It’s another big day in the National Hockey League, with half of the teams playing tonight. The featured event tonight on Draft Kings is the $20,000 Guaranteed Face-off. The buy-in is just $27, and the payout structure is excellent, with just over 25% of the prize pool going to the winner. If you are a new user to Draft Kings please use this link to sign up!

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The Play of the Day:

None of the games stand out more than the Buffalo Sabres at Los Angeles Kings. The game opened with a line of -340 for the Kings, which is absolutely unheard of. The Sabres are coming off a 4-1 loss to the Anaheim Ducks, just the night before so they will likely be exhausted. Absolutely everyone will own Kings, — as they should — but you can’t win just with Kings. Here are my favorite plays from this game, and then we’ll look at the rest of the top games.

The best line stack from this game is by far the “That 70’s line” of Tanner Pearson – Jeff Carter – Tyler Toffoli. Incredibly, this line combined only costs $15,300, which is unheard of for such a good combination. Absolutely everyone will have them, as well as Anze Kopitar, who is a cool $5,200. Today, it’s all about the players around those Kings, that will bring things home for you.

Of course, Justin Williams, Alec Martinez, Drew Doughty, Jonathan Quick are all in play as well.

The Rest:

Pricing on Draft Kings is becoming more difficult — thankfully, as it increases edge — especially the goaltenders. They decreased the points goalies get for saves, so the prices opened lower but now they are becoming much higher on average — while the scoring system remains the same. Therefore, there doesn’t seem to be too much of a reason to pay up for goaltender.

The cheapest goalie that is “in play” for me is Jake Allen at $7,000. Allen was good in his debut, stopping 24 of 25 shots against Arizona, and tonight he faces off against a weak Vancouver team. The “ballsiest” play of the day is probably Jimmy Howard. The American has been simply fabulous to start the season, with a 93.7% save percentage. The Penguins are quite good, but they will fire a ton of shots on net, and if Howard stands on his head we could be looking at a big performance. Other than Quick, the safest goaltender on the board is Jonas Hiller against the terrible Carolina Hurricanes. Hiller is $8,300 and is a full grand cheaper than the aforementioned Quick.

Offense:

The terrible Mike Smith is likely in goal for the Arizona Coyotes, and he brings in a 82.2% save percentage and a 5.33 goals-against-average, and he faces Minnesota — who has been amazing this year so far. Smith’s save percentage won’t continue to be that bad, but it’s hard to ignore how good Minnesota has been to start the season — and they’ve always been an excellent home team.

Zach Parise / Jason Pominville | Minnesota | Combined cost: $13,500 : These guys both get number one line minutes and top power-play minutes. These are the ones who will have the safest floor, and of course the best ceiling. Parise has been very aggressive so far this year, totaling 19 shots in two games against Colorado. For some cost saving, don’t ignore Mikael Granlund, who centers these two on the number one even-strength line. Alas, he is on the number two power-play unit. Granland is just $4,000.

Contrarian: Nino Neiderreiter – $4,000 and Thomas Vanek – $4,800. The Coyotes are giving up the 28th most points to opposing left wingers, according to Draft Kings. While some may cry “Small Sample Size!”, the depth chart of Arizona shows us that there is a real reason for this. Shane Doan, Martin Erat, and David Moss are the top three right wingers for the Yotes, all of these three are incredibly slow. The right side woes don’t stop there, as the right side defensemen are Connor Murphy and Michael Stone — both of whom are young and inexperienced.

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The next game I am focusing on is Vancouver @ St. Louis. The Canucks have been a one line team for years now, and it’s even more exaggerated with Ryan Kesler in Anaheim. The Chris Higgins – Nick Bonino – Alexandre Burrows line was on the ice for three of the Dallas Stars six goals on Tuesday, so I really like..

Jaden Schwartz / Vladimir Tarasenko | St. Louis | Combined cost: $13,100 

These two also play on the top power-play line for the Blues, and are #1 and #2 in points scored and shots taken for the Blues so far this year.

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Mason Raymond | Calgary Flames | $5,000: Raymond is the most active player offensively for Calgary, and he’s an excellent play against a terrible goaltender in Cam Ward, who gets the start for the Carolina Hurricanes tonight.

Matthiew Nieto | San Jose Sharks | $3,000: Sigh, I know, another winger and you can’t fit all of them… but Nieto is now skating with Joe Pavelski and Joe Thornton so the ice time is finally there now for the youngster. He’s too cheap, and needs to be used against a Columbus team that can handle Eastern Conference teams, but is going to be very over-matched against the Western powers.

Defense:

1. Mark Giordano | Calgary | $5,500

2. Ryan Suter | Minnesota | $4,600

3. Kevin Shattenkirk | St. Louis | $5,100

4. Marco Scandella | Minnesota | $2,800

5. James Wisniewski | Columbus | $4,300

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