NHL Grind Down: Sunday, January 21st
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.
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Philadelphia Flyers at Washington Capitals
| Philadelphia Flyers | Washington Capitals | ||||||||
 | Brian Elliott |  | Braden Holtby | ||||||
| Record | Record | ||||||||
| 22-16-8 | 28-15-4 | ||||||||
| Stats | GF/GP | GA/GP | PP% | PK% | Stats | GF/GP | GA/GP | PP% | PK% |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Team Stats | 2.93 | 2.87 | 21.15 | 74.82 | Team Stats | 3.02 | 2.83 | 19.18 | 79.38 |
The Flyers are one of those teams that will more than likely stay in the playoff hunt until the bitter end. Their win yesterday over the New Jersey has helped them pull within a point from the eighth spot in the Eastern Division. The thing that will hurt here however is the fact that they have played yesterday afternoon while the capitals have been sitting around resting up for this afternoon’s tilt. Travis Konecny came alive yesterday as he now has seen six of his 19 points come over the last eight games. He skates with Claude Giroux and Sean Couturier who both leave him in the dust when the Flyers have the extra attacker. Couturier leads the team with 26 goals while Giroux and his 55 points is tops on the team. Jakub Voracek joins the talented twosome on the top power play unit that sees almost 80% of the ice time when Philadelphia has the man advantage. Voracek has seen 22 of his 53 points come when th Flyers have had the extra attacker. Third liner Wayne Simmonds and defesneman Shayne Gostisbehere fill out the top power play unit. If you are looking for an alternative on the back line then Ivan Provorov is your guy as he has collected eight points over the last eight games. After scoring sven power play goals in four games the Flyers have hit a small slump as they have not lit the lamp with the extra attacker in the last three games. If the Flyers have any intention of winning this game it’s probably best that Giroux and Voracek do not do their best impersonation of Harry Houdini this afternoon.
The Capitals let one slip away as the Montreal Canadiens tripped them up in front of their home fans by a score of 3-2 ion Friday night. Devante Smith-Pelly went back to being a scratch as Tom Wilson was moved back up to the top line to skate with Alexander Ovechkin and Nicklas Backstrom. This is where Wilson flourished a few weeks ago and for all intents and purposes the move does make a lot of sense. When will teams start to realize that players like Smith-Pelly, Daniel Winnik, Anthony Duclair and Richard Panik are just pure garbage? Ovechkin is the obvious choice if you feel like paying up for him as he leads the team with 28 goals and 50 points while grabbing nine of those points over the last seven games. Ovechkin and Backstrom skate on the top power play with the now split up T.J. Oshie and Evgeny Kuznetsov as they find themselves on the second and third lines in the 5×5 situations. This is the part that doesn’t make sense as it seems like the Capitals are trying to make three scoring lines when they have enough talent for just two. Just as I say that it would appear that Washington has come to their senses as Kuznetsov has been moved up to play with Ovechkin and Wilson while Oshie and Ander Burahovsky will have Backstrom as their center. This makes more sense as the capitals now have their skill players skating on the top two lines. Kuznetsov makes for a decent one-off here as he is second on the team with 43 points while Backstrom sits in third on the team with nine goals and 28 assists. Defenseman John Carlson is the chalk play here as he has seen 16 of his of his 36 points come when the Capitals have the extra attacker. Only John Klingberg and his 43 points stand in the way of Carlson from being the best scoring defenseman in the league. Dmitry Orlov has been hit-and-miss of late as he has found the score sheet four times over the last seven games. Look for the home ice advantage to be exactly that this evening.
Top Plays
PHL: Jakub Voracek, Claude Giroux
WSH: Alexander Ovechkin
Secondary Plays
PHL: Sean Couturier, Shayne Gostisbehere, Wayne Simmonds, Travis Konecny
WSH: Evgeny Kuznetsov, Nicklas Backstrom, John Carlson, T.J. Oshie, Tom Wilson
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