Joel Bartilotta 
Welcome to the Saturday Slapshot where I’ll be highlighting some of my top plays for tonight’s NHL DFS slate on Fanduel and DraftKings. Tonight we have a smaller than usual 6 game slate.
Let’s dig in and see if we can make some money.
Goaltending
Jacob Markstrom ($8.1k DK/$8.4k FD) vs. Vancouver Canucks – The Canucks season has been quite the rollercoaster. They started out miserably which caused the Canucks higher-ups to change coaches. After Boudreau came aboard, they went on a nice roll. Now, well they’re back to being the Canucks we saw at the start of the year. The Canucks offense has not been scoring of late. Over the last month, they are scoring just 2.42 goals per game while putting over 31 shots per game on net.
With those numbers, we know there’s upside in Markstrom tonight. While his last outing was a bit of a struggle, he’s been pretty solid over his last 8 games as he has a .909 save % and just a 2.76 GAA. I’m more than likely locking Markstrom into my goalie 1 spot tonight if he draws the start.
Karel Vejmelka ($7.6k DK/$7k FD) vs. Buffalo Sabres – If not paying up for Markstrom tonight, I’m going to go with Vejmelka tonight. This is a high-risk/high reward type of pick. So if you’re averse to risk, go with Markstrom. Vejmelka has shown some serious upside at the NHL level this season due to the poor defense in front of him. The Coyotes have been giving up over 36 shots per game over the last month. That equates to a ton of opportunity for Vejmelka.
The good thing for us and the reason I’m going here tonight is due to the fact that Buffalo just doesn’t score much. They’ve been averaging just 2.42 goals per game over the last month. Of the teams on tonight’s slate, only Montreal is worse. They have a sub 9% shooting percentage and that makes this pick even more appealing to me.
Another guy that piques my interest a bit is Mikko Koskinen ($8.2k DK/$7.9k FD) vs. Montreal Canadiens. This game is going to be a battle of who is worse tonight. We’ll get to Edmonton in my stacks section, but we have to remember that Edmonton has been extremely poor over the last month or so. Montreal has been absolutely awful this year and we can attack them with goalies. Does a poor offense outweigh a poor defense? We’ll see tonight!
Stacks
Edmonton 2 (Leon Draisaitl, Jesse Puljujarvi, Warren Foegele) + Duncan Keith
It’s been quite a while since I recommended or stacked the Oilers. That changes tonight. Montreal is epically bad this year. Through 42 games, they have just 23 points. While Cayden Primeau may eventually be a good goalie in the NHL, he’s not there yet and it certainly doesn’t help when you have an extremely poor defense in front of you. Over the last month, the Canadiens are giving up almost 40 shots per game and almost 15 high danger chances. That’s just awful.
My core with this stack will be Draisaitl and Puljujarvi. Between the 2 of them, they have 25 high danger chances over their last 5 games and 44 scoring chances. Puljujarvi’s 15 high danger chances lead the team over the last 5 games and he comes in at just $4k on DK tonight. If you look at his production over his last 5 it’s been nill. Positive regression catches up with him tonight. This pairing is going to cost us just $12.4k tonight. Let everyone else flock to McDavid (also a great play) tonight. I’m going with Draisaitl and Puljujarvi.
Carolina 2 (Trocheck, Svechnikov, Necas) + Slavin
The New Jersey Devils will more than likely have Jon Giles in net tonight. While he hasn’t been awful, he’s giving up more than 3 goals per game over his 5 starts. The Devils as a whole have been giving up more than 3.5 goals per game over the past month so we know there’s going to be some opportunity for scoring from the Hurricanes tonight.
My lean here is their second line and I’ll try my hardest to fit in Svechnikov tonight. He’s been extremely solid over his last 5 games as he has 8 points. He leads the Hurricanes over that stretch in scoring chances as well as shots. My plan here will be to pair him with Trocheck. The two of them have been playing well together and should be able to take advantage of the Devils tonight.
Toronto 2 (Tavares, Mikheyev, Marner)
This Maple Leafs offense may be one of the most powerful in the NHL. They have 2 top lines that are stacked. Tonight, I’ll be going with their second line as it’s been producing a ton of points. Over their last 5 games, Tavares and Marner have combined for 11 points, 21 high danger chances, and 44 scoring chances. They are clicking and get a great match up tonight vs. a Red Wings team that has been giving up some goals recently.
Over the last month, they are giving up close to 3.5 goals per game. That’s a number that we can absolutely target and we will tonight. In net for Detroit tonight should be Nedeljkovic. Over his last 8 games he has a 3.02 GAA and a -.26 GSAA. Over his last 3 games, teams have scored 12 goals against him. Let’s pick on him tonight!
Other stacks (Edm 1, Ari 1 and 2, TB 1, CGY 1, TBL 1)
Top Defenseman
- Duncan Keith
- Darnell Nurse
- Rasmus Andersson
- Moritz Seider
- Victor Hedman
- Christopher Tanev
- Alex Pietrangelo
- Damon Severson
Summary
Even though tonight’s a smaller than normal Saturday night NHL slate, it should still be a fun one. We have a game between Edmonton and Montreal that has the potential to be a 6-5 game. While I didn’t specifically mention them in my stacks, Calgary should get back on track tonight against the Canucks. That top line of Gaudreau, Tkachuk, and Lindholm has been one of the best in the NHL of late and should do well tonight.
Make sure to use our optimizer when setting lineups.
Good luck and hope to see you in the green!
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