Jammed in between two big Tuesday and Thursday slates we have a nice five-game NHL DFS slate to look forward to. As far as the projected totals for tonight, they come in all ends of the spectrum. However, on a smaller slate like this, we can take a couple more stands.
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1/18 NHL Main Slate of Games – Beginning 7 p.m. ET
*All odds and player pricing below have been obtained from DraftKings and are accurate as of the time of writing*
Pittsburgh Penguins (-130) at Ottawa Senators (+110) – 6.5 Projected Goal Total
Boston Bruins (-165) at New York Islanders (+140) – 5.5 Projected Goal Total
Colorado Avalanche (+115) at Calgary Flames (-135) – 6 Projected Goal Total
Dallas Stars (-165) at San Jose Sharks (+140) – 6 Projected Goal Total
Tampa Bay Lightning (-180) at Vancouver Canucks (+155) – 6.5 Projected Goal Total
1/18 NHL Favorite Popular Line
Tampa Bay One – “Brayden Point ($6,400), Brandon Hagel ($5,600), Nikita Kucherov ($7,800)“
Dallas One will get some love here too but the Lightning will be facing the defensively deficient Canucks in a 6.5 total matchup. Tampa’s top line has been solid over their last ten games. They have put up 103 SATF and seven full goals as a line during that timeframe, good for sixth in SATF and tying for first in the NHL in goals across that span. If you want to leave off Kucherov and run it as a two-man, I don’t mind that. Kuch just simply hasn’t been scoring as many goals this season so hard to justify his price tag unless you can afford it.
10-Day Sample Size – SATF “measures all shot attempts including missed and block shot attempts”
1/18 NHL Favorite Contrarian Line
Calgary Three – “Mikael Backlund ($4,800), Andrew Mangiapane ($3,800), Blake Coleman ($3,400)”
The Flames will be at home and the whole team, particularly this line, has had some fire “no pun intended” peripheral stats lately. Calgary’s depth is notable, but as you can see from the table above, it has been the second and third lines that stand out. As a result, I don’t mind the Flames’ second line and if running multiple lines I’d feature my second lineup around them. That said, the third line has been #1 “you heard correctly” in the NHL in SATF over their last ten games. Alexander Georgiev in the opposing net has been fairly up and down as of late. I expect him to get peppered with shots all around here as the Flames really start to break out after their underwhelming start to the season.
Defenseman and Goalie
Defenseman
Ty Smith – Pittsburgh Penguins – $4,300 – Filling in for Kris Letang on the first line and top power-play unit for only $4,300, a no-brainer play in all formats.
Goalie
Linus Ullmark – Boston Bruins – $8,200 – On paper it makes sense with Boston the -165 favorite in a rare 5.5 total game. Ullmark’s 1.82 GAA and .938 save percentage are stellar. All things considered here, he should be $8,500. If you really need the salary or are building multiple lines I’d roster the Islanders goalie “could be either or entering a back-to-back”.
1/18 NHL Best Bet
Boston Bruins 60 Minute ML (-105) – DraftKings – 1 Unit
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