Daily Fantasy Hockey Powerplay – April 11^th, 2015

We’ve reached the final day of the NHL Regular Season, and all 30 teams are in action today. There are five afternoon games and 10 evening games, with several games that still have playoff implications, especially in the Eastern Conference. Going into the final day, there are still three teams fighting for two playoff spots in the East, with the Senators in the first wild card spot, one point up on Pittsburgh who in turn is one ahead of Boston. Depending on how things go on Saturday, any of those three teams could be eliminated.

In the Western Conference, all eight playoff seats are decided but some teams are still playing for positioning and home ice advantage. The Blues and Ducks are fighting for the #1 seed in the West, while the Blackhawks and Wild are still deciding the final spot in the Central division, and first wildcard spot. The Flames and Canucks will play each other in the first round of the playoffs, but home ice in that series is still up for grabs, with Calgary two points back of Vancouver.

For playing daily fantasy hockey today, there are a lot of factors in play (i.e. teams “mailing it in”, teams resting players for the playoffs), and it’s a very difficult day to determine which teams are going to score the highest. It’s especially tough for cash game (50/50, head-to-head) play today, however most teams playing today are possible targets for tournament stacks, considering this wacky day.

It is also strongly recommended to keep a close eye on player news, starting goaltender updates and changes to scoring lines throughout the day, via twitter and the various fantasy hockey information sites. Staying on top of this will be critical to get an edge on other DFS players on Saturday.

Today is the final regular eDraft.com DFS hockey article for the season, but we’ll keep things going for the playoffs starting mid next week. In this article we’ll break things down to try to determine which teams and players to target, to piece together the puzzle for today and build winning FanDuel lineups.

DFS Game by Game Analysis - 4/11

Top Teams to Target Tonight for Daily Fantasy Hockey

With the final day of the season there are a lot of variables to go through when determining the top teams to target:

1. Several teams have clinched their playoff positions and play meaningless games and might rest some of their veterans or injured players.

2. Many teams are out of the playoffs with nothing to play for, so they might show up or not.

3. And those teams still fighting for a playoff spot or playoff positioning will be treating this like a “playoff” game already and their matchup could be tight checking and low scoring.

With 30 games in action and so many factors going into this final day, there are numerous teams in play for tournaments lineups.

TOP TEAMS AND LINES TO STACK FOR GPP tournament lineups:

1. Ducks ’ top line - Corey Perry, Ryan Getzlaf, Jiri Sekac

2. Canucks ’ top power play unit - Daniel Sedin, Henrik Sedin, Radim Vrbata, Alexander Edler and Yannick Weber

3. Stars ’ top line - Jamie Benn, Tyler Seguin and Patrick Eaves

4. Penguins ’ top power play unit - Sidney Crosby, Evgeni Malkin, Patric Hornqvist, Chris Kunitz and Paul Martin

5. Lightning top two lines - Steven Stamkos, Ryan Callahan, Jonathan Drouin and Tyler Johnson, Ondrej Palat, Nikita Kucherov

6. Islanders ’ top two lines - John Tavares, Ryan Strome, Nikolay Kulemin and Anders Lee, Josh Bailey, Kyle Okposo

7. Panthers ’ top line - Jonathan Huberdeau, Aleksander Barkov, Jaromir Jagr, and defenseman Aaron Ekblad

8. Capitals ’ top power play unit - Alexander Ovechkin, Nicklas Backstrom, Marcus Johansson, Troy Brouwer and John Carlson

9. Canadiens ’ top power play unit - Alex Galchenyuk, Tomas Plekanec, Brendan Gallagher, P.K. Subban and Andrei Markov

10. Sharks ’ top power play unit - Logan Couture, Joe Pavelski, Patrick Marleau, Joe Thornton and Brent Burns

11. Red Wings ’ top line - Henrik Zetterberg, Pavel Datsyuk and Darren Helm

12. Blackhawks ’ top line - Jonathan Toews, Marian Hossa and Kris Versteeg

Recommended Players for FanDuel

Here is a list of recommended players to use tonight in your hockey lineups on FanDuel.

Please note that several factors are considered for these recommendations, including FanDuel salary, expected number of goals for the team and their opponent, and the player’s situation (i.e. minutes played, linemates, power play time, recent performance, split stats, etc…).

TOP GOALTENDER PLAYS

[NOTE: Remember to double-check the Starting Goaltenders for the night to ensure the netminder you’re targeting is playing]

1. Carey Price ($9,900) – On a day with all 30 teams in action, we’ll take the best goaltender in the league this year, in a game against the Leafs who “checked out” weeks ago. Price will complete the goaltending triple-crown this season with the most wins (43) and best goals against average (1.95) and save percentage (.934). These are incredible numbers and should lead Price to be the unanimous choice for the Vezina trophy and also potentially the Hart trophy for the league M.V.P. Montréal opted to give Price this final start to keep him fresh, and the Canadiens are big favorites in this game against the Maple Leafs. Price is 3-0 against Toronto this season, allowing just four goals, and he shut them out last game.

2. John Gibson ($7,500) – As of now, the starting goaltender for the Ducks isn’t announced yet, but if it’s Gibson over Andersen, he’ll be the top VALUE goaltender today. The Ducks have something to play for on Saturday and they face one of the league’s worst teams. This is a great combination for a big Ducks win and for Gibson to come up big and prove that he deserves to be the starting goaltender when the playoffs begin next week.

   NOTE: If Gibson does not get the start, switch to one of the other VALUE goaltenders below instead for your GPP lineups

Other Recommended Goaltenders – Marc-André Fleury, Ryan Miller, Brian Elliott, Andrew Hammond, Michael Hutchinson, Al Montoya, Michal Neuvirth

TOP DEFENSEMEN PLAYS

1. Erik Karlsson ($7,100) – The Senators play in the afternoon on Saturday and they’re playing for the win to clinch a playoff spot. They’ll be leaning on their team captain and Karlsson has delivered this season, leading all defensemen in points (66), PP points (30) and shots on goal (291). His leadership and strong two-way play for the Senators has especially been important down the stretch (offensively with 16 points and a +7 rating over the past month), and he should be a finalist for the Norris trophy for the league’s top defensemen. The Senators face a Flyers team today that has been eliminated from the playoffs for a while with nothing to play for, and they rank in the bottom third in goals against and 27^th in penalty kill percentage.

2. Yannick Weber ($3,300) – There are several very good VALUE defensemen to use tonight in your daily lineups (see below), and we’ll highlight Weber who was recently moved up to Vancouver’s top power play unit. Weber responded with two power play goals in his last game, and the Canucks have a great matchup again tonight against the Oilers, who rank next to last in penalty killing.

Other Recommended Defensemen – Dustin Byfuglien, John Carlson, Alexander Edler, P.K. Subban, Nick Leddy, Andrei Markov, Sami Vatanen, Anton Stralman, Hampus Lindholm, Aaron Ekblad, Jeff Petry, Cam Fowler, Tyler Myers, Ian Cole, Jason Demers, Paul Martin, Nikita Nesterov

TOP LEFT WINGER PLAYS

1. Jamie Benn ($8,500) – The Dallas Stars are the league’s highest scoring team since the all-star break, including 18 goals in four games in April. The duo of Seguin and Benn looks unstoppable right now, and Benn has his sights on the NHL scoring title (currently one point back of Crosby and Tavares). The Stars have won eight of their past 11 games, while the Predators have lost their past five (and gave up 21 goals in that stretch). Nashville is also set for their final position in the standings, so they have nothing to play for in this game. The Stars have nothing to play for either since they were eliminated a while ago, but that hasn’t stopped them from winning and piling up a lot of goals. A small consolation for them could be to overtake Tampa Bay as the league’s highest scoring team this year (two goals behind currently), in addition to Benn’s individual target. Benn has been on fire lately with 11 points in his past five games, and another multi-point game could take place tonight.

2. Jiri Sekac ($3,300) – Sekac is a VALUE play almost by default considering he is playing on the Ducks’ top line with Perry and Getzlaf. The Ducks do want to win this game and clinch the top seed in the Western Conference, so it’s likely that their top players will play at least part of the game. If the Ducks rest Getzlaf, then Rakell should move up to center the top line and Sekac had a two-point game last Friday with this line. Use Sekac as part of a Ducks stack or as a single player at LW to complete a tournament lineup.

Other Recommended Left Wingers – Alexander Ovechkin, Daniel Sedin, Tomas Tatar, Ondrej Palat, Johnny Gaudreau, Gustav Nyquist, Gabriel Landeskog, Anders Lee, Jonathan Huberdeau, Clarke MacArthur, Alex Galchenyuk, Josh Bailey, Kris Versteeg, Melker Karlsson, Artem Anisimov, Dmitrij Jaskin, Daniel Winnik

TOP CENTER PLAYS

1. John Tavares ($9,500) – Tavares is tied for the lead in NHL scoring (with Crosby) and he’s been the league’s most consistent offensive player all season long. Tonight the Islanders play at home to Columbus and they may have a chance to pass Washington for second place in the Metropolitan division and home ice advantage during the first round of the playoffs (if the Capitals don’t win on Saturday afternoon). Tavares has been hot with 10 points in his past five games and he’ll be looking to finish the season strong, potentially win the Art Ross trophy and prove to everyone that he is one of the very best players in the league.

2. Aleksander Barkov ($4,400) – Florida is a young upstart team that will be looking to take a big leap next season after major improvements this year. Barkov is one of many young dynamic players on the Panthers team and he could break out into a star down the road. The Panthers have a very favorable matchup at home to New Jersey in their final game, and the top line of Barkov, Huberdeau and Jagr is a sneaky stack for tournaments today.

Other Recommended Centers – Sidney Crosby, Tyler Seguin, Ryan Getzlaf, Evgeni Malkin, Ryan Johansen, Claude Giroux, Eric Staal, Pavel Datsyuk (if he plays), Tyler Johnson, Nicklas Backstrom, Anze Kopitar, Jason Spezza, Kyle Turris, Tomas Plekanec, Sean Monahan, Henrik Sedin, Nick Bonino, Darren Helm, Bo Horvat

TOP RIGHT WINGER PLAYS

1. Patric Hornqvist ($7,700) – Pittsburgh has been awful for quite a long stretch (largely due to injuries, but not entirely). Their big slide has brought them to the brink of missing the playoffs, which is something that was unthinkable a month ago. Logically, the Penguins should pull it together and finally clinch a playoff spot with a big win against the worst team in the league, right? Assuming this happens, we can expect Hornqvist to be involved in the scoring. He’s been perhaps the most consistent Penguins player all season long, and with his high shot total, he’s a threat for a multi-goal game any given night. Playing with Crosby doesn’t hurt, and that line should score a couple goals against the abysmal Sabres.

2. Patrick Eaves ($3,200) – As mentioned above with Benn, the Stars are in a great position to score tonight. Eaves plays on the Stars’ top line and top power play unit with the superstar duo of Benn and Seguin and that opportunity gives him plenty of chances to hit the score sheet. He’s taken advantage of that lately with points in three straight games, including a two-goal game on Wednesday. When you consider all this and factor in Eaves’ near minimum priced salary, he is easily the top VALUE play of the night!

Other Recommended Centers – Steven Stamkos, Corey Perry, Vladimir Tarasenko, Jakub Voracek, Radim Vrbata, Marian Hossa, Nick Foligno, Nikita Kucherov, Ryan Callahan, Brendan Gallagher, Jaromir Jagr, Alexandre Burrows, Mark Stone, Ryan Strome, Marcus Johansson, Rickard Rakell, Teuvo Teravainen, Nail Yakupov, Beau Bennett

FanDuel Lineups

Finally, let’s put all of the information together and look at a couple potential line-ups that we could use in FanDuel tonight.

Lineups for Cash Games (50/50s, Head-to-head):

In today’s cash game lineup, we’ll spread out our roster across several teams that are in good match-ups tonight, including players from each of the teams listed as top targets above, and a few other players in good spots.

CASH GAME LINEUP #1  ("ALL DAY" lineup, with Price and a mix of players that are in good positions to score today):

LW - Jamie Benn, DAL, $8,500
LW - Jiri Sekac, ANH, $3,300
RW - Patric Hornqvist, PIT, $7,700
RW - Patrick Eaves, DAL, $3,200
C - Henrik Sedin, VAN, $5,500
C - Sidney Crosby, PIT, $9,400
D - Anton Stralman, TB, $4,000
D - Yannick Weber, VAN, $3,300
G - Carey Price, MON, $9,900

CASH GAME LINEUP #2  ("Evening" lineup, with Miller in goal, and a loaded offense up front):

LW - Jamie Benn, DAL, $8,500
LW - Daniel Sedin, VAN, $6,700
RW - Patric Hornqvist, PIT, $7,700
RW - Patrick Eaves, DAL, $3,200
C - Aleksander Barkov, FLA, $4,400
C - Evgeni Malkin, PIT, $8,100
D - Yannick Weber, VAN, $3,300
D - Andrei Markov, MON, $4,500
G - Ryan Miller, FLA, $8,400

GPP Tournament Lineups:

There are many different ways to build a tournament lineup tonight, with plenty of teams that are great options for tournament play.

NOTE: these are sample line-ups and could be used as the base for creating a tournament lineup. For multi-entry tournaments with big fields, create several different lineups using the teams to target and GPP line stacks listed above and put them into the same tournament.

Here are four examples below:

GPP LINEUP #1 (an "All Day" tournament lineup, with the Capitals and Panthers, and Hiller in goal):

LW - Alexander Ovechkin, WAS, $9,800
LW - Jonathan Huberdeau, FLA, $5,300
RW - Marcus Johansson, WAS, $4,300
RW - Jaromir Jagr, FLA, $5,100
C - Nicklas Backstrom, WAS, $7,000
C - Aleksander Barkov, FLA, $4,400
D - John Carlson, WAS, $5,500
D - Aaron Ekblad, FLA, $3,900
G - Jonas Hiller, CGY, $9,100

GPP LINEUP #2 (a pairing of the Penguins' top power play, and Canucks' top line, and Elliott in net):

LW - Daniel Sedin, VAN, $6,700
LW - Jiri Sekac, ANH, $3,300
RW - Patric Hornqvist, PIT, $7,700
RW - Alex Burrows, VAN, $5,000
C - Sidney Crosby, PIT, $9,400
C - Evgeni Malkin, PIT, $8,100
D - Paul Martin, PIT, $3,000
D - Yannick Weber, VAN, $3,300
G - Brian Elliott, STL, $8,400

GPP LINEUP #3 (a Stars and Canadiens combination, Montoya in goal):

LW - Jamie Benn, DAL, $8,500
LW - Alex Galchenyuk, MON, $4,600
RW - Patrick Eaves, DAL, $3,200
RW - Brendan Gallagher, MON, $5,700
C - Evgeni Malkin, PIT, $8,100
C - Tyler Johnson, TB, $7,100
D - P.K. Subban, MON, $6,300
D - Andrei Markov, MON, $4,500
G - Al Montoya, FLA, $6,700

GPP LINEUP #4 (a Penguins and Lightning pairing, with Miller in goal):

LW - Ondrej Palat, TB, $6,200
LW - Daniel Winnik, PIT, $3,300
RW - Nikita Kucherov, TB, $5,800
RW - Patric Hornqvist, PIT, $7,700
C - Tyler Johnson, TB, $7,100
C - Sidney Crosby, PIT, $9,400
D - Anton Stralman, TB, $4,000
D - Paul Martin, PIT, $3,000
G - Ryan Miller, VAN, $8,400

Good luck to everyone playing Daily Fantasy Hockey today!

-Sean

DFS alias: maxdout

Twitter: @maxdoutDFS