Justin Elick 
Welcome to Wednesday’s edition of Between the Benches. We have a 7-game slate tonight that has some really solid spots for offense.
Let’s dig in and see if we can make some money.
NHL DFS Goaltending
Linus Ullmark ($8.3K DK/$8.7k FD) vs. Colorado Avalanche – Jared, are you really picking on the Avalanche with a goalie? Yes, I 100% am tonight. If you haven’t heard the news yet, Nate MacKinnon has been ruled out for the next 4 weeks with an injury. That leaves this Avalanche team without it’s main offensive weapon and honestly, makes this Avalanche offense average at best.
This isn’t to take anything away from Ullmark. Ullmark has been great all season. He’s coming into this matchup 14-1 with a 1.93 GAA and a .936 save %. He’s made an early case for the Vezina Trophy. We have to go all the way back to Nov 1 to find a game where Ullmark hasn’t been in double-digit fantasy points on DK. I will add that although Ullmark does have a pretty save floor in this one, he also has a limited ceiling, making this more of a Cash game play.
Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen ($7.7k DK/$8.5k FD) vs. Columbus Blue Jackets – After giving up a goal on the very first shot he saw last night, Tristan Jarry went on to completely shut down the Blue Jackets and go for 32 DK points. While i wouldn’t put Luukkonen in the same class as Jarry, he gets the same matchup vs. a Blue Jackets team that has scored just 12 goals over their last 6 games. After last night’s debacle, their shooting percentage over the last 2 weeks is now down to 6.5%. That’s awful.
With Luukkonen, we have a goalie that has struggled this season. He has a 4.17 GAA and a .856 save %. Sometimes in GPP’s you need to take a risk, and I’m going to take a risk tonight vs. a team struggling. He’s coming off a strong performance vs. a solid Sharks team and my hope is that it carries over into this matchup. I need to reiterate with this one, it’s a high risk only meant for GPP’s.
NHL DFS Stacks
Buffalo 2 (Cozens, Peterka, Quinn) + vs. Columbus
I attacked the Blue Jackets with PIttsburgh last night and it paid off as their top line had 2 goals and 3 assists. While this second line for Buffalo doesn’t have the pedigree of Pittsburgh’s top line or even the Sabres’ top line, it’s been balling out and has a chance to continue to do damage. The Blue Jackets should put their best defensive line against the Thompson line tonight, leaving this second line to do some damage.
My important pieces here are going to be Cozens and Quinn. Cozens is playing great right now, with 4 goals and 5 assists over his last 5 games. Quinn at just $3.1k tonight on DK is a solid value. Over his last 5, he has 3 goals and 2 assists. Adding in another cheapy in Peterka allows us to really free up a ton of cash tonight, while staying extremely productive.
Buffalo 1 is also 100% in play tonight. They’re just more expensive and may garner more ownership.
Boston 2 (Krejci, Zacha, Pastrnak) + Carlo vs. Colorado
The team that the will be skating for the Avalanche tonight will be vastly different than the team that won the Cup last season. There will be no Nazm Kadri, no Gabriel Landeskog, and most importantly there will be no Nathan MacKinnon. Not to say that it will be a team of scrubs that will be playing, but they won’t resemble a championship team.
Knowing all of that, I’m going to attack them with the best team in the NHL, the Boston Bruins. And we’ll go with one of the best players in the game in David Pastrnak. Pasta has been balling this season and of late. Over his last 5 games, Pasta has 5 goals and an assist. Against a weakened lineup for the Avalanche, he should be able to add to that total tonight. I’ll prioritize pairing him with Krejci as he has 5 points also over his last 5 games. I don’t often play the Bruins in NHL DFS because of their popularity, but I feel like tonight is a night they can go off big time.
Vancouver 2 (Pettersson, Boeser, Mikheyev) + Dobson vs. St. Louis
The Sharks will hand over the goalie crease to Kaapo Kahkonen tonight. Over his last 7 games, Kahkonen has given up at least 4 goals 5 times. He’s someone that is extremely attackable and I’ll do so with a team that has been scoring some goals. The Canucks have been scoring more than 3.5 goals per game over the last 2 weeks.
We’ll want to jump down to their second line as well tonight as it’s been the one doing the damage. Most notably by Elias Pettersson. Pettersson has 7 points over his last 5 games. He’s been the playmaker as he has 5 assists. Both of his linemates are extremely cheap tonight, but I’m going to pair him with Mikheyev tonight as he’s put 3 pucks in the net over his last 5. That’s a decent amount of production out of someone under $4k.
Other Stacks: Vegas 1 and 2, Edmonton 1, Rangers 1, Sharks 1, Cgy 1
NHL DFS Top Value Defenseman
- Alex Goligoski – $2.9k on DK
- Travis Sanheim – $3.9k on Dk
- Matt Benning – $3k on DK
- Jared Spurgeon – $4.6k on DK
Summary
This has the makings of a super-fun slate tonight. I’ll be locked on both Buffalo and Boston tonight and will fit in Vancouver and Vegas where i can. The Rangers, as much as it pains me to say it, have been playing like hot garbage. Attack them where you can.
Make sure to use our Projection model when setting lineups.
Good luck and hope to see you in the green!
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