TBL3, NJD2, CBJ1, VGK2
Value Options – DraftKings
Center: Dylan Cozens ($3400) – Buffalo Sabres
Wing: Evgeny Svechnikov ($2600) – Winnipeg Jets
Defense: Dean Kukan ($3100) – Columbus Blue Jackets
Value Options – FanDuel
Center: Vladislav Namestnikov ($3900) – Detroit Red Wings
Wing: Evgeny Svechnikov ($3900) – Winnipeg Jets
Defense: Brian Dumoulin ($3900) – Pittsburgh Penguins
Cash Considerations – DraftKings
Center: Sebastian Aho – Carolina Hurricanes
Wing: Artemi Panarin or Chris Kreider – New York Rangers
Defense: Victor Hedman – Tampa Bay Lightning
Goalie: Igor Shesterkin – New York Rangers
Cash Considerations – FanDuel
Center: Sebastian Aho – Carolina Hurricanes
Wing: Artemi Panarin or Chris Kreider – New York Rangers
Defense: Victor Hedman – Tampa Bay Lightning
Goalie: Igor Shesterkin – New York Rangers
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 any advanced rates referenced in the above article are pulled from www.naturalstattrick.com.
