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Montéal Canadiens at Winnipeg Jets
Montréal comes into tonight looking to sweep the Winnipeg and book their ticket in the semi-finals.
Jake Evans will be out tonight. Jeff Petry and Jon Merrill are listed as day-to-day and will likely be game-time decisions.
The Canadiens line of Eric Staal , Corey Perry and Joel Armia continues to be the story for them. Staal leads all Canadiens players in points over the last week, while Perry and Armia both have three points and two goals. You are getting all three players at a low-cost tonight. If you're going to spend up, you should be considering Tyler Toffoli , and he can be stacked with Nick Suzuki. Both have been productive as well, just at a higher price point.
On Defence, we will need to see what happens with Petry, if he is in he is worth a look, but I think you can continue to look at Shea Weber , he could look to shoot more if Petry is out, and we shouldn't look past the shot-blocking prowess of Ben Chiarot .
In goal, Carey Price has allowed just one goal in the last 57 shots he has faced. He is a go-to in cash games tonight.
For the Jets I would look to lean on Kyle Connor and Blake Wheeler , or as a one-off Nikolaj Ehlers . The scoring has dried up for the Jets, but they are a group that is capable of scoring, so I would limit their usage to GPP only until they show that they can score goals without Mark Scheifele .
On Defence, I like the value of Logan Stanley who has been blocking shots, and if you're looking for some upside you can go to Neal Pionk who has been shooting but is yet to have a significant point impact.
Connor Hellebuyck hasn't been great in this series. He had a good game in game two, but in the other two games, he hasn't been a difference-maker for the Jets. He is usable in GPP games, but I would avoid using him in cash games.
Boston Bruins at New York Islanders
The Bruins head home after a lopsided loss to the Islanders in game four.
Looking at injuries tonight, the Islanders don't have anyone new hitting the injury reports while Boston will be without Kevan Miller , and Brandon Carlo is a game-time decision.
We saw Mathew Barzal get things going for the Islanders in game four, and he now has points in each of his last three games which is very encouraging. he and Jordan Eberle are a viable stack in GPP games for the Islanders. When you look a little further down the lineup, you continue to see nice performances from Jean-Gabriel Pageau , and Kyle Palmieri , who will come in at a lower price and have been providing just as much production, however they don't see the valuable powerplay time.
On the backend, Scott Mayfield and Ryan Pulock continue to be the primary targets. Both are blocking lots of shots, and are providing enough points to exceed their values most nights.
We won't know who is going in goal for the Islanders until game time, I expect Semyon Varlamov to be the guy tonight, and he should be useable in GPP and cash games alike.
At home I really like David Pastrnak , Patrice Bergeron , and Brad Marchand . Pastrnak is the most stable play, but in GPP I would be willing to mix and match the three. At a lower cost, you shouldn't lose sight of Taylor Hall and David Krejci .
Charlie McAvoy , he has played well all playoff long but the production hasn't been there this series, and if you're looking for more of a dice roll you can go to Matt Grzelcyk , but his shots and offence seem to of disappeared, and if Brandon Carlo is in the lineup tonight he is a steady source of blocks.
Tuukka Rask has been as good as any goalie in these playoffs, and when the Bruins are at home they are tough to beat. That being said he is a cash play only for me tonight, as he likely won't see more than 25 shots.
Player News
TJ Friedl went 2-for-3 with two solo home runs and a walk in a 4-3 win over the Braves on Wednesday.
This was the ‘TJ Friedl’ show as he opened the game by homering off a hanging curveball from Grant Holmes in a game the Reds would never trail. He took Holmes deep again in his next at-bat and this was his first multi-home run game since August 14th of last season. While his tools will never jump off the page, he’s still hitting lead-off nearly every day for the Reds.
Emilio Pagán allowed one hit and struck out two batters in one inning of work to earn the save against the Braves on Wednesday.
Pagán did well here to put yesterday’s blown save behind him. He worked around a two-out single from Michael Harris to set the Braves down with ease and is running a 31.7% strikeout rate, which would be his highest since way back in 2019. The team clearly still trusts him to be their guy in the ninth inning.
Drake Baldwin went 2-for-3 with a solo home run on Wednesday against the Reds.
Baldwin’s solo home run in the fifth inning started the Braves comeback that would eventually be for naught, but he has managed to keep hitting despite falling into a back-up role since Sean Murphy returned from injury. He’s only playing one of every three games – very standard for a back-up catcher – yet has maintained some relevance in two-catcher formats with his .796 OPS on the season and three home runs in his last 15 starts.
Grant Holmes allowed seven hits and four runs with one walk and five strikeouts over 5 1/3 innings in a loss to the Reds on Wednesday.
TJ Friedl burned Holmes for a lead-off home run on a hanging curveball and not much came easily after that. Friedl got Holmes for another homer in his next at-bat and in all, he’d given up four runs through the first four innings. He did manage to pitch into the sixth inning though and still forced 12 swings-and-misses, but that curveball command was spotty all game and forced him to lean on his slider a bit more than he would’ve liked. He’s set for a two-start week against the Nationals and then Red Sox in Fenway Park.
Orioles acquired RHP Luis F. Castillo from the Mariners for cash considerations.
Castillo heads to Triple-A Norfolk as quality extra starting pitching depth for the Orioles, who are struggling to find solutions for the back of their rotation which currently features struggling veterans Charlie Morton and Kyle Gibson. The 30-year-old righty holds a career 5.06 ERA in five appearances (two starts) in the majors.
Orioles designated LHP Walter Pennington for assignment.
Pennington has been jettisoned from Baltimore’s 40-man roster to make room for the club to acquire Luis F. Castillo from the Mariners. The 27-year-old lefty was claimed off waivers last week from the Rangers.