It’s time to bounce back after Saturday brought us some unpredictable results, starting with the Toronto Maple Leafs blowout victory over the Chicago Blackhawks. In addition, the Carolina Hurricanes really surprised us by beating the Phoenix Coyotes 3-1.

Today we bring you a free advice article, in order to help you get back on track in the winning column after our disappointing results on Saturday.

The Games:

Toronto Maple Leafs (17-14-3), Last 10: (3-5-2) @ Pittsburgh Penguins (23-10-1), Last 10: (8-1-1)

Confirmed Goalies:

Toronto- Jonathan Bernier (10-10-2, 2.55 GAA, .925 Save Pct.) 

Jonathan Bernier starts tonight in Pittsburgh. Fourth start in past five games.

— Jonas Siegel (@jonasTSN1050) December 16, 2013

Pittsburgh- Marc-Andre Fleury (18-8-1, 2.01 GAA, .924 Save Pct.) 

Fleury starting in net for #Penguins

— Shelly Anderson (@pgshelly) December 16, 2013

Our pick- Toronto

Winnipeg Jets (14-15-5), Last 10: (4-4-2) @ Columbus Blue Jackets (14-15-4), Last 10: (6-3-1)

Confirmed Goalies:

Winnipeg- Al Montoya (4-2-1, 2.26 GAA, .921 Save Pct.) 

Al Montoya leaves ice first for #NHLJets while #CBJ starting Mike McKenna

— Ken Wiebe (@WiebeSunSports) December 16, 2013

Columbus- Mike McKenna (0-0-1, 2.99 GAA, .898 Save Pct.) 

#CBJ RW Marian Gaborik, D James Wisniewski and G Curtis McElhinney are out vs. Winnipeg. Mike McKenna will make 2nd straight start.

— Aaron Portzline (@Aportzline) December 15, 2013

Our pick- Columbus

St. Louis Blues (22-6-3), Last 10: (7-3-0) @ Ottawa Senators (13-15-6), Last 10: (4-4-2) 

Confirmed Goalies:

St. Louis- Brian Elliott (6-1-1, 2.14 GAA, .913 Save Pct.) 

Elliott will start against Ottawa. #stlblues

— Jeremy Rutherford (@jprutherford) December 15, 2013

Ottawa- Robin Lehner (4-7-3, 2.42 GAA, .930 Save Pct.) 

Lehner le gardien confirmé

— Nicolas St-Pierre (@nic_st_pierre) December 16, 2013

Our pick- Ottawa

Dallas Stars (15-11-5), Last 10: (4-3-3) @ Colorado Avalanche (21-9-1), Last 10: (5-4-1) 

Confirmed Goalies:

Dallas- Kari Lehtonen (12-7-5, 2.49 GAA, .919 Save Pct.) – Lehtonen is PROBABLE

Colorado- Semyon Varlamov (14-8-1, 2.40 GAA, .923 Save Pct.) 

#Avalanche D Ryan Wilson scheduled to return Tuesday at Dallas http://t.co/MxyntplWmC

— Mike Chambers (@mikechambers) December 15, 2013

**Note, click the link in the above tweet to view the official confirmation inside the article**

Our pick- Colorado

Big Picture Analysis:

Games We Like:

Toronto @ Pittsburgh- Fantasy Potential: A

This game brings quite a bit of intrigue, as the Leafs are coming off an excellent 7-3 shellacking of the Chicago Blackhawks, while the Penguins sputter into Pittsburgh without the efforts of Evgeni Malkin, James Neal, and Kris Letang at their disposal.

#Pens lines at morning skate: Kunitz-Crosby-Dupuis, Zolnierczyk-Jokinen-Megna, Conner-Sutter-Vitale, Adams-Sill-Kobasew

— Pittsburgh Penguins (@penguins) December 16, 2013

The Leafs are 1-0-1 against the Penguins this season, and in their most recent game, a 6-5 shootout loss, four out of the five Penguins goals came from Malkin, Neal and Letang. Enter three of the best Daily Fantasy Hockey plays tonight: Peter Holland ($4,600), Joffrey Lupul ($6,300), and Mason Raymond ($5,000). The trio combined for nine total points as the 22-year-old Holland supplied two goals and an assist, the 30-year-old Lupul provided two goals and two assists, and the 28-year-old Raymond registered four assists against the Blackhawks on Saturday. This was the very first game for the trio on the same line. We’d say that’s pretty darn good chemistry in a very short amount of time.

The Pittsburgh Penguins are at their lowest point right now in terms of talent level being rolled out (due to injury). For what it’s worth, in that most recent 6-5 shootout win for Pittsburgh over Toronto, Sidney Crosby, Chris Kunitz and Pascal Dupuis lined up against the Phil Kessel – James van Riemsdyk line.

It’s tough to endorse Marc-Andre Fleury as a start tonight in Daily Fantasy, but Jonathan Bernier ($8,600) is definitely worth a look. If the Leafs can stay out of the penalty box (which is certainly going to be difficult given their trends this year) Bernier should have a very nice game.

Our prediction: Toronto wins 4-2- Confidence Level: A

Winnipeg Jets @ Columbus Blue Jackets: Fantasy Potential: B+

Columbus has been an incredibly difficult team to understand this season. They are riding an impressive six game stretch that began with a 1-0 win over the Tampa Bay Lightning on December 3rd. They followed that up with a dominating 4-0 win over the very tough Minnesota Wild, then played the Penguins very tough on the road, giving Pittsburgh all they wanted. They ended up falling short 2-1 to Pittsburgh, but rebounded with two straight wins before losing in overtime to a very good St. Louis Blues team 4-3 in a home game.

Despite all of this success, we can’t ignore the fact that this team lost 7-0 to the Edmonton Oilers on November 19th. Sure, every team has a bad game, but, the Oilers? Really?

Players on Columbus we recommend: Ryan Johansen ($6,100), Cam Atkinson ($6,000), Brandon Dubinsky ($6,300)

The Winnipeg Jets have been tough to figure out as well (on a game-to-game basis anyway). The one fact that we know for sure about this team, is that they can’t win without secondary scoring. Blake Wheeler has been on fire lately, with six goals in his last six games and four in his last two games. However, captain Andrew Ladd has been invisible. The 28-year-old from Maple Ridge, British Columbia has just five points in his past eleven games — a generous selective sample, since the first game in that eleven game stretch was a two point performance against his former team the Blackhawks — a number that simply won’t get it done if the Jets hope to get back to relevancy in a tough Western Conference.

What the Jets have going for them is that they have an 8-3-1 record against the Eastern Conference, — includes a 5-1-1 mark against the Metropolitan Division.  While we don’t see the Jets continuing that success tonight, these two teams are coming in with nearly identical records for the season. The only fantasy plays for Winnipeg are Devin Setoguchi ($4,900) and Bryan Little ($5,900). Blake Wheeler’s $7,900 current price tag is simply too much to pay.

Our prediction- Columbus wins 4-2 — Confidence Level: B-minus

Games to avoid:

St. Louis @ Ottawa- Fantasy Potential: B-minus

We feel like the Blues vs. Senators game could be very tricky to predict. The Blues are coming into this game having notched a 4-3 overtime win over the Blue Jackets — an effort that took much more than the Blues were hoping to put forth. While we expect head coach Ken Hitchcock will have his team ready to play Ottawa, the Blues do play the San Jose Sharks tomorrow night. With winger Jaden Schwartz and center Vladimir Sobotka out of the lineup tonight, both of whom are nursing minor injuries, it’s apparent that Hitchcock is already looking ahead to San Jose.

Ottawa has only scored five goals in their past three games, despite two of those games being against the abysmal Buffalo Sabres. 

The only way this game breaks open is if there are lots of penalties called.

Our prediction- Ottawa wins 3-1. Confidence Level: D+

Picks and Pans:

If you so choose to dabble into the Dallas vs. Colorado game, or the St. Louis vs. Ottawa game, here are some suggestions.

G- Kari Lehtonen- Dallas | $7,800

C- Tyler Seguin– Dallas | $9,400

C- Mika Zibanejad– Ottawa | $4,000

D- Erik Karlsson– Ottawa | $7,400

Official Lineup:

C- Ryan Johansen- Columbus | $6,100 | vs. WPG

LW- Joffrey Lupul- Toronto | $6,300 | @ PIT

RW- Cam Atkinson- Columbus | $6,000 | vs. WPG

D- Jan Hejda– Colorado | $2,700 | vs. DAL

D- Cody Franson– Toronto | $4,200 | @ PIT

G- Jonathan Bernier- Toronto | $8,600 | @ PIT

UTIL- Peter Holland- Toronto | $4,600 | @ PIT

UTIL- Mason Raymond- Toronto | $5,000 | @ PIT

UTIL- Brandon Dubinsky- Columbus | $6,300 | vs. WPG