NHL Grind Down: Wednesday, December 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.
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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Washington Capitals at Philadelphia Flyers
| Washington Capitals | Philadelphia Flyers | ||||||||
 | Braden Holtby |  | Steve Mason | ||||||
| Record | Record | ||||||||
| 19-8-3 | 19-11-4 | ||||||||
| Stats | GF/GP | GA/GP | PP% | PK% | Stats | GF/GP | GA/GP | PP% | PK% |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Team Stats | 2.67 | 2.13 | 19.60% | 84.00% | Team Stats | 3.06 | 2.91 | 22.80% | 82.80% |
Today’s slate has just two games to choose from with this one being the one that could see its share of goals. Washington is just one point behind Philadelphia for fourth place in the Metropolitan Division but upon closer speculation the Flyers have played four more games than the Flyers so far. Washington’s 8-3-3 road record is a testament to their gritty style of play that has only surrendered 66 goals so far this season. Only Minnesota and Columbus are above them in that department. Nicklas Backstrom, T.J. Oshie and Marcus Johansson can be considered their top line as Backstrom leads the team in points with 27 while Johansson has seen seven of his 22 points scored while the Capitals have the man advantage. Alexander Ovechkin joins the top line to form a top power play unit that has scored eight goals over the last nine games. Evgeny Kuznetsov and Justin Williams join Ovechkin at even strength and make for a decent GPP stack tonight. Williams has three goals and assist over the last four games while Kuznetsov has five assists over that same time frame. It’s interesting to note that Williams had only seven points before his recent outburst while Kuznetsov has three goals and 14 assists so far this season. John Carlson is the man you want on the blue line as he quarterbacks the Capital’s top power play unit. He has lit the lamp once while assisting on three other goals over the last five games and is second only to Ovechkin’s 120 shots with 73 shots on goal of his own. To deviate a little here you could go with Matt Niskanen as he has netted two goals and three assists since he sat out the December 9th game with an upper-body injury.
Going into last night’s game the Flyers were only one of four teams to hit the 100 goal mark this season. We all know about the ten-game win streak that was snapped two games ago but since then they have managed just two goals in their last two games. Philadelphia continues to search for a left winger to play alongside team scoring leaders Jakub Voracek and Claude Giroux. Michael Raffl will continue to be the flavor of the month on the left wing but has just scored one goal in the last six games which brings him up to a total of eight points in 25 games. Meanwhile Voracek has recorded ten of his 34 points over the last six games. Brayden Schenn and Wayne Simmonds join Giroux and Voracek from the second line to make up 80% of the Flyers top power play unit that has been held scoreless in the last four games. Travis Konecny joins Simmonds and Schenn at even strength and could be a good GPP play here. Konecny is the weak link here but has registered 16 points on 73 shots so far this season. Shayne Gostisbehere has the same exact statistics as Konecny but the only problem with this is that he is a defenseman that gets a lot of minutes when the Flyers draw a penalty. One would think with that much exposure to the team scoring leaders that you would have more points but Gostisbehere has continued to struggle in his second year in the league. Ivan Provorov has three goals and 12 assists so far this season which is just one point off of Gostisbehere’s seasonal output so taking him here at a discount may be a decent idea, especially on a two game slate.
Elite Plays
WSH: Nicklas Backstrom, Alexander Ovechkin
PHL: Jakub Voracek, Claude Giroux
Secondary Plays
WSH: T.J. Oshie, Marcus Johansson, John Carlson
PHL: Wayne Simmonds, Brayden Schenn, Shayne Gostisbehere
Edmonton Oilers at Arizona Coyotes
| Edmonton Oilers | Arizona Coyotes | ||||||||
 | Cam Talbot |  | Mike Smith | ||||||
| Record | Record | ||||||||
| 17-12-5 | 11-16-5 | ||||||||
| Stats | GF/GP | GA/GP | PP% | PK% | Stats | GF/GP | GA/GP | PP% | PK% |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Team Stats | 2.88 | 2.65 | 22.00% | 83.30% | Team Stats | 2.16 | 3.13 | 13.80% | 78.80% |
And here’s the weird statistic of the night. The last four games that the Oilers have won have all been by a score of 3-2. Of course they have lost two games and went to overtime in three others and lost during the last nine games but still it shows that Edmonton hasn’t been scoring as much as they had been. Of the 16 goals the Oilers have scored in the last six games Leon Draisaitl has lit the lamp three times and has assisted on five other goals. He makes an excellent one-off here as he skates on the second line with Patrick Maroon and Tyler Pitlick who has registered four of his 11 points over the last six games. This line could be used as a GPP play as well as there is no doubt Arizona will try to shut down the McDavid line, if they can. Mark Letestu is another decent one-off play as he and Draisaitl skate on the top line when Edmonton draws a penalty. The Oilers have scored 12 power play goals in the ten games they have played in December which should be an easy mismatch against an Arizona team that has given up 11 goals while a man down in their last nine games. Connor McDavid, Milan Lucic and Jordan Eberle should be the chalk here against with the former two joining Draisaitl and Letestu on the top power play unit. McDavid has 40 points in 34 games while Lucic has a modest 23 points with 11 of them coming via the power play. Andrej Sekera has seen quite a bit of power play time over the last few weeks and it seem to be paying off as he has recorded five of his 16 points over the last five games. Anyone getting exposure to a power play that has been hitting on all eight cylinders is certainly worth a look here. Oscar Klefbom is your other option as he has collected five goals and seven assists on 82 shots in the 34 games he has played in. You might have to dig deeper if you want to take down a GPP tonight, so maybe taking a look at Ryan Nugent-Hopkins and Benoit Pouliot may not be a bad thing to do. Both players have been underachieving this year so maybe playing a team that has given up over 100 goals is a good place to start to get back on track.
Speaking of changing it up for GPP play, taking anyone from Arizona would surely fit the bill. With Max Domi still on the sidelines the Coyotes have opted to use Lawson Crouse on the top line with Martin Hanzal and Radim Vrbata. Arizona has found the net just nine times in the last five games so using the top line here is probably the closest you can get to a cash game play tonight. Christian Dvorak has had a hand in three of the nine goals and makes for a good one-off play here as he skates on the fourth line with Josh Jooris and Ryan White. Jamie McGinn, Peter Holland and Anthony Duclair make up the team’s second line while Jordan Martinook, Tobias Rieder and Shane Doan skate as the team’s third line. With all the scoring that the Coyotes are not doing it’s hard to assess which line is the second line and which line is the fourth line. Brendan Perlini and defenseman Anthony DeAngelo were healthy scratches last game so it’s anyone’s guess is they draw in tonight. Oliver Ekman-Larsson is usually the defenseman to use when we talk about Arizona but even he is way off this year as he has registered six goals and nine assists so far this season. Ekman-Larsson sees over 24 minutes of ice time a night which includes time on the top power play unit where he has seen eight of his 15 points come from. Alex Goligoski is the choice if you want to stray off the beaten path as he mans the other point when the Coyotes draw a penalty. He has no points in the last five games and has found the scoresheet just 11 times so far this season. This is a bad team folks but the hope here is that they have a good night while you try to fade a few of the other more offensive talented teams. Good luck.
Elite Plays
EDM: Connor McDavid
ARZ: None
Secondary Plays
EDM: Milan Lucic, Leon Draisaitl, Andrej Sekera, Mark Letestu, Jordan Eberle
ARZ: Radim Vrbata, Martin Hanzal, Oliver Ekman-Larsson