Happy Halloween! First, my "costume" for this past Tuesday, as an NHL prognosticator, didn't win any contest but wasn't totally torn in half either. Marc-Andre Fleury shined in Montreal (26 saves on 27 shots, 0.963 Sv%), and while neither Artemi Panarin nor Aleksander Barkov found the scoresheet, they totaled 12 shots on goal, so the chances were there. Daniil Tarasov, oof….

Today's 10-game schedule looks to have close matchups, and my only team prediction is that Vancouver finally breaks into the win column. For just that, I'll start Thatcher Demko (Yahoo,$24; DraftKings,$7500), and Bo Horvat (Y,$19; DK,$5500). But overall, the Canucks clearly need help for their defense corps, and they've been the biggest early-season flop in the NHL.  

Then I'll move to call out the pretenders in Chicago and pick Connor McDavid ($37; $9500) and Evander Kane ($28; $7100) to romp against the Hawks, then also Jack Campbell ($27; $8600) to guard the Oilers' net.  

I'm left with $65 in Yahoo, and $13,500 in DraftKings, and now search for value. Four players….  For my Yahoo lineup this allows me William Nylander ($24), vs. the Sharks and Brandon Montour ($17), with the Panthers' top power play against Philly.  $24 left, still two players. We'll take Rudolfs Balcers ($12) and Nils Lundkvist ($12), who may get prime short-term opportunity until Heiskanen returns.   

On DraftKings, the easiest option was to again drop my second goalkeeper, in this case Demko.  This allowed me Montour ($5100), Balcers ($2500), and Lundkvist ($3600), and subbing in Michael Bunting ($3900) for Nylander. That gave me the extra value to add Evgeny Kuznetsov ($4200), who I felt was a great value. He has 11 points in 14 games vs. Dallas, near his career average.  

Running over the options, the extra $1100 in DraftKings that I'd have had to choose Demko??  I'd have been able to add Claude Giroux ($5300) against Minnesota or Jake DeBrusk ($5200) vs. Detroit – neither felt to be enough upgrade over Kuznetsov to justify the higher-risk play on Vancouver's keeper.  

If you have no costume, nor the funds to waste, try a jacket and tie, and profess to be a responsible adult for the pagan holiday.  Few will be fooled.  Have a great weekend.