NHL Grind Down: Tuesday, October 25th
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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.
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Florida Panthers at Pittsburgh Penguins
| Florida Panthers | Pittsburgh Penguins | ||||||||
 | James Reimer |  | Marc-Andre Fleury | ||||||
| Record | Record | ||||||||
| 3-1-1 | 3-2-1 | ||||||||
| Stats | GF/GP | GA/GP | PP% | PK% | Stats | GF/GP | GA/GP | PP% | PK% |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Team Stats | 3.20 | 2.20 | 11.10% | 90.90% | Team Stats | 2.00 | 3.17 | 20.00% | 80.00% |
Starting tonight the Panthers embark on a four game road trip with the first stop being in Pittsburgh to face the non-Crosbyless Penguins. I assume that the joint will be jumping with the return of Crosby but that doesn’t mean that the Panthers will get shut out. The top line of Jonathan Marchessault, Aleksander Barkov and Jaromir Jagr serve as the top line but also anchor the team’s top power play unit that has struck for a goal in each of the last two games. Marchessault and Barkov lead the team with seven and five points respectively and could make a decent pair for tonight’s contests. If you like taking second liners on the road with exposure to the top power play unit then Vincent Trocheck is your one-off play tonight. Although he only has three goals he is second on the team in shots with 18. Defenseman Aaron Ekblad leads the team in shots while playing with fellow defenseman Keith Yandle on the point while Florida has the man advantage. Pittsburgh has given up six goals in the two games they had the home ice advantage so look for Florida to score a couple tonight.
The Penguins are just another team that is looking for a little bit of scoring from all three lines. Normally on the road, I’d say this is a great strategy but with the Penguins being home tonight, I’m not sure how I feel about all of this. Sidney Crosby returns tonight as he will center Patric Hornqvist and Scott Wilson while Evgeni Malkin will center Bryan Rust and Chris Kunitz. The third line has some talent as well with Nick Bonino centering Phil Kessel and Carl Hagelin. With Crosby back I think I’d stick with the top power play line of Malkin, Kessel, Hornqvist and defenseman Justin Schultz as they will log the most time with the man advantage. Kris Letang is still listed as day-to-day which is why Schultz makes a decent play tonight.
Elite Plays
FLA: Aleksander Barkov
PIT: Sidney Crosby, Evgeni Malkin
Secondary Plays
FLA: Jonathan Marchessault, Jaromir Jagr, Aaron Ekblad, Vincent Trocheck
PIT: Phil Kessel, Patric Hornqvist, Justin Schultz
Minnesota Wild at Boston Bruins
| Minnesota Wild | Boston Bruins | ||||||||
 | Devan Dubnyk |  | Tuukka Rask | ||||||
| Record | Record | ||||||||
| 3-2-1 | 3-2-0 | ||||||||
| Stats | GF/GP | GA/GP | PP% | PK% | Stats | GF/GP | GA/GP | PP% | PK% |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Team Stats | 3.17 | 3.17 | 9.10% | 94.40% | Team Stats | 3.00 | 2.60 | 10.00% | 90.00% |
Minnesota continues to strive for their first road victory as they have come up empty in their first three attempts. Tonight’s contest in Boston doesn’t look to promising as the beaneaters are usually tough on home ice. Zach Parise, Eric Staal, Charlie Coyle and defenseman Ryan Suter may be your GPP plays here as they all usually get the top minutes on the team’s power play. However last game it was Suter and Parise joined by second liners Mikko Koivu and Nino Niederreiter and defenseman Matthew Dumba who saw the most minutes with the man advantage. It may be all a moot point anyway as Boston is up at 90% in killing penalties while the Wild have just scored twice in 22 attempts on the power play. I’d stick with the top skill players here for GPP play as Coyle, Parise and Staal are the only players who have lit the lamp two times or more so far this season.
The Bruins will try to close out this three game home stand with a win tonight again st the travelling Minnesota Wild. The Bruins beat the Devils last Thursday night while division rival Montreal beat them by a score of 4-2 on Saturday night. It’s probably not fair going up against Carey Price while all you have to replace the injured Tuukka Rask is Anton Khudobin. Such is life in the NHL. Minnesota has been playing tougher this year, especially on special teams as that seems to be new head coach Bruce Boudreau’s specialty. The top line of David Backes, Ryan Spooner and David Krejci are joined by second liner Patrice Bergeron and defenseman Torey Krug to form the team’s top power play unit. The Bruin power play however only has two goals while having the man advantage 20 times so far this season. The top line should be in play but we can’t discount David Pastrnak and Brad Marchand as they account for seven of the Bruins 15 goals so far this season.
UPDATE: It looks like Backes is out tonight, giving you a top line of Pastrnak, Bergeron and Marchand as the line you want to target here on home ice for the Bruins.
Elite Plays
MIN: None
BOS: Brad Marchand, David Pastrnak
Secondary Plays
MIN: Zach Parise, Ryan Suter, Eric Staal, Charlie Coyle
BOS: David Backes, David Krejci, Ryan Spooner, Torey Krug
Arizona Coyotes at New Jersey Devils
| Arizona Coyotes | New Jersey Devils | ||||||||
 | Louis Domingue |  | Cory Schneider | ||||||
| Record | Record | ||||||||
| 1-4-0 | 2-2-1 | ||||||||
| Stats | GF/GP | GA/GP | PP% | PK% | Stats | GF/GP | GA/GP | PP% | PK% |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Team Stats | 2.80 | 4.20 | 11.10% | 80.00% | Team Stats | 1.60 | 1.80 | 16.70% | 94.10% |
After their fourth straight road loss, the tired ‘Desert Dogs’ (god I hate that moniker and this will be the last time I ever use it!) stumble into Newark to play a good defensive Devil team that has given up just 9 goals, which leads the league with Montreal. Arizona has scored twice in 18 power play tries while New Jersey has killed off 94% of the penalties they have taken, so there’s probably not much here. This is more than likely a game to stay away from in cash games but if you are one to multi-enter GPPs, by all means fire away. I’d start with defenseman Oliver Ekman-Larsson who is still seeing almost 27 minutes of ice time on a nightly basis. Radim Vrbata is another decent one-off GPP play as he has lit the lamp three times in the last two games. The Coyotes have out Jordan Martinook and Brad Richardson on the third line which is interesting here as they each have four pints on the young season. Again, those two would only be in play when you are making…ohhhh I’d say…your 57th GPP lineup. Max Domi, Shane Doan, Tobias Rieder and Anthony Duclair make up the rest of the list of usual jokers that should be scoring but are not. Look for this one to be low scoring, move on.
If not for the goaltending of Corey Schneider, the New Jersey Devils could easily be 0-5. As luck would have it Schneider has been stellar between the pipes and has somehow made the Devils eight goal total in five games equal two wins. All five games have been one goal games with at least one team scoring two goals, so not only are the games close, they are low scoring. Arizona comes in on the fifth game of their six game road trip so look for another low scoring game here. Taylor Hall notched his team leading third goal in overtime as he and Kyle Palmieri look to be the plays here as they account for five of the Devils eight goals. Pavel Zacha completes the line that was most used in the last game as New Jersey head coach John Hynes continue to shuffle the lines, even mid-game as evidence of Adam Henrique centering five different sets of wingers. If you need another pair for this game it would be wise to grab P.A.Parenteau and Travis Zajac as they are responsible for the team’s other three goals. Defensively the choices are either Damon Severson or Yohann Auvitu as both see about the same amount of ice time on the team’s power play units.
Elite Plays
ARZ: None
NJ: None
Secondary Plays
ARZ: Oliver Ekman-Larsson, Radim Vrbata
NJ: Taylor Hall, Kyle Palmieri
Tampa Bay Lightning at Toronto Maple Leafs
| Tampa Bay Lightning | Toronto Maple Leafs | ||||||||
 | Ben Bishop |  | Frederik Andersen | ||||||
| Record | Record | ||||||||
| 4-1-0 | 1-1-3 | ||||||||
| Stats | GF/GP | GA/GP | PP% | PK% | Stats | GF/GP | GA/GP | PP% | PK% |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Team Stats | 3.20 | 2.80 | 26.30% | 92.30% | Team Stats | 3.60 | 3.60 | 26.70% | 88.90% |
Okay, so do we trust the lines that the Lightning have been using in practice or are they just sending up another smokescreen? I think we can trust them this time around as they actually make sense. The funny thing is that third liners Alex Killorn and Valtteri Filppula make decent GPP plays here on the road as they lead the team in scoring with five points apiece. Steven Stamkos also has five points so pairing him with linemate Vladislav Namestnikov can always be in play because of their power play minutes but let’s dive to the second line for our cash plays, shall we? Tyler Johnson and Nikita Kucherov make a very good cash play as they not only play on Tampa Bay’s second line, they get power play time with superstar Stamkos. The Lightning have scored five goals with the man advantage so far this season with Anton Stralman on the top unit but it may be time to put Victor Hedman back on that unit as Stralman is off to a sluggish start as evidence by his lone assist through five games. There should be some goals in this one so make sure you get some exposure to the Lightning in tonight’s contests.
We may be witnessing the making one of the best duos to the hit the pike in Toronto in a long time. The team leaders in Auston Matthews and William Nylander notched two more goals Saturday night in their 5-4 overtime loss in Chicago. This is the play tonight as Matthews has eight points with Nylander right behind with seven. Toronto has scored 18 goals in five games and only has only one win to show for it so rostering these two will more than likely be a chalk play tonight. You can add line mate Zach Hyman to the mix if you want a full line stack. Third liners Nazem Kadri and Leo Komarov join them, minus Hyman, along with defenseman Nikita Zaitsev to form a power play unit that has scored four times over the last three games. Mitchell Marner, Tyler Bozak and James van Riemsdyk and could be considered as a GPP play tonight.
Elite Plays
TB: Steven Stamkos
TOR: Auston Matthews
Secondary Plays
TB: Ondrej Palat, Tyler Johnson, Vladislav Namestnikov, Anton Stralman
TOR: William Nylander, Nikita Zaitsev, Mitchell Marner, Jake Gardiner
Carolina Hurricanes at Detroit Red Wings
| Carolina Hurricanes | Detroit Red Wings | ||||||||
 | Cam Ward |  | Petr Mrazek | ||||||
| Record | Record | ||||||||
| 1-2-2 | 4-2-0 | ||||||||
| Stats | GF/GP | GA/GP | PP% | PK% | Stats | GF/GP | GA/GP | PP% | PK% |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Team Stats | 3.20 | 4.00 | 28.60% | 90.00% | Team Stats | 3.33 | 2.50 | 24.00% | 73.90% |
Carolina is the last team to have their home opener as they have started the season as they play their sixth and final game of the trip tonight in Detroit. They played tough in their first three, including a win against Calgary while wrestling a point away from both Winnipeg and Vancouver via losing on overtime. The last loss at Philadelphia was their worst as they let in six goals while only scoring three. They should be tired tonight, so let’s see how they stack up. The Canes were using the top line of Lee Stempniak, Victor Rask and Jeff Skinner as their top power play line but head coach Bill Peters switched it up a bit last game and let the second unit grab 67% of the ice time with the man advantage. Well it seemed to work as defenseman Justin Faulk scored the first goal of the game while being a man up with Teuvo Teravainen and Sebastian Aho grabbed the assists. For you GPP plays I’d put Aho with his second line partner in Jordan Staal and Teravainen with Elias Lindholm as the make up two thirds of the third line. Detroit has given up six goals in 23 attempts while short-handed so you can either go that way or stick with the top line, who by the way, all lead the team in scoring with six points apiece.
Detroit is another team that started out with a few losses and has bounced back to win their last four games, three of them being on home ice. The Red Wings have scored six power play goals this season with Thomas Vanek having a hand in four of them while leading the team with seven points along with Darren Helm and defenseman Mike Green. Detroit’s lines have Gustav Nyquist, Frans Nielsen and Dylan Larkin on one line while Henrik Zetterberg, Tomas Tatar and Riley Sheahan make up another line. The mistake that the daily fantasy masses make is that in teams like this, it is hard to figure out what exactly the top line is. It is actually up to the home team’s coach to decide this as he gets the last line change. So for example, if Jeff Blashill thinks that the Zetterberg line is the best, then he will put them out against a weaker line that the opposing coach puts out there first. It is kind of odd that Vanek and Helm skate on a different line but it kind of makes sense as the Wings now could feasibly have three lines that can score. Defenseman Ryan Sproul makes an interesting play here as he has two points in the two games he has played so far this season.
Elite Plays
CAR: None
DET: None
Secondary Plays
CAR: Justin Faulk, Jeff Skinner, Lee Stempniak, Victor Rask
DET: Mike Green, Thomas Vanek, Henrik Zetterberg, Tomas Tatar, Frans Nielsen