After several weeks of small Saturday night slates, the NHL scheduling gods have blessed us with an 8 game slate on DraftKings and FanDuel. My goal today will be to walk you through a lineup build that will get you to the top of the leaderboards.
Let’s dig in and see if we can make some money.
Jake Oettinger ($7.5K DK/$7.7k FD) vs. New York Rangers – I don’t often proactively use goalies against my New York Rangers, but I’m going to make an exception tonight. Oettinger tonight is in a price point where he’s really hard to pass up. While not flashy, he’s been extremely reliable as he’s had at least 10 DK points or more in 11 of his last 13 games. He’s even had some games over 25 points.
The Rangers have really struggled to put the goal in the net over the last month, averaging just 2.45 goals per game over that stretch. With them on the road again tonight, look for them to continue to struggle scoring goals. Oettinger isn’t a sexy pick by any means, but he’s not going to kill you tonight.
Cal Petersen ($8.1k DK/$7.6k FD) vs. San Jose Sharks – The Kings should turn the goalie crease over to Cal Petersen tonight after Quick somehow let up 4 goals vs. a Sharks team that’s scoring just 2 goals per game over the past month. I wish Petersen was under the $8k range tonight on DK (love the price on FD) as I’m not sure I can stomach paying that much for him. That said, the match up is great. And if we look at recent stats, he provides more upside than Oettinger as he’s had over 20 DK points in back to back games.
Outside of those 2 goalies, I have little interest in anyone else. While both guys present some risk, they should both have a decent floor and won’t break the bank.
Calgary 1 (Lindholm, Gaudreau, Tkachuk) vs. Detroit
If you’ve been following the NHL recently, you know that Detroit is playing some really poor defensive hockey. Over the last month, they have a goals against average of 5.20. The only thing I can compare that to in sports is the Rockies playing every game in Coors over a 30 day stretch and having Kyle Freeland on the mound for all. It’s bad. Carolina is probably licking their chops after giving up on Nedeljkovic as he’s been extremely disappointing this season.
Over his last 2 games, he’s given up 12 goals. That’s bad. I want to preface this with saying that both top lines for Calgary are in play tonight. My lean right now is line 1, even though they are pricey. Lindholm and Gaudreau are both killing it of late, with a combined 11 goals and 18 points over their last 5. They’ve also combined for 41 scoring chances. Both guys are core plays for me tonight. You can add Tkachuk to this stack too if you want, I just don’t think he’s going to be necessary.
New Jersey 1 (Hughes, Sharangovich, Mercer) vs. Anaheim
While not as bad as Detroit over the last month in terms of GAA, the Ducks are pretty close as they’re giving up more than 4.5 goals per game since mid-February. After starting out the season strongly, Gibson has crashed hard back down to earth. For most of the year, he outperformed against his advanced metrics. The Gibson we are seeing now, is the real Gibson. Over the last month, he hasn’t had a single game with less than 3 goals. As their everyday goalie, that’s a lot of games with 3 or more goals against.
Jersey’s offense starts with Hughes. The third-year center already has a career high 18 goals and 26 assists. This is by far his best season at the NHL level and he’s still fairly priced at just $6.7k on DK. I’m pairing him with Sharangovich tonight as the 2 of them have really clicked and Sharangovich is just $3.8k. Over their last 5 games, the 2 have combined for 44 scoring chances. Look for the 2 of them to have a big night against a bad team.
Montreal 2 (Dauphin, Hoffman, Gallagher) vs. Seattle
I don’t need to sell you too much on playing guys against Seattle. They’ve struggled mightily in their inaugural season. We attack them when we can. Tonight, we can. Montreal 1 is absolutely in play tonight. Caufield and Suzuki are playing great hockey right now as they’ve combined for 12 points over their last 5 games. We just need some savings tonight in a productive environment and Montreal 2 is going to give us that.
I’m looking to Brendan Gallagher tonight for some positive regression. Over his last 5 contests he has 15 high danger chances and just 1 goal to show for it. His xGF over that stretch is 3.23. He should be finding the back of the net and there’s a very good chance tonight he does. The combination of Hoffman and Gallagher will cost us just $8.5k on DK tonight and after spending a ton of money on Calgary and Jersey, we need the extra money. There is also a path to getting both Suzuki and Caufield in your squads tonight by going cheap on both D and I may end up doing that too in a lineup.
Other stacks (TB 1 and 2, Edm 1 and 2, Bos 1, Ari, Chi 1)
Love the Canadiens at -110 tonight as favorites against Seattle. They’re on home ice and are playing “better.”
Tonight’s looking like a fun slate. We have several teams that should put up big numbers with Calgary, Jersey, and even Montreal. I didn’t write up them because I expect them to be popular, but Tampa Bay is also in a great spot to smash tonight vs. an Oilers team that has been challenged defensively this season.
Don’t forget to use our optimizer when setting lineups.
Good luck and hope to see you in the green!
Make sure you follow me on Twitter at @rangerzfan79 and be sure to sign up for an ALL ACCESS GOLD ACCOUNT here at Win Daily Sports. Gain access to our Projection Models and jump into our Discord where we will have our experts talking plays across every sport and slate!
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’re back to having our normal-sized 10 game slate.
Juuse Saros ($8.5k DK/$8.2k FD) vs. Arizona Coyotes – After living in the upper $7k range over the last month or so, DK has finally decided to price Saros appropriately. Saros is playing some amazing goaltending right now and is one of the hottest goalies in the NHL. In 2 of his last 3 games, he’s eclipsed the 30 point mark and the game in between he was at 24. While his price is finally up there, he gets a great matchup and has as good of a chance as anyone to get a shutout tonight.
The Coyotes goals per game average over the last month is a bit inflated right now. In there are a few games where they exploded for a ton of goals in wild west type shootouts. Nashville is a much more sound defensively team as they don’t give much in the way of high danger chances. Saros for the win tonight and he should pay off his salary. He’s one of my favorite goalies on the night.
Robin Lehner ($8.4k DK/$8k FD) vs. Chicago Blackhawks – Lehner made his return on Thursday night after about a 2 week hiatus due to an injury. His return was a successful one as he stymied my Rangers. I bring that up because the Rangers are a much more potent team than his matchup for Saturday night, the Chicago Blackhawks.
Over the past month the Blackhawks have really struggled to put the puck in the net. They are one of a handful of teams on tonight’s NHL slate that have scored less than 3 goals per game over the last 30 days. While they are taking a healthy amount of shots per game at close to 30, they have a sub 10 shooting percentage. They’re struggling to score some goals and I’m going to take advantage of that tonight with a well-rested goalie.
There’s honestly not much else to like in way of goalies tonight. Blackwood should be back in net tonight in the same matchup against the Blue Jackets. While he only gave up one goal to them, his previous string of games was downright awful. You could make the case for Stolarz against the Rangers but there’s a good chance they get back Panarin tonight, which only solidifies an already deep team.
San Jose 1 (Hertl/Barabanov/Meier) + Burns
There are 2 things going for me here. I love using the Sharks and I love playing offenses against the Flyers. It’s a recipe for success. Let’s start with the Flyers side of things. They give up a ton of shots. Over the last month, they are giving up more than 34 shots per game. On this NHL slate, only Columbus (we’ll get to them next) and Minnesota are giving up more per game. The Flyers are also giving up nearly 13 high danger chances per game. I preach these because they are scoring chances right in front of the nets. Giving up that many per game is asking for trouble.
On the Sharks side of things, this trio is playing amazing hockey right now. Over their last 5 games, they’ve combined for 31 high danger chances and 51 scoring chances. They have also combined for 18 points. Sharks are my favorite team of the night and tbh, it’s not even really close. With Meier’s price being over $8k, my anchors here will be Hertl and Barabanov. If you can afford Meier though, go for it.
New Jersey 1 (Hughes/Tatar/Bratt) + Severson
I expect Hughes to be very popular tonight. His ownership %’s have been trending up and he was about 25% owned in the same matchup on Thursday night. That said, it’s a big slate and ownership normally spreads out a bit more when that happens. Hughes is really coming into his own during this third season. He should easily set career highs in goals and points. Over his past 5 games he’s taken his game to a whole new level. He has 4 goals and 8 helpers in those games. I love the idea of pairing him with Bratt (Tatar too) tonight who also is playing very well of late with 8 points in 5. Columbus has really struggled defensively over the last month as they are giving up more than 4 goals per game. The Devils should have no problem scoring some goals tonight.
Nashville 1 (Forsberg/Duchene/Granlund) + Ekholm
Another poor NHL defensive team and another hot player. Forsberg is one of the hottest in the game right now as he has 5 goals in his last 5 games. Over his last 3 games he has 19.5, 23, and 19.1 DK points. He should have absolutely no issue continuing with that momentum against a Coyotes team that is giving up 4.29 goals per game over the past month.
I’m going to pair him with both Duchene and Ekholm tonight. Ekholm is not a super safe pick because he doesn’t get too many ancillary stats, but he is only $3.4k and gets power play time. Over his last 3 games he has 4 points so there is some upside with him.
Other stacks (Vegas 1 and 2, TB 1, Car 2, Fla 2, Col 1 and 2, Tor 2, Min 1, Was 1)
Tonight’s NHL DFS slate looks to be a fun one. We have some awful defensive teams going in the way of the Coyotes, Flyers, and Blue Jackets and will be sure to attack them. While they didn’t make my top 3, Vegas should absolutely crush tonight. The Blackhawks are struggling and Vegas should get to them often.
Make sure to use our optimizer when setting lineups.
Good luck and hope to see you in the green!
Make sure you follow me on Twitter at @rangerzfan79 and be sure to sign up for an ALL ACCESS GOLD ACCOUNT here at Win Daily Sports. Gain access to our Projection Models and jump into our Discord where we will have our experts talking plays across every sport and slate!
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