NHL Grind Down: Saturday, December 12th
The RotoGrinders NHL Grind Down article will give you an in-depth analysis into the NHL schedule. This article will break down the numbers for every single game and give you analysis on which trends you can exploit. While matchups are a major factor in daily fantasy hockey there are plenty of other factors to consider such as injuries, salaries, and more.
The analysis should point you in the right direction, but it is still up to you to decipher the information and make your own selections. Hockey is an extremely high variance sport. The best choice is not always the right choice but following the trends will win you money over time.
Remember, these writeups are done prior to lineups being released, so make sure to check our Starting Lineups page to ensure the recommended options are playing.
Note: As always, if you want to try a new DFS site, be sure to click through a RotoGrinders link and use our DraftKings promo code and FanDuel promo code to receive the best perks in the industry.
Florida Panthers at Boston Bruins – 01:00 PM EST
| Florida Panthers | Boston Bruins | ||||||||
 | Roberto Luongo |  | Tuukka Rask | ||||||
| Record | Record | ||||||||
| 14-11-4 | 15-9-3 | ||||||||
| Stats | GF/GP | GA/GP | PP% | PK% | Stats | GF/GP | GA/GP | PP% | PK% |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Team Stats | 2.48 | 2.41 | 19.20% | 80.80% | Team Stats | 3.22 | 2.78 | 29.90% | 78.60% |
Florida broke through for four goals in their last game to take down a very tough defensive team in the Washington Capitals by a score of four to one. You have to go back nine games to find the last time the Panthers scored over three goals in regulation and that was in a five to four overtime loss to the New York Rangers on November 21st. Like five other teams in the division, Florida has a better record on the road than at home. If you like Florida tonight Jaromir Jagr is a good place to start as he not only leads the team in points, he has a goal and two assists in his last three games. If you want to pair Jagr up with someone, Jonathan Huberdeau would be the choice as he has two goals and two assist in his last five games. You must remember the Panthers have not been scoring much lately, so his 2 assists last game could be a sign of things to come. Brandon Pirri has a modest two game point streak going and should be considered only as a one-off as he is skating on the second line as well as on the second line on the power play.
Thanks to a 7-1-2 record, the Boston Bruins have been climbing the standings in the Atlantic division. The problem occurs when you look at their 5-7-1 home record but upon further speculation, they have been working on that as they are 3-1 in their last four home games. Their only loss during that span was to Nashville who outshot them by a total of 33-17. Any team in the league would lose when being outshot by almost a two to one margin. For the Bruins I would stick with the line of Matt Beleskey, David Krejci and Loui Eriksson. Both Eriksson and defenseman Zdeno Chara have two goals and three assists in their last five games while Beleskey has tallied a goal to go along with three assists in his last four games.
Elite Plays
Fla: None
Bos: None
Secondary Plays
Fla: Jaromir Jagr, Jonathan Huberdeau, Aleksander Barkov, Aaron Ekblad
Bos: Loui Eriksson, David Krejci, Matt Beleskey, Zdeno Chara, Torey Krug
Ottawa Senators at Montreal Canadiens – 07:00 PM EST
| Ottawa Senators | Montreal Canadiens | ||||||||
 | Craig Anderson |  | Carey Price | ||||||
| Record | Record | ||||||||
| 15-9-5 | |||||||||
| Stats | GF/GP | GA/GP | PP% | PK% | Stats | GF/GP | GA/GP | PP% | PK% |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Team Stats | 3.03 | 2.90 | 21.30% | 77.30% | Team Stats | 3.20 | 2.27 | 21.10% | 86.40% |
Ottawa finishes up their four game road trip in Montreal to face the Atlantic division leaders. With losses to the New York Rangers and the Tampa Bay Lightning sandwiched around a win at Florida, the Senators need a win here to break even. It’s tough to keep scoring streaks going when your team has scored just one goal each in two of the last three games, so we have to rely on past history as well as their skillset to determine who may score tonight. Mike Hoffman leads the team with 15 goals and has four goals and assist in his last five games. Bobby Ryan has pointed in four of his last five games accumulating one goal and five assists during that stretch. Erik Karlsson leads the team in scoring but has come up empty in his last three games. Depending on what type of DFS player you are will depend on whether you roster him tonight or not. If you are the type that waits, until he gets back on track, then it’s likely you won’t use him tonight. If you are the player that thinks ‘he’s due’ then maybe you use him tonight, but his high salary is always something to consider even when he is doing well.
After watching the Boston Bruins score three third period goals on Tuesday night, the Montreal Canadiens will look to get back on track and snap their four game losing streak. It’s been seven games since the Canadiens have scored more than two goals. A lot of this admittedly has to do with the injury to Brandon Gallagher as despite missing eight games, he is still fifth on the Montreal scoring chart. The good thing is that Ottawa has given up 87 goals so far this season, so it’s not out of the question for Max Pacioretty and company to score a few goals tonight. It’s no surprise that over the last five games Montreal’s top four scorers have combined for just one goal and four assists. Pacioretty has the lone goal with Tomas Plekanec, Alex Galchenyuk and defenseman P.K. Subban adding the assists. These are Montreals skill players and need to produce if Montreal wants to get the home ice win tonight.
Elite Plays
Ott: None
Mtl: None
Secondary Plays
Ott: Mike Hoffman, Bobby Ryan, Erik Karlsson, Kyle Turris, Zack Smith, Mark Stone
Mtl: Tomas Plekanec, P.K. Subban, Max Pacioretty, Alex Galchenyuk
Washington Capitals at Tampa Bay Lightning – 07:00 PM EST
| Washington Capitals | Tampa Bay Lightning | ||||||||
 | Braden Holtby |  | Ben Bishop | ||||||
| Record | Record | ||||||||
| 19-6-2 | 14-12-3 | ||||||||
| Stats | GF/GP | GA/GP | PP% | PK% | Stats | GF/GP | GA/GP | PP% | PK% |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Team Stats | 3.00 | 2.26 | 23.90% | 84.00% | Team Stats | 2.38 | 2.21 | 17.00% | 77.50% |
Washington comes into this one needing to regain their scoring touch as the last 3 games have found them lighting the lamp just four times in regulation over their last three games. There really is no excuse to come up with only one goal against the lowly Winnipeg Jets even if that game was played north of the border. The only constant usually found on struggling teams is that they rely on their superstars to pick up the slack and in this case it’s no different. Surprisingly Alexander Ovechkin is not the team leader in points as we head into the second third of the season. Ovechkin does lead the team in goals and has two goals and two assists in his last four games, but it is Evgeni Kuznetsov who leads the team with 27 points. If Ovechkin’s price is too high you may just want to get a piece of him and that is easily accomplished by selecting either Nicklas Backstrom or T.J. Oshie. The choice here would be Backstrom as not only does he have 11 more points than Oshie, he has netted a goal to go along with four assist in his last five games. John Carlson makes a good defensive play as he gets top power play minutes against a team that has given up nine goals in the last 11 games when a man short. Washington on the other hand has scored 12 power play goals in their last 12 games, making the power play the first place to look when doing your research for tonight’s slate.
Tampa came home from a 2-1 west coast swing to defeat the Ottawa Senators by a score of 4-1 just two days ago. We talked about Washington’s scoring problem and that could bode well for possibly selecting the Tampa net minder tonight. The guess here is that Ben Bishop will get the nod as he is 12-8 and has won his last three starts. Steven Stamkos is the stud here as he leads the team in points but we can’t overlook the fact that Nikita Kucherov is creeping up on him thanks to his four goals in the last three games. Furthermore, now that Ondrej Palat and Tyler Johnson have returned from injury, head coach Jon Cooper has decided to reunite the much ballyhooed ‘triplets line’ from a year ago. Anton Stralman is my choice for defense as he mans the point on the team’s top power play unit. Victor Hedman has been more productive in recent games so it wouldn’t surprise me if Cooper didn’t bump him up to the point on the power play. It hasn’t happened yet, but it something to look for.
Elite Plays
Wash: Alexander Ovechkin
TB: Steven Stamkos
Secondary Plays
Wash: Nicklas Backstrom, T.J. Oshie, Evgeny Kuznetsov, John Carlson, Marcus Johansson
TB: Nikita Kucherov, Tyler Johnson, Ondrej Palat, Anton Stralman
New York Islanders at Columbus Blue Jackets – 07:00 PM EST
| New York Islanders | Columbus Blue Jackets | ||||||||
 | Jaroslav Halak |  | Sergei Bobrovsky | ||||||
| Record | Record | ||||||||
| 16-8-5 | 11-17-2 | ||||||||
| Stats | GF/GP | GA/GP | PP% | PK% | Stats | GF/GP | GA/GP | PP% | PK% |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Team Stats | 2.72 | 2.34 | 21.10% | 85.40% | Team Stats | 2.40 | 2.97 | 18.40% | 81.70% |
The Islanders have gone on a bit of a run lately as they have won five of their last six games including back-to-back home wins against the Rangers and Blues. This is their last game on this quick three game road trip which saw both games go to overtime, a 3-2 loss at Ottawa and a 4-3 shootout win in Philadelphia. As expected, it looks like the Columbus Blue Jackets will sorely miss goaltender Sergei Bobrovsky as back up Curtis McElhinney gave up five goals on 34 shots in a 6-4 loss at Winnipeg Thursday night. John Tavares has been missing the mark lately as he has only scored one goal in his last five games while linemate Kyle Okposo has tallied a goal and two assists over that same time period. Normally when we talk about the Columbus Blue Jackets we worry about Brandon Dubinksy being pitted against the opponent’s top line, but with him being a minus three in the last five games and the current state affairs of the team in general, it would seem both Islanders lines should be in play tonight. Frans Nielsen was able to find the back of the net twice in the Islanders last game and since he skates top power play with Tavares and Okposo, he should be considered as in play tonight.
One would think that with a backup goalie between the pipes that the team would tighten up a bit and play a bit more solid brand of defense. This is not the case for Columbus as in both of their last two games, which just happen to be losses, they have surrendered 35 and 41 shots respectively. Only twice this season has that total eclipsed the 35 shot mark and it’s no surprise that they won both of those games with Bobrovsky in net. The Blue Jackets did score four goals Thursday night against a team that has given up 89 goals so far this season so it will be interesting to see what happens when they play a team with a seemingly better defense. Ryan Johansen leads the team in points mostly fueled by his 16 assists, so it’s no wonder he has three of them in the last two games. After Scott Hartnell received a wake up call by being a healthy scratch on December 4th against Florida, he has netted a goal in each of the three games subsequent to the trip to the press box. He has also added two assists in those games giving him a total of five points in three games. You will never hear me call Hartnell a ‘hot player’ but this is as close as it gets. I mentioned Alexander Wennberg in Thursday’s grind down and he came through with three assists. This is purely a case of opportunity as he remains on the top power play unit.
Elite Plays
NYI: None
CBJ: None
Secondary Plays
NYI: John Tavares, Kyle Okposo, Frans Nielsen, Nick Leddy, Brock Nelson
CBJ: Ryan Johansen, Scott Hartnell, Nick Foligno, Ryan Murray
Los Angeles Kings at Buffalo Sabres – 07:00 PM EST
| Los Angeles Kings | Buffalo Sabres | ||||||||
 | Jonathan Quick |  | Robin Lehner | ||||||
| Record | Record | ||||||||
| 18-8-1 | 11-15-3 | ||||||||
| Stats | GF/GP | GA/GP | PP% | PK% | Stats | GF/GP | GA/GP | PP% | PK% |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Team Stats | 2.59 | 2.07 | 18.10% | 84.20% | Team Stats | 2.38 | 2.76 | 22.80% | 76.00% |
We mentioned on Thursday that Buffalo was becoming a better team, this does not mean that they are there just yet. After losing three straight on the road to Edmonton, Vancouver and Calgary, the Sabres come home to a date with the Pacific division leaders in the Los Angeles Kings. The Kings are fresh off a game in Pittsburgh last night and for all intents and purposes could be a bit tired. Going into last night’s game the Kings had won five straight backed by some good goaltending from Jonathan Quick. The Kings are starting to look more like a team as they are getting the scoring from multiple lines. Jeff Carter, Anze Kopitar and even knucklehead Milan Lucic all have five points over the last five games while Marian Gaborik and defenseman Drew Doughty have four points over that same time frame. Tyler Toffoli is the one that has seemed to fall off the map as he hasn’t registered a point in his last six games.
The last time a Buffalo defenseman had 37 or more points was Tyler Myers ten goals and 27 assists as he turned the trick back in the 2010-11 season. Rasmus Ristolainen has a very real shot of eclipsing that as the young defenseman now has seven goals and 14 assists through 29 games so far this season. Ryan O’Reilly leads the team in scoring and has been pretty consistent all year by scoring nine goals and assisting on 16 others not to mention the goal and five assists he’s tallied in the last five games. Keep an eye on rookie sensation Jack Eichel as he only has a goal and assist in his last six games. Jamie McGinn had his six game point streak snapped in Thursday’s loss to Calgary so it will be interesting to see if he is a late bloomer or if he goes back to the player he was.
Elite Plays
Lak: Jeff Carter
Buff: None
Secondary Plays
Lak: Anze Kopitar, Milan Lucic, Drew Doughty, Marian Gaborik
Buff: Rasmus Ristolainen, Ryan O’Reilly