Welcome to Wednesday’s two-game NHL Slate. Alex Ovechkin and Sidney Crosby find themselves together on a slate and are looking to help propel their team to victory. Those two are going to be popular, but there are lots of great value options to target. You can build daily fantasy hockey lineups on DraftKings, FanDuel, and Yahoo Fantasy for Wednesday, October 18th, but before you build those NHL daily fantasy lineups, don’t forget to check out our NHL DFS projections, the NHL Value Finder, and the NHL DFS lineup generator. Let's now take a closer look at the daily fantasy hockey top plays for tonight's NHL DFS Showdown slate.

 

Highest Expected Goal Totals 

Ottawa Senators Vs Darcy Kuemper (3.7)

Pittsburgh Penguins Vs. Ville Husso (3.5)

Detroit Red Wings Vs. Tristan Jarry (3.8)

Washington Capitals Vs Anton Forsberg (3.4)


Washington Capitals Vs. Ottawa Senators

Players to target: Tim Stutzle, Josh Norris, Brady Tkachuk, Alex Ovechkin, Vladimir Tarasenko, Matthew Philipps, John Carlson, Jakob Chychrun, Jake Sanderson, Martin Fehervary, Anton Forsberg

It’s hard to think about stacking against the Washington Capitals, but their offence outside of Alex Ovechkin is #NotGood. Ottawa has a ton of great options to choose from and some that you need to keep an eye on.

Josh Norris is expected to make his season debut and skate on the third line but on the top power play unit. At $3100 on DraftKings, that is hard value to pass up on. He’s got skill, but the problem has always been staying healthy. He’s back in the lineup, so let’s take advantage of it. You’d best pair him with Brady Tkachuk and Jake Sanderson to complete the three-man top power play stack.

For Washington, Alex Ovechkin is a no brainer because of the number of shots he’s going to take. If you want another cheap forward, Matthew Philipps is skating on the third line and scored a goal last game. He’s going to get some looks, but he’s mostly a salary relief option. The real value is on the blue line. Martin Fehervary can block shots and the Senators love to shoot the puck. You can pay up for John Carlson if you want, but I think we can find better value elsewhere.

Anton Forsberg is confirmed to start for Ottawa and he’s got a decent chance of winning this game. As mentioned earlier, the Capitals aren’t that scary, so all he has to do is be decent and he picks up the win. I don’t like his price tag, but it’s a short slate with few options.


Pittsburgh Penguins Vs. Detroit Red Wings

Players to target: Sidney Crosby, Dylan Larkin, Jake Guentzle, Alex DeBrincat, Reilly Smith, Lucas Raymond, Erik Karlsson, Moritz Seider, Jake Walman, Ryan Graves, 

Let’s get the goaltending out of the way quickly between these two teams. I can’t for the life of me trust Tristan Jarry tonight and I don’t want to go down the Ville Husso route. If you want to take the risk on either one, be my guest, but be prepared to be disappointed.

Shifting the focus to the forward, Pittsburgh has no shortage of elite options to consider. Sidney Crosby and Jake Guentzle are great options but don’t hesitate to scroll down and target Reilly Smith. If you want to really go all out, Erik Karlsson is in a great spot because we know he loves to shoot the puck. If you want to look at a cheaper defenceman, Ryan Graves has 11 blocked shots in three games this season and is $3700 on DK. He’s going to flirt with the blocked shots bonus.

For Detroit, Dylan Larkin, Alex DeBrincat and Moritz Seider is the main three-man stack I’d be considering. Again, Tristan Jarry can be hot-or-miss, and tonight, I think he’s a miss. He’s been decent this season, but I’m just not buying his 4-0 shutout against Washington. Lucas Raymond is definitely the way to go if you need another affordable forward. 

I’ll throw Jake Walman’s name in here too because he’s another defenceman who can provide some offence but is a great shot blocker. If you pair him and Graves together and fill the UTIL spot with someone like Karlsson/Seider, you should be able to still afford some high-priced forwards. There’s nothing wrong with going with three defencemen on this slate.