A six game schedule for the NHL today, including a battle of heavyweights in Anaheim, with Pittsburgh in town. The evening’s schedule also features two of the worst teams in the league (Buffalo, Edmonton) on the road and facing teams that can score big. There is potential for a lot of goals tonight across the six games, and the scoring in daily fantasy hockey should be high as well. We have a lot of choice when building our lineups for cash games (50/50s, head-to-head) and tournament games. In today’s article we’ll dive into games and highlight the teams and players to target for building winning lineups in FanDuel.

Top Teams to Target Tonight for Daily Fantasy Hockey

Ottawa Senators – Ottawa has won six of their past seven games and are rolling at the right time, trying to climb back into a playoff spot. Meanwhile their Sabres opponent continue to set the pace in the cellar of the league and have been awful all season long both offensively and defensively, ranking dead last or close to it in most categories (goals scored, goals against, shots, shots against, powerplay, penalty kill, etc…). The Senators are massive favorites in this game and they are the team mostly likely to score four or more goals in a blowout win. For daily fantasy, basically all Senators are in play in tournaments, and for cash game lineups focus on the Sens’ top scorers - Kyle Turris, Bobby Ryan, and especially Erik Karlsson on defense.

Recommended Plays for FanDuel

TOP GOALTENDER PLAYS

Andrew Hammond ($5,600) – Hammond has been sensational for the Senators, winning six of his past seven starts and only allowing eight goals in the streak. During that stretch he’s also registered road wins against a lot of tough teams (Anaheim, Los Angeles, San Jose, Winnipeg), and we’ll see how he does tonight against the worst team in the league. Hammond also has what could be the coolest nickname in hockey – “The Hamburglar”. For a goaltender – that’s gold! He’s a great target tonight for both cash games and tournament lineups considering his matchup and low salary.

TOP DEFENSEMEN PLAYS

Erik Karlsson ($6,800) – The Senators do have balanced scoring and it’s a bit tricky trying to determine which forward line will score the most tonight. In situations like that, it is often a good idea to take the team’s top defenseman in your lineups. That is especially true tonight as Karlsson is one of the top offensive defensemen in the NHL and he is worth paying up for in this matchup.

Marek Zidlicky ($3,400) – Zidlicky was a deadline day pick-up for the Red Wings and he immediately made an impact for them, scoring a powerplay goal in his first game. He has taken over as the defenseman on Red Wings’ top powerplay unit, which already ranks #1 in the NHL at 25.2%. Zidlicky is a great VALUE play at his price.

TOP CENTER PLAYS

Pavel Datsyuk ($7,100) – The Center position is loaded tonight with a lot of high priced options to look at. The top Centers in the Penguins/Ducks game are great, but there is a bit of risk to using them on FanDuel with the plus/minus category. We’ll look to Datsyuk instead whose team is favored to win big and he has been a consistent cash game player all season long, including points in seven of his past nine games, and 13 points total in that period.