Daily Fantasy Saturday: You Won’t Be Left Blue with St. Louis or Columbus

Stephen Dotzel

2021-02-20

In true 2020-21 fashion, right as we were about to get all 31 franchises on the ice at once for a stretch of the season, something comes along to throw a wrench into things. This time around it wasn't COVID, but Mother Nature instead. Before going any further I'd like to express my sympathies to all those affected by the winter storms and power outages. Hopefully better days are ahead for many.

As far as hockey, the postponement of several Dallas Stars games does cost us a matchup on Saturday; however, the schedule gods were kind this week as there remains 12 games over the course of the day. This includes eight on the main fantasy slate as well as the first of two outdoor games at Lake Tahoe, which will air at 3 p.m. EST. DraftKings has been offering more single-game fantasy contests (showdowns) this year, so if you're going to be tuning in to the Lake Tahoe game and want a little something extra to root for, you could give those contests a look.

As for the main slate, plenty to get to so let's get to it. Here are some suggestions on how I'm handling tonight's action for tournaments. All players and prices are from DraftKings Main Slate (7 p.m. EST).

Top Options

The teams we typically look to target players against such as Ottawa, Detroit, and Vancouver all find themselves off this slate. The bad news with that is we will obviously have to look elsewhere for plays but the good news is that so will everyone else. As a result, the ownership on this night should be very spread out, and I'm not even factoring it into my lineup decisions.

STL – David Perron (6,600), Ryan O'Reilly ($5,900), Justin Faulk ($5,400), Jordan Kyrou ($4,700)

Martin Jones and the Sharks are struggling to keep pucks out of the net in a major way. Jones's 0.882 SV% is among the worst in the league and the Sharks as a team have allowed more goals per game than everyone besides Ottawa and Vancouver. With Jones likely in net again Saturday, it makes for a great opportunity to stack the Blues. St. Louis doesn't make things easy in the stacking department though, mainly because of the near even split with their power play units in regards to both time and talent.

Neither of the Blues' top lines are fully correlated with each other, but if forced to choose I prefer the O'Reilly-Perron line in tonight's contest and I'd add on Faulk who skates with this duo often at both even strength and the power play. Ivan Barbashev had to leave the game Thursday and will miss this one as well and in his absence both Kyrou and Brayden Schenn ($6,000) saw some time with O'Reilly and Perron. I'd expect Kyrou to be the one starting there Saturday, so adding him to the stack makes a lot of sense as well.

CBJ – Patrik Laine ($6,700), Cam Atkinson ($6,200), Jack Roslovic ($5,200), Seth Jones ($5,900)

Another team that has been struggling defensively is the Predators. While in past seasons this might be a team you would typically avoid, this year Nashville slots in right behind the Sharks in terms of goals allowed with an average of 3.4 per game.

The Blue Jackets are not normally known for their offense, but their new top line is trying to change that. Over the last seven games the trio of Laine, Atkinson, and Roslovic have combined for 14 goals and 11 assists. This is good for over 54% of all of Columbus's goals during this stretch so it's a good bet that if the Blue Jackets are scoring these guys will be involved. After a slow start, Jones has racked up an average of 14.6 DraftKings points across his past six contests and joins both Laine and Roslovic on the top power-play unit, so don't be afraid to add him to the stack as well.

EDM – Connor McDavid ($8,600), Leon Draisaitl ($8,000), Ryan Nugent-Hopkins ($7,200), Jesse Puljujarvi ($5,000)

I've probably gone long enough in this article without mentioning the Oilers, so here we are. They are always in consideration given the firepower they possess and their meetings with the Flames seem to always produce. Even including Friday night's 2-1 dud, these two teams have combined to score 44 goals across their last six matchups against each other dating back to last season.

While start times don't necessarily have an impact on fantasy scoring, this is the last game of the night and it's always nice to have a late-night hammer to put your lineups over the top. And there can be no better hammer than McDavid and company. The stack is pricey so consider adding on Puljujarvi, Kailer Yamamoto ($4,300), or Tyson Barrie ($6,400) at the expense of Nugent-Hopkins to save some salary.

MTL – Tyler Toffoli ($7,400), Brendan Gallagher ($6,400)

This one is shaping up to be the best real-life matchup of the night, as two of the top teams in the North Division square off. There are several different ways you could go in this game from a fantasy perspective, but I'm excited to see what the duo of Gallagher and Toffoli can produce with some more time together. We haven't seen Montreal since last Saturday which just so happened to be against Toronto also, and in that one Gallagher put up 24.0 DraftKings points while Toffoli posted 18.0 of his own.

Both players scored and assisted on each other's goals on what ended up being the only two goals of the game for Montreal. Toronto has been playing better defensively but Ottawa showed us the other night you can still exploit them so let's hope the chemistry beween Gallagher and Toffoli carries over to another Saturday. You can add on Phillip Danault ($4,100) to complete the line stack or instead can go with either Jeff Petry ($6,700) or Shea Weber ($5,600) as defensemen who share power-play time.

Quick Hitters

TOR2 – I don't think we see a 2-1 game again here and with most of the focus on Auston Matthews ($8,800), deservedly so, I think the second line of John Tavares ($6,800) and William Nylander ($5,400) will slip through the cracks. Playing the Tavares line in road games is something I've done with success over the last year and a half.

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NYI – The Isles were stymied on Thursday, but that was just the second time all season the Penguins didn't allow at least three goals. Being in the Penguins market, I watched the game and could tell you the Islanders certainly had their chances but just couldn't connect. I'll take a shot at stacking against the Pens again here. The hardest part is deciding on which line. Mathew Barzal ($6,900) and Anders Lee ($6,100) I think give you most upside but I prefer the matchup and prices of the second line with Brock Nelson ($5,000) and Jordan Eberle ($5,200). I will have shares of both.

ARI1 – Conor Garland ($6,800) is quietly having a good season with 15 points in 16 games. The first line of Garland, Nick Schmaltz ($5,600), and Clayton Keller ($5,100) is fully correlated at both even strength and the power play which is always a plus for stacking. Jonathan Quick has been great in his last two starts but prior had allowed at least four goals in four of six starts.

STL2 – I opened with the top line but the second line for the Blues is in equally as good of a spot. Mike Hoffman ($5,500) is the preferred target here and is joined by Schenn and Zach Sanford ($2,800). I like the full line stack or leaving off Sanford in favor of a defenseman like Vince Dunn ($4,000).

CAR – In last Sunday's Ramblings, Ian Gooding hinted at some positive regression coming for Teuvo Teravainen ($5,400) and he delivered the next day with a goal and three assists. I'm going to try my luck and say that on Saturday it's Dougie Hamilton's ($6,900) turn. Hamilton has taken 49 shots this season and has just one goal to show for it. For reference that's the same amount of shots as Nathan MacKinnon. Eventually another one has to go in.

Top Value Options for Filling Out Lineups

C – Tomas Hertl ($4,400), Teddy Blueger ($3,300), Oskar Sundqvist ($3,100), Erik Haula ($2,800)

W – Oliver Bjorkstrand ($4,200), Tomas Tatar ($4,000), Joel Armia ($3,400), Anthony Beauvillier ($2,700)

D – Evan Bouchard ($4,600), Rasmus Andersson ($4,200), Vladislav Gavrikov ($3,100), Mike Matheson ($3,000)

Goalie Picks

Jordan Binnington ($8,500)

Semyon Varlamov ($7,300)

Elvis Merzlikins ($7,900)

Darcy Kuemper ($8,300)

John Gibson ($7,100)

Be sure to double check your lineups before lock for any last-minute scratches or goalie changes, especially this year with the COVID protocols. If you follow me on Twitter @SteveDotzel you can subscribe to my "DFS-NHL" list which is comprised of several team beat writers tweeting the most recent news in real time. You can also reach out to me on Twitter and I'll do my best to answer any questions I can. Hope to see you on top of the leaderboards!

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UPCOMING GAMES

Mar 29 - 19:03 BUF vs N.J

Starting Goalies

Top Skater Views

  Players Team
JURAJ SLAFKOVSKY MTL
AUSTON MATTHEWS TOR
NATHAN MACKINNON COL
JACK QUINN BUF
FILIP FORSBERG NSH

Top Goalie Profile Views

  Players Team
IVAN FEDOTOV PHI
IGOR SHESTERKIN NYR
FREDERIK ANDERSEN CAR
LOGAN THOMPSON VGK
ALEKSEI KOLOSOV PHI

LINE COMBOS

  Frequency WPG Players
20.5 NINO NIEDERREITER ADAM LOWRY MASON APPLETON
19.5 TYLER TOFFOLI SEAN MONAHAN NIKOLAJ EHLERS
13.4 MARK SCHEIFELE VLADISLAV NAMESTNIKOV KYLE CONNOR

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