Christopher Morais

Welcome to The Fantasy Fix daily fantasy hockey strategy. Below you will find rankings and projections for tonight’s NHL action. Building a winning lineup isn’t easy, so we’ll do our best to guide you in the right direction and help you win some serious cash. With that, let’s take a look at some matchups you should be targeting tonight.

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As always, make sure to check out LeftWingLock for goalie confirmations.

Teams To Target

Let’s start with my favourite matchup of the night—the Ottawa Senators hosting the New York Islanders. If you’re keeping track at home, the Islanders tonight are playing their sixth game in nine nights. That’s a lot of hockey. New York on the road is ranked 22^nd in CF% and 18^th in GF/60. The fatigue will be a factor tonight, so load up on as many Senators as you possibly can.

Before you start building your lineup, plug in Mike Hoffman ($5600) and go from there. Hoffman has 25 points (13G, 12A) in 21 games so far this season, but his price tag doesn’t reflect his production. He’s playing on the top line with Bobby Ryan ($5800) and Kyle Turris ($6300) and is seeing time on the top power play unit. For GPPs, I’d only go with Ryan, as the trio is likely to be heavily owned, but for cash, a mini stack of Hoffman-Ryan is the route I would take. If you really want to go all the way with Ottawa, Erik Karlsson ($7400) is never a bad play when he has a favorable matchup, but his price tag is so high, I can’t justify using him for anything other than a GPP lineup.

As for goaltending, Craig Anderson ($7400) is confirmed to get the start tonight. He hasn’t been great over his last few starts, but he’s picked up three wins in his last five starts thanks to his team providing him with a ton of goal support. If he can keep his goal total below three, Anderson is sure to hit his value.

My second favourite matchup of the night belongs to the Carolina Hurricanes hosting the Montreal Canadiens. The Hurricanes are a disaster of a team, to put it nicely. They sit last in the NHL with 20 points and are ranked 25 in GA/60. What’s even worse is that Carolina is ranked 10^th in SF/60 and 8^th in CF% at home, but 26^th in GF/60. Basically, Carolina has possession of the puck more than their opponents; they just can’t put it in the net.

As for Montreal, they are ranked 1^st in GF/60 n the road (3.25) and 9^th in CF% (50.6). I tend to give the advantage to the home team when it comes to most stats, but in this case, Montreal is an elite road team that can score goals and keep the puck out of their net.

The problem with Montreal tonight is their lineup. Head coach Michel Therrien has decided to juggle his line, and knowing Therrien very well, he will probably do it again during the game. If you’re looking for me to tell you which line to stack, truthfully, I have no idea. The one thing I can tell is to load up on two players, Max Pacioretty ($7800) and Alex Galchenyuk ($4800).

Pacioretty plays on the top line with David Desharnais ($3900) and Dale Weise ($3900), but Galchenyuk plays on the top power play unit with Pacioretty and Tomas Plekanec ($5900). If you don’t want to play Pacioretty because of his price, I understand, but Desharnais loves to do one thing when he plays with Patches—feed him the puck. If you want to offset his high price tag, Sven Andrighetto ($2700) is a bargain at his price and is playing with Galchenyuk on the second line.

On defense, P.K Subban ($6200) is the obvious choice to play tonight, but his price tag really isn’t that nice and Andrei Markov ($5100) has slowed down a bit since his red-hot October. If you’re looking for a defenseman to play from this matchup, Jeff Petry ($4000) is the player I would go with. He’s paired with Nathan Beaulieu ($3000) both five-on-five and on the team’s second power play unit.

In goal, Mike Condon ($7600) is expected to get the start for Montreal tonight. With Carey Price out due to a lower-body injury, Condon should see the majority of the starts till Carey returns. His price tag is a bit inflated, but I’m perfectly fine with that. As mentioned earlier, Carolina averages a ton of shots, but just can’t find a way to score, which is exactly what you want when picking a goalie to start in daily fantasy.

My third favourite matchup of the night belongs to the Minnesota Wild hosting the Colorado Avalanche. We all know that Colorado is a terrible puck-possession team both at home and on the road, but Minnesota is averaging just 24.7 SF/60 at home, ranked 29th in the NHL. Despite Colorado’s inability to play with the puck, they are ranked 7^th in GF/60 on the road. This may be an unpopular play, but I’m going with the Colorado Avalanche tonight.

Colorado’s top line is where all the value is. Nathan MacKinnon ($7200), Matt Duchene ($6000) and Gabriel Landeskog ($6900) all play together on the top line and on the top power play unit. Even if Colorado gives up a few goals, it will only mean more chances for that line to score goals. All three are quiet expensive to roster, so I’ll probably stack MacKinnon-Duchene. If you can’t fit that stack in because you don’t want to use up two C spots, MacKinnon-Landeskog works for me too.

On the blue line, Tyson Barrie ($4800) has a very reasonable price tag and play on the top power play unit with the big line. Barrie won’t have the mission of shutting down the opposing team’s top players, so he should have some room out there to jump up into the play and contribute in the offence. If you can’t fit Barrie into your lineup, his partner Nick Holden ($3000) is a cheap option to consider. He isn’t seeing any power play time, but his upside is high enough that I’m willing to take the risk.

Player Rankings

 Ranking are price sensitive

 Forwards

1. Alex Galchenyuk–$4800—Montreal Canadiens
2. Boone Jenner–$4400—Columbus Blue Jackets
3. David Desharnais–$3900—Montreal Canadiens
4. Henrik Sedin–$5000—Vancouver Canucks
5. Paul Stastny–$5200—St. Louis Blues
6. Nathan MacKinnon–$7200—Colorado Avalanche
7. Kyle Turris–$6300—Ottawa Senators
8. Matt Duchene–$6000—Colorado Avalanche

Wingers

1. Mike Hoffman—LW–$5600—Ottawa Senators
2. Bobby Ryan—RW–$5800—Ottawa Senators
3. Max Pacioretty—RW–$7800—Montreal Canadiens
4. Daniel Sedin—LW–$6800—Vancouver Canucks
5. Jakub Voracek—RW–$5700—Philadelphia Flyers
6. Dale Weise—RW–$3900—Montreal Canadiens
7. Gabriel Landeskog—LW–$6900—Colorado Avalanche
8. Vladimir Tarasenko—RW–$7700—St. Louis blues

Defenseman

1. Shayne Gostisbehere–$3400—Philadelphia Flyers
2. Tyson Barrie–$4800—Colorado Avalanche
3. Alexander Edler–$5000—Vancouver Canucks
4. Kevin Shattenkirk–$5200—St. Louis Blues
5. Colton Parayko–$4400—St. Louis Blues
6. P.K. Subban–$6200—Montreal Canadiens
7. Erik Karlsson–$7400—Ottawa Senators
8. Roman Josi–$6400—Nashville Predators

Goalie

1. Jake Allen–$7600—St. Louis Blues
2. Mike Condon–$7600—Montreal Canadiens
3. Michal Neuvirth–$6900—Philadelphia Flyers
4. Craig Anderson—$7400—Ottawa Senators
5. Semyon Varlamov—$6800—Colorado Avalanche (GPP Only)

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