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.

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

All shot attempt numbers discussed are at even strength and score-adjusted unless otherwise noted.

Teams To Target

[cointent_lockedcontent article_labels=”hockey”]

New York Islanders @ Ottawa Senators

The Islanders come into tonight action as the most obvious play of the night. Not only did Ottawa play yesterday, but they also gave up six goals (four in the first period) to the New Jersey Devils (I’ll give you a moment to let that sink in). The logic is simple: if New Jersey can score six, then New York should be able to score ten, right? It’s possible, but I don’t think that will happen. The Islanders will score goals, a lot of them, so they are the team to stack tonight.

Lets start with the obvious play here: John Tavares. He’s the most expensive C on DraftKings for a reason, and it’s very possible that he picks up multiple points before the end of the night. Sadly, you can’t stack him with both his wingers Ryan Strome and Mikhail Grabovski on DK because they are all listed at C (this isn’t a problem on FanDuel). To make matters even more complicated, none of them play together on the same power play unit. All three aren’t terrible options to consider, but I may just go with Tavares-Strome and stop there.

If you do want to stack players that play together both five-on-five and on the power play, Frans Nielsen and Kyle Okposo is the mini-stack I would go with. Their value on FD isn’t great, but over on DK they are perfectly priced. Throw in Nick Leddy and you have yourself a power play stack that isn’t outrageously priced.

I would also look at starting Jaroslav Halak if he gets the start. The goaltending situation in Brooklyn has been somewhat of a problem, but Halak is the better goalie and should reclaim his starting job from Thomas Greiss.

Florida Panthers vs. Chicago Blackhawks

If you’ve watched Chicago’s last two games, you’ve noticed that the Hawks have been bailed out by the strong play of Corey Crawford. The Blackhawks fell 2-1 to the Lightning yesterday in Tampa, but that game could have easily finished 6-1 if it wasn’t for Crawford. Chicago is playing their second game in as many nights and there’s a pretty good chance backup Scott Darling gets the nod in goal tonight. The Blackhawks are an above-average CF% team on the road (10^th, 49.9%), but they average less than two goals per sixty minutes and Florida is 7^th in goals against per sixty minutes at home. It might be an uncommon play, but I’m going with the Panthers as my second favourite play of the night.

The goal when playing Chicago is to avoid their top line of Jonathan Toews, Marian Hossa and Andrew Shaw. They will mostly likely matchup against Florida’s top line, which isn’t ideal at all. Florida’s second line is an option to consider, but again, they will have a difficult matchup against Patrick Kane and Artemi Panarin. Once you get past the two top lines, that’s where you can take advantage of the Hawks a bit more.

Florida’s third line of Nick Bjugstad, Brandon Pirri and Logan Shaw is the line I would feel most comfortable using tonight, specifically Bjugstad and Pirri. Both players play on the power play (on opposite waves, though) and both are under priced in my mind on DK (both aren’t over priced on FD, but the value isn’t as great). Pair both with stud defenseman Aaron Ekblad, and you have yourself a pretty good, reasonably priced stack on FD and DK.

I probably won’t go with Roberto Luongo in cash games, but he does have some appeal in GPPs. Any goalie playing against Kane could easily get lit up, but Luongo has been pretty solid all season. And with so many limited options in goals, Luongo easily becomes a top-3 play.

Note: Brandon Pirri has been ruled out for tonight’s game. A Jussi Jokinen/Vincent Trocheck mini-stack is an alternative, but if you want to play it safe just fade this game completely.

St. Louis Blues @ Colorado Avalanche

Every time the Colorado Avalanche take to the ice, you can’t help but stack against them. They are 29^th in CF% at home and give up just over 30 shots per game. The St. Louis Blues are in town tonight, and they are a team that can score a ton of goals. Some of their players are a little pricy, but they are well worth it on a night like tonight.

According to Dailyfaceoff, the top line for St. Louis is Paul Stastny, Alex Steen and Troy Brouwer, meaning the second line is Robby Fabbri, Jori Lehtera and Vladimir Tarasenko. Personally, I think the Lehtera line should be considered the top line in St. Louis, but if Colorado treats them as a second line, I won’t be disappointed. Colorado’s “best” possession line is their top line, so whoever doesn’t have to face them is the line I’m going with.

On defense, Kevin Shattenkirk is the one player I’ll be using in all my lineups. His value is much better on FD, but he’s still a great play on DK. He plays on the top power play unit with Tarasenko and St. Louis’ top line and is averaging just under two blocked shots per game and 2.7 shots on goal in his last ten games.

With Jake Allen still out with a lower-body injury, Brian Elliott will continue to see a ton of work in the blue paint. His price tag on both FD and DK isn’t very appealing, but it remains low enough that I might give him a go in some of my lineups. If you do want to take a risk on Elliott, FD is the place to use him.

Player Rankings

Ranking are price sensitive

Players marked with an * are listed at different positions on FanDuel or DraftKings

Centers

1. Brandon Pirri*—Florida Panthers—DK:$4200, FD:$5300 (better value on FD) (Not playing)
2. Paul Stastny—St. Louis Blues—DK:$4900, FD:$5100
3. Frans Nielsen—New York Islanders—DK:$5500, FD:$6000
4. Robby Fabbri*–St. Louis Blues—DK:$3300, FD:$4300 (better value on DK)
5. John Tavares—New York Islanders—DK:$7700, FD:$8200
6. Nathan MacKinnon—Colorado Avalanche—DK:$6900, FD:$7000
7. Pavel Datsyuk—Detroit Red Wings—DK:$5900, FD:$6500
8. Dylan Larkin—Detroit Red Wings—DK:$5400, FD:$5400,

Wingers

1. Ryan Strome (RW)*–New York Islanders—DK:$4000, FD:$4900 (better value on DK)
2. Artemi Panarin (LW)—Chicago Blackhawks—DK:$6200, FD:$6000
3. Troy Brouwer(RW)—St. Louis Blues—DK:$3800, FD:$4200
4. Vladimir Tarasenko (RW)—St. Louis Blues—DK:$7800, FD:$8100
5. Gustav Nyquist (LW)—Detroit Red Wings—DK:$4900, FD:$5500 (better value on DK)
6. Alexander Steen (LW)—St. Louis Blues—DK:$6600, FD:$7000
7. Nikolai Kulemin (LW)—New York Islanders—DK:$3200, FD:$4000
8. Matt Duchene (RW)*–Colorado Avalanche—DK:$6700, FD:$7800 (better value on DK)

Defensemen

1. Nick Leddy—New York Islanders—DK:$4200, FD:$4300
2. Aaron Ekblad—Florida Panthers—DK:$5000, FD:$4800 (better value on FD)
3. Kevin Shattenkirk—St. Louis Blues—DK:$6600, FD:$5600 (better value on FD)
4. Calvin de Haan—New York Islanders—DK:$3800, FD:$3500 (better value on DK)
5. Duncan Keith—Chicago Blackhawks—DK:$6000, FD:$6000
6. Alex Pietrangelo—St. Louis Blues—DK:$5600, FD:$5900
7. Rasmus Ristolainen—Buffalo Sabres—DK:$6000, FD:$4800 (better value on FD)

Goalies

1. Henrik Lundqvist—New York Rangers—DK:$7900, FD:$ N/A
2. Petr Mrazek—Detroit Red Wings—DK:$7600, FD:$8700 (better value on DK)
3. Roberto Luongo—Florida Panthers—DK:$8000, FD:$8700
4. Brian Elliott—St.Louis Blues—DK:$8000, FD:$8100

[/cointent_lockedcontent]