Joel Bartilotta 
Welcome to Thursday’s edition of Between the Benches. We have a ginormous 13-game slate of NHL DFS tonight. We have some marquis games (NYR/Bos, NJD/Sea, Tor/Edm) and we also have some really attachable games.
Let’s dig in and see if we can make some money.
NHL DFS Goaltending
Sam Montembeault ($6.9K DK/$7.2k FD) vs. Florida Panthers – I really hope the Canadiens go here tonight with Montembeault because the price is extremely appealing and he’s been playing some amazing goalie recently. Over his last 5 games, he’s had no less than 18 DK points in any game. He hasn’t been playing bad teams either. He’s beaten the Winnipeg and New York in back to back games. He’s extremely risky so play him in GPP only formats, but he’s extremely hot right now and I’m going to continue to ride this wave until it crashes. I just hope it’s not tonight!
John Gibson ($7.2k DK/$6.7k FD) vs. Columbus Blue Jackets– You’ll notice a trend that I’m paying way down for goalie tonight. Gibson is surprisingly in a really good spot tonight. He’ll still face a heavy amount of shots but he’s also facing off against a team that just can’t seem to figure out how to score goals. Over their last 8 games, the Blue Jackets have scored just 16 goals for an average of 2 per game. If we look at their xG, it’s sitting at 2.7 over the same stretch. So it’s really not too different and it indicates that the Blue Jackets just aren’t very good. Gibson is also a GPP only goalie.
NHL DFS Stacks
Washington 1 (Ovechkin, Strome, Aube-Kubel) + Gustafsson vs. Arizona
Alex Ovechkin and his teammates get one of the more lopsided matchups of the night tonight as they take on the hapless Arizona Coyotes. The Coyotes are just 1-7 in their last 8 and are giving up 3.5 goals per game. This is a matchup that the Capitals should be able to take full advantage of.
Even though Ovechkin has been really quiet of late, i really love him in this matchup and plan on building around him. He has just 1 goal in his last 5 but it’s not for the lack of trying. He’s averaging over 4 shots on goal during that stretch and has an iCF of 47. The goals are going to come and they’ll come against a bad defensive team in Arizona. If you’re worried about the productivity of his linemates, you can look to pair him with the top PP unit and guys like Oshie and Backstrom. Both of them are extremely cheap tonight and will make paying up for Ovi a tad easier.
Boston 2 (Krejci, Pastrnak, Zacha) + Lindholm vs. Rangers
As a Rangers fan, it pains me to write this, but this isn’t going to end well for the Rangers tonight. Boston is steamrolling the competition these days and I just don’t see a scenario where the Rangers can slow them down. Yes, they’re only giving up 2 goals per game over the last 2 weeks. But if we dig a bit deeper, their xGA is nearly a goal higher and they are giving up close to 15 high-danger chances per game. You can’t give up that much vs. the best team in the league.
I’m going full stack here. This line has produced 22 total points over the last 5 games. Pasta leads the way with 6 goals, but Krejci has 7 points and Zach has 6. Zacha being at $2.9k on DK really makes it so much easier to pay up for Pasta tonight. It’s a risk to play this line because the Rangers will more than likely roll out Shesterkin in goal tonight, but he can only do so much to slow this team down.
Florida 2 (Tkachuk, Bennett, Verhaeghe) + Montour vs. Montreal
If you are fading Sam Montembeault tonight because you think he comes crashing back down to earth, you’ll want to grab some shares of this second line for Florida. It’s been one of the hottest lines in hockey over the last week or so and if Florida does get to Monty tonight, it will be on their backs.
The core for me here would be Tkachuk and Verhaeghe. The two have combined for 11 points over their last 5 games and are playing really well together. If you want to go a different route with Florida, their top line is also very much in play. Barkov and Reinhart would be the plays there.
Other Stacks: Tor 1 and 2, Philly 1, Car 1, CBS 2, Buf 1, Stl 1, TB 1 and 2, Det 1, VGK 1, Sea 1 and 2,
NHL DFS Top Value Defenseman
- Ryan Graves – $3.4k on DK
- Jeremy Lauzon – $2.5k on Dk
- Ben Chiarot – $3.6k on DK
- Damon Severson – $2.9k on DK
Summary
For as big of a slate as we have tonight, our options are mostly limited as we have some tough matchups. I tried to isolate the most lopsided ones. I’ll be playing a ton of Capitals and Boston tonight.
Make sure to use our Projection model when setting lineups.
Good luck and hope to see you in the green!
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