Joel Bartilotta 
Welcome to Wednesday’s edition of Between the Benches. I’ll be focusing on tonight’s 4-game main slate of NHL DFS on DraftKings and FanDuel. 3 of the 8 teams in action tonight played last night, with one game being entirely of teams on the tail end of a back-to-back. There should be plenty of offense to go around between the teams.
Let’s dig in and see if we can make some money.
NHL DFS Goaltending
Before we start, goalie at first glance tonight looks to be as bad of a night as we’ve seen this year. Just about every goalie has a reason not to play them. With how this slate is for goalies, I’d recommend sticking with GPP’s tonight instead of Cash games.
Sergei Bobrovsky ($7.8K DK/$8.4k FD) vs. Carolina Hurricanes – To say the start of this season has been a bit of a struggle for Bobrovsky would be an accurate statement. Through his first 8 games played, Bob has a GAA of 3.28 and a save % of just .897. The GAA would be a career-high and the save % would be a career-low for the veteran goalie. Could father time finally be catching up to him? It’s quite possible, but our options are limited tonight and he’s facing off against a team that really hasn’t been scoring much.
Over the last couple of weeks, the Hurricanes are scoring just 2.83 goals per game while firing close to 38 shots on goal per game. Their 86.93 shooting % over the last 2 weeks is the second-lowest of any team on the ice tonight. Due to the risk of him potentially giving up a ton of goals, Bob is reserved solely for GPP’s tonight.
Darcy Kuemper ($7.5k DK/$8.1k FD) vs. Pittsburgh Penguins – Anytime you use a goalie vs. the Penguins, you’re running some level of risk. That said, the Penguins of late have not been scoring much. Over the last 2 weeks, they’re scoring just 2.40 goals per game. Outside of the 5 goals they scored against the Bruins to start the month, their offense has essentially been MIA. Kuemper’s numbers for the year are fairly solid. He has a 2.42 GAA and a .919 save percentage. He’s a little on the cold side based on his last 2 games, but this seems like a matchup he can take advantage of tonight. He’s a huge risk, but could also give us a huge reward if he plays well.
NHL DFS Stacks
Vancouver PP 1 (Bo Horvat, Andrei Kuzmenko, Elias Pettersson, J.T. Miller) + Hughes vs. Montreal
Both of the teams in this matchup played last night so neither team will have the advantage of facing off against tired legs while having fresh legs. The Canucks will have a big advantage tonight though because the Canadiens just aren’t a good team. Over the last 2 weeks, they’re giving up around 3.50 goals per game. While not extreme, they’ve been extremely lucky that number isn’t higher as they’re giving up close to 17 high-danger chances per game.
Goaltending has been saving them but against a rolling Canucks team that scored 6 last night, they’re going to have their struggles tonight. While I’m targeting the main power-play unit for the Canucks, the main piece I want here is going to be Bo Horvat. Over his last 5 games, Horvat has scored 8 goals. He has 4 multi-goal games over that stretch. If you want to save some money tonight, you can also add in his line 3 mates.
The main guy to focus on from that line would be Conor Garland at just $3.4k. He’s had 4 helpers over the last 5 games and plays a bigger role offensively than Vasily Podkolzin. Either way, I’m loading up on Canucks tonight in the hope that goaltending for Montreal regresses and the offensive prowess of the Canucks continues. My order of priority with these guys will be Horvat, Pettersson, Miller, Kuzmenko, and Garland.
Minnesota 1 (Gaudreau, Kaprizov, Zuccarello) + Spurgeon vs. Anaheim
Minnesota has too many weapons for their offense to stay this cold for too long. Yes, they were shutout by the Kings last night. As a team, they’ve scored just 12 goals in their last 6 games. There is no better slump buster in the league than getting to face off against the Anaheim Ducks. These aren’t the same Ducks that were coached by Gordon Bombay. They’re worse. Way Worse.
Over the last 2 weeks, they’ve given up 4.71 goals per game and 19 high-danger chances. Again, this is going to be the slump buster that the Wild is looking for. Kirill Kaprizov is extremely expensive at $8.7k tonight. That should suppress his ownership in a great matchup. He has a ton of upside, even at his current price. I’ll look to include Gaudreau in this stack because he’s going to create the salary relief we need since he’s only $3.7k tonight. That will make paying the $8.7k for Kaprizov a little easier to stomach.
Minnesota 2 is also in play and much cheaper. Erikson Ek, Greenway, and Boldy should get into the scoring colum tonight.
Florida 1 (Barkov, Verhaeghe, White) + Montour vs. Carolina
This one is a little risky because the Hurricanes aren’t a bad defensive team. We’re limited with our options though tonight so I’m going to attack them with a line that’s rolling. This line has one of the hottest players in the game in Carter Verhaeghe. Over his last 5 games, Verhaeghe has 6 goals and 3 assists. He’s also been averaging nearly 4 shots per game. He’s on a heater and we’ll want to prioritize getting him in there. At $5.4k he’s also very reasonably priced.
We’ll pair him with Barkov who’s also playing well with 5 points in his last 5 games. Adding in Colin White at just $3.6k is a cheap way to get exposure to this unit for Florida. Don’t expect much out of him, but if this line goes off he could potentially have a solid night at a cheap price.
Other Stacks: Washington 1 and 2, Pittsburg 1 and 2, Montreal 1, Anaheim 1 (very cheap, especially Henrique who is scoring some goals)
NHL DFS Top Value Defenseman
- Oliver Ekman-Larsson – $4.1k on DK
- James Brodin – $3k on Dk
- Joel Edmundson – $3.9k on DK
- Tyler Myers – $3k on DK
Summary
Tonight should be a fun little slate of NHL DFS. We only have 8 teams in action, but some of the teams have potential to put up a lot of goals. Especially Minnesota and Vancouver.
Make sure to use our Projection model when setting lineups.
Good luck and hope to see you in the green!
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