After a jampacked night last night, we have just two games on the NHL slate today. We should see two very different games. We should see a low-scoring contest between the New York Islanders and the Montreal Canadiens, and then a high-scoring affair with the Winnipeg Jets and the Florida Panthers. With this, our DFS projections love Aleksander Barkov, Jonathan Huberdeau and the Florida Panthers today, and both players have proven to be very productive NHL DFS plays all season.
The New York Islanders come into today after a tough loss to the Pittsburgh Penguins last night in Pittsburgh and travel to Montreal to face the Canadiens at the Bell Center. The Canadiens themselves have lost three straight games
After having a few weeks where they had no issues scoring goals, that struggle has returned for Montreal. When looking at their forwards we should keep our focus on the line of Nick Suzuki, Cole Caufield and Josh Anderson. Suzuki has three points in his last three games, and Caufield leads the team in shots with 10 in the Canadiens’ last three games. When looking at the Islanders moving forward, Brock Nelson has been their most productive forward recently with four points in his last four games. I would also keep an eye on Zach Parise, who has the same number of points and has been shooting the puck more - the difference being that Parise plays 2-4 minutes less per night than Nelson. That is the reason why you are going to see such a stark difference in their pricing. If you are looking to stack the Islanders, you can either pair Nelson with either Anders Lee or Anthony Beauvillier (neither has been particularly productive recently, but both are capable scorers), or you can play Mathew Barzal with Zach Parise if you’re looking to spend a little less.
On defence, Jeff Petry is a player that makes a lot of sense today. He has two points in his last three games, and he has blocked three shots or more in four of his last five games. For the Islanders, you can look at Ryan Pulock who has 16 shots in his last four games, and he will also block shots for you, but he doesn’t have any points in that stretch. You can also check out Noah Dobson. He gets the time on the top power play for the Islanders, and when he is playing well he is capable of providing you with points, shots and blocked shots as well.
With Jake Allen's injury, we should expect to see Sam Montembeault in goal for the Canadiens I would avoid using him in this matchup. It should be Semyon Varlamov in goal for the Islanders today, with Ilya Sorokin getting the start last night. Varlamov wasn’t good in his last start, although it was against the red hot Blues, he has been good in his previous four starts, and he is a goalie you can consider in both cash and GPP games today.
The Winnipeg Jets head into Sunrise, to face the Florida Panthers. The Jets are still playing for their theoretical playoff lives, while the Panthers are looking to lock down the top spot in the Eastern Conference and keep pace with the Avalanche for the President's Trophy.
You can’t talk about the Winnipeg Jets right now without mentioning Nikolaj Ehlers. He has seven points in his last three games, and he also has 19 shots in that time as well. He may miss playing with Mark Scheifele, who looks to be out today. That may just open things up more for him to shoot, although Paul Stastny has filled in admirably, and has five points in his last four games. Pierre-Luc Dubois is also a viable option for the Jets. He has four points in his last three games and is in a great position to get points playing with Kyle Connor five on five, and even with Scheifele out. The Jets have more than enough offence to be a threat on the powerplay. When looking at the Panthers, it really is a “pick your poison”-type of scenario. They have five players with a point per game or better in their last four games (Aleksander Barkov, Sam Reinhart, Jonathan Huberdeau, Brandon Montour, and Claude Giroux). We are also seeing high shot numbers from Anthony Duclair and Sam Bennett. If I wanted to put a stack together, I would be looking at Huberdeau with Giroux, or Barkov with Duclair as both sets of players play together five on five, and all of them are on the top power play. This also gives you the ability to mix and match those four players as well and give you some exposure to two lines, while having some correlation on the power play.
If you’re going to target a Jets defenceman, Josh Morrissey should be that player. He has points in two of his last three games, and he should shoot enough, while blocking enough shots to get to value. When looking at Florida’s defence, Brandon Montour has been productive recently, and he will get time on the powerplay, and MacKenzie Weegar is a player who will shoot the puck a fair bit as well.
Connor Hellebuyck for the Jets could be an interesting GPP play. He has been very inconsistent this season, but when he plays well he is one of the better goalies in the league, and Florida could put 40 shots on goal today, which gives Hellebuyck a lot of upside. On the other hand, though, Florida also scores more than four goals per game on average so he could just as easily give you a negative or low number today also. It is likely going to be Sergei Bobrovsky getting the start in goal for the Panthers. He has a high percentage chance to get the win in this game, but his play has been really inconsistent. I would likely avoid using him today.
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