NHL Grind Down: Sunday, November 5th
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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Detroit Red Wings at Edmonton Oilers
| Detroit Red Wings | Edmonton Oilers | ||||||||
 | Petr Mrazek |  | Cam Talbot | ||||||
| Record | Record | ||||||||
| 6-7-1 | 4-7-1 | ||||||||
| Stats | GF/GP | GA/GP | PP% | PK% | Stats | GF/GP | GA/GP | PP% | PK% |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Team Stats | 2.57 | 2.93 | 15.22 | 82.46 | Team Stats | 2.50 | 3.25 | 15.38 | 68.29 |
After going on a modest two game winning streak the Detroit Red Wings started off their four game Canadian road trip off on the wrong foot Tuesday night as they lost a tough one in Ottawa by the score of 3-1. Detroit has been an up and down team so far this season as all of their six wins have come in pairs while their longest losing streak has been five games. Tomas Tatar, Henrik Zetterberg and Gustav Nyquist will no doubt draw a bit of attention in this one but with the way the second line has been playing, I would probably put my best line against them as they have been turning it on of late. Of course I am talking about Anthony Mantha, Dylan Larkin and Andreas Athanasiou who have streaked up the Detroit scoring charts which sees Larkin leading the team with 13 points and Mantha pacing the team with six goals in the first 13 games. Darren Helm, Justin Abdelkader and Frans Nielsen skate on the team’s third line and could be used here on a small slate as a deeper GPP play. Mike Green is the choice on the back line as he has racked 12 points on 25 shots on goal. Lot of folks are partial to Niklas Kronwall because of his exposure to the power play but grabbing just two points on 12 shots but that is nowhere near the production needed to win a GPP let alone a cash game play.
Edmonton was able to beat the upstart New Jersey Devils by a score of 6-3 in front of the home crowd on Friday night. The win now has the team at 4-7-1 which is only good enough for seventh place in the division and fourteenth in the conference. Obviously the Oilers need a little more help in the secondary scoring department as evidence of Connor McDavid and his 16 points in the first 12 games. McDavid has been in on 53% of the goals so far this season which is why he and his line mates in Patrick Maroon and Leon Draisaitl will probably be one of the higher owned stacks of the night. After a brief stint that saw Ryan Nugent-Hopkins replace Draisaitl on the top line Edmonton moved Draisaitl back up wuth McDavid for more than 30% of the time in Friday’s win. Nugent-Hopkins was spotted skating with Milan Lucic and Anton Slepyshev on the second line and can be used here in deeper GPP tournaments. Normally that wouldn’t be the case as there would be more teams in action but Nugent-Hopkins does have six of his nine points in the last five games while Lucic has a goal and two assists over that same time frame. Drake Caggiula and Mark Letstu join McDavid and Maroon on the top power play unit so taking either of them as a one-off here at least gets you some exposure to the team leader. Defenesman Oscar Klefbom anchors the point on a power play unit that has struck for a goal in each of their last two games. There is not much going on in the way of scoring on the back line as Kris Russell has four points while the aforementioned Klefbom has three along with Darnell Nurse and Adam Larsson. The top line will do the damage here at home as Edmonton looks to improve on their 3-5 record in front of the home crowd.
Top Plays
DET: Dylan Larkin, Anthony Mantha
EDM: Connor McDavid
Secondary Plays
DET: Mike Green, Andreas Athanasiou, Henrik Zetterberg, Gustav Nyquist
EDM: Patrick Maroon, Leon Draisaitl, Oscar Klefbom, Ryan Nugent-Hopkins, Mark Letestu
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