NHL Grind Down: Sunday, March 4th
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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Nashville Predators at Colorado Avalanche
| Nashville Predators | Colorado Avalanche | ||||||||
 | Pekka Rinne |  | Semyon Varlamov | ||||||
| Record | Record | ||||||||
| 41-14-9 | 35-24-5 | ||||||||
| Stats | GF/GP | GA/GP | PP% | PK% | Stats | GF/GP | GA/GP | PP% | PK% |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Team Stats | 3.20 | 2.50 | 22.58 | 81.66 | Team Stats | 3.14 | 2.94 | 20.08 | 83.33 |
The Predators went back to using Viktor Arvidsson, Ryan Johansen and Filip Forsberg as their top line against Vancouver on Friday night and came away with a 4-3 overtime victory. The two points elevated their Central Division lead by six points over the Winnipeg Jets and now look to take care of business against a feisty Colorado team this evening. All three players were joined by third liner Nick Bonino and defenseman P.K. Subban to make up the team’s top power play line last game with second liners Kevin Fiala and Kyle Turris seeing a few extra minutes. Newcomer Ryan Hartman joins Turris and Fiala on the second line while Craig Smith, Scott Hartnell and defenseman Roman Josi were all healthy scratches. It almost seemed that the Predators were saying, hey let’s rest some of our guys tonight and see if we can still beat the lowly Canucks. If that’s indeed what they were saying, it worked. I’d expect Josi to be back in the line-up this evening as Nashville tries to keep ahead of the pack in the Western Conference. Ryan Ellis could be used for some salary relief here as he has racked up eight points over the last two weeks. Subban leads the team with 49 points while Arvidsson’s 48 points is fueled by his team leading 24 goals. Forsberg’s 45 points in the 50 games he has suited up for is the closest thing that Nashville has to a point-per-game player so stick with him and Arvidsson for your cash game endeavors this evening.
Thanks to the play of the Avalanche top line the team has been able to hang in there down the stretch. Colorado was just one point away from the eighth and final playoff spot in the Western Conference going into yesterday’s action. Nathan MacKinnon can be the one to thank for this as he has literally been a one man wrecking crew for most of the season. His 31 goals and 45 assists are both tops on the team but the real amazing part of this is that he has accrued those points in the 56 games he has suited up for. Meanwhile Mikko Rantanen and Gabriel Landeskog are second and third on the team with 63 and 47 points respectively. Defenseman Tyson Barrie and his 41 points is good enough for fourth on the team. The reason why I laid it out like this is that all four players get all the extra ice time that they can handle when the Avalanche draw a penalty which sees this quartet take up 80% of the available man advantage ice time on a nightly basis. Tyson Jost joins them from the second line to complete the five man unit which makes him a one-off just by association. This has helped Jost out a lot as he has grabbed four of his 17 points over the last seven games. If you are feeling lucky you can use Alexander Kerfoot and Colin Wilson with Jost as a GPP line stack as they do have some talent but not nearly enough to consider for your cash game endeavors. With defenseman Erik Johnson hurt the only other viable options are Samuel Girard and Nikita Zadorov on the back line and even that is a reach.
Top Plays
NSH: P.K. Subban, Viktor Arvidsson
COL: Nathan MacKinnon, Mikko Rantanen
Secondary Plays
NSH: Filip Forsberg, Ryan Johansen, Roman Josi, Kevin Fiala
COL: Tyson Barrie, Gabriel Landeskog, Tyson Jost
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