Just a five game slate this weekend, but there’s still some great action going on over at Draft Kings. If you are a new user to Draft Kings please use this link to sign up! The main event tonight is a $10,000 Face-off GPP with a $27 entry fee

*Note this is a FREE PREVIEW of what the articles behind our pay wall look like* Enjoy!

With just five games on the ledger tonight, we are allowed the luxury of looking at each individual game tonight in it’s entirety.

The Games:

Dallas Stars @ New Jersey Devils:

Devils goaltender Cory Schneider has had an uncharacteristic start to the season, coming in with only a .898 save percentage. Most of this is being weighed down by his .811 save percentage when the Devils are on the penalty-kill, which is one of the reasons that New Jersey sits with the third worst penalty-kill percentage in the NHL. Dallas is led on the power-play by two guys who truly need no introduction — Tyler Seguin and Jamie Benn. Although at a robust $17,000 combined, they are an obvious combo tonight.

On the other side, the chalk play is Damon Severson, a young defenseman for the Devils who is quickly becoming my “Jacob Trouba love affair” of this year”. For new readers, this is in reference to the fact that last year Trouba was consistently under-priced and providing points from Winnipeg’s top power-play. Severson looks to fit that mold this year, as he’s once again cheap at just $3,400. On offense, the Devils are quite frustrating. They recently shook up their lines, and moved Mike Cammalleri to the second line with Patrik Elias and Damien Brunner. This will hopefully be changed soon, as I expect Cammalleri’s production to fall on this line because Brunner also likes to have the puck on his stick. For GPP’s, I’m all over various New Jersey combo’s, in particular Michael Ryder and Adam Henrique, but right now they are unusable in cash games with any confidence.

Tampa Bay Lightning @ Winnipeg Jets

This game is quite interesting, because the Lightning have scuffled offensively on this current Western road trip. Once again, Ryan Callahan has missed practice so that means the Jonathan Drouin – Valtteri Filppula – Steven Stamkos line is intact still. Stamkos is as close to a must play as there is when the Lightning face the Jets, as he has 41 points in 28 career games against them (this includes their time as the Atlanta Thrashers). Against Ondrej Pavelec in particular, Stamkos has 12 goals, 11 assists, and 57 shots in just 17 games (21.0% shooting percentage). At $8,800 he’s an easy play. As a whole, it’s hard to trust anyone else on the Lightning the way their offense is going right now. I’d recommend Anton Stralman at $3,400 in cash games just because he’s now on the #1 power-play unit, but I’m staying away from everyone else in cash games for the most part. A full Lightning stack is always a great GPP option, however.

Vancouver Canucks @ Colorado Avalanche

The Canucks are coming off a tough road win against the Blues, and could easily carry their momentum into this game against an Avalanche team that is allowing an incredible 35.7 shots per game (second worst only behind Buffalo). Colorado gets their top goaltender Semyon Varlamov back for this one, so I won’t really be having much exposure to Vancouver in cash games outside of Lindon Vey ($2,800) and Chris Tanev (3,400). Both of these players are cheap and play on the top power-play unit for Vancouver. Obviously though, GPP exposure to their top line (Vrbata and the Sedin’s) is warranted, but given the price and other options at the top of the list today, I’d almost rather take a chance that Chris Higgins – Nick Bonino – Alexandre Burrows find the scoresheet again.

The Canucks #2 line has had issues defensively at times this year, as they were on the ice for three of the five goals Dallas scored on even strength in their 6-3 loss to them on Tuesday. Alex Tanguay has been moved down to the second line with Matt Duchene and Jarome Iginla and while Tanguay is on a three game goal scoring streak, it’s hard to envision that continuing given his age. In cash games I really can’t endorse using anyone outside of Duchene.

Final Verdict on this game: There’s sneaky value here, but it’s GPP only until the Avalanche turn around that 1.71 goals per game mark, and until Vancouver shows some consistency.

Carolina Hurricanes @ Edmonton Oilers

This sort of tire fire vs dumpster fire game is always fascinating for DFS purposes. One one hand the Hurricanes are terrible and Ben Scrivens — who is a good goalie — is just $6,400. On another hand, the Oilers are awful outside of Taylor Hall and Canes goaltender Anton Khudobin is just $6,200. With a gun to my head, I’d prefer to go with Scrivens because I think right now the Oilers are much better offensively. This game has a very good chance to be 2-1 or 6-5, so GPP exposure to these teams is pretty intriguing.

Here are some GPP candidates that absolutely nobody will be on, but will allow you to fit in lineups that are loaded with superstars around them.

• Chris Terry – $3,100 – Carolina
• Benoit Pouliot / Mark Arcobello / Nail Yakupov – Combined cost: $9,900 – Edmonton

In reality though, everyone in this game is in play as sneaky GPP value (especially those around 3k because it allows for you to load up on Getzlaf/Perry, Benn/Seguin, and Stamkos.

Columbus Blue Jackets @ Anaheim Ducks

Outside of the two obvious plays of Ryan Getzlaf and Corey Perry, there is William Karlsson who is $2800 and is slated to skate on the Ducks top power-play unit. With John Gibson confirmed to be getting the call for Anaheim, this could mean another big day for Ryan Johansen who is now proven to be matchup proof. In addition to Johansen, Mark Letestu is cheap again, but he feels like a chase play even in another good matchup, following his two-goal game last night. If Curtis McElhinney gets the call tonight, I don’t mind a Ducks stack that includes Devante Smith-Pelly ($4,100 and skating with Getlzlaf/Perry, albeit not on the top power-play unit) and Andrew Cogliano who is cheap at $3,500 and gives you exposure to the Ducks #2 line.

Cash Game Recap:

Goalies: Scrivens, Bishop.

Defense: Tanev, Severson, Stralman, (Trevor Daley and Alex Goligoski, but I hate their prices)

Offense: Seguin/Benn, Stamkos/Drouin/Filppula, Getzlaf/Perry, Hall, Vey, Cogliano, Karlsson, Duchene, Bonino