NHL Grind Down: Wednesday, February 15th
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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Toronto Maple Leafs at Columbus Blue Jackets
| Toronto Maple Leafs | Columbus Blue Jackets | ||||||||
 | Curtis McElhinney |  | Sergei Bobrovsky | ||||||
| Record | Record | ||||||||
| 26-18-11 | 35-15-5 | ||||||||
| Stats | GF/GP | GA/GP | PP% | PK% | Stats | GF/GP | GA/GP | PP% | PK% |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Team Stats | 3.04 | 2.87 | 23.50% | 83.60% | Team Stats | 3.20 | 2.44 | 22.70% | 81.80% |
The Maple Leafs improved their playoff chances with a resounding 7-1 win against the Islanders on home ice last night. The win has them in eighth place in the Eastern Conference and with a win here tonight can jump from fourth to second in the tight Atlantic Division. Toronto employs three scoring lines which sometimes impedes their defensive game a bit but that is no worry to us as long as they keep scoring. Auston Matthews leads the team with 27 goals so far this season as he centers Zach Hyman and Connor Brown. Matthews leads the team with 192 shots on goal and makes for a decent one-off play here as his line mates do not get the expose that he does on the top power play line. The most consistent line has to be the line of Mitchell Marner, James van Riemsdyk and Tyler Bozak. Marner leads the team with 48 points while van Riemsdyk is one goal shy of hitting 20 on the year. He does have 44 points however which should have him in the conversation tonight, especially with only eight teams in action. Nazem Kadri has a team high 10 power play goals while William Nylander leads the team with 16 power play points this season. They both skate on a line Komarov but I’d stick with the former two for cash game plays tonight. Jake Gardiner has been soaking up most of the extra power play minutes from the back line and is tied with Nikita Zaitsev with eight power play points. Zaitsev has the hot hand as his five points over the last seven games has enabled him to pass Gardiner in points by a tally of 26-25.
With the emergence of Brandon Dubinsky and Boone Jenner it appears that head coach John Tortorella has decided to drop Nick Foligno down to the third line and use Oliver Bjorkstrand to skate with Alexander Wennberg and Brandon Saad. Of course Cam Atkinson will assume his usual position with Dubinsky and Jenner as this line has combined for seven goals and eight assists in the last seven games. Atkinson leads the team with 27 goals and 49 points while skating with Wennberg, Foligno and Sam Gagner to create a four forward attack when the team goes on the power play. Wennberg leads the team with 34 assists and it will be interesting to see how he responds with a new line mate on his right wing. Gagner skates on the fourth line and has cooled off a bit however as he has recorded just six of his 34 points in the last 20 games. Columbus was still a good 14 points ahead of the eighth place Toronto maple Leafs as the teams headed into last night’s action, so a playoff spot seems to be in their future the question is where will the end up. Zachary Werenski and Seth Jones are the options on the back end with Jones producing very well over the last 11 games. Jones has collected nine of his 29 points over that time frame while Werenski is just two points ahead of him with eight goals and 23 assists.
Elite Plays
TOR: Mitchell Marner, Auston Matthews
CBJ: Cam Atkinson
Secondary Plays
TOR: James van Riensdyk, Nazem Kadri, William Nylander, Nikita Zaitsev
GBJ: Alexander Wennberg, Brandon Saad, Nick Foligno, Seth Jones
St. Louis Blues at Detroit Red Wings
| St. Louis Blues | Detroit Red Wings | ||||||||
 | Carter Hutton |  | Petr Mrazek | ||||||
| Record | Record | ||||||||
| 29-22-5 | 22-24-10 | ||||||||
| Stats | GF/GP | GA/GP | PP% | PK% | Stats | GF/GP | GA/GP | PP% | PK% |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Team Stats | 2.86 | 2.93 | 21.80% | 84.20% | Team Stats | 2.41 | 3.02 | 12.00% | 79.80% |
The Blues have won six of their last ten games which has propelled the team back into third place in the Central Division. They also have been able to go three points up on the Los Angeles Kings who currently hold the last playoff spot in the Western Conference with 60 points. Vladimir Tarasenko, Alexander Steen and Jaden Schwartz is the line that the Blues have been using when the team draws a penalty. In light of the Paul Stastny injury new head coach has been using them as the top line as well and basically is saying to any team they play, come and get us. Tarasenko leads the team with 26 goals and 53 while Steen has collected 37 points in 50 games. The second line is centered by Patrik Berglund who has lit the lamp six times in the last eight games while linemates David Perron and Kenny Agostino look to have a bit more room on the ice tonight. Kevin Shattenkirk is one of the top defensive choices of the night as he leads the team with 28 assists and seven power play goals. Shattenkirk finds himself second on the team in scoring with 39 points so far this season. Alex Pietrangelo could be used at a discounted price as he has grabbed seven of his 29 points over the last eight games. St Louis looks to win their fifth game on this five game road trip before returning home to face the Vancouver Canucks tomorrow night.
The Red Wings have won just two of their last 11 games which now has given the team the dubious honor of being the worst team in the Eastern Conference. Scoring 10 goals in the last five games is not conducing to winning any hockey games let alone taking down a GPP or two. Unfortunately there are only four games on the slate tonight so we will have to dig a bit deeper here to find a few serviceable players. Henrik Zetterberg centers Anthony Mantha and Tomas Tatar on the team’s top line. Mantha and Zetterberg also skate on the team’s top power play unit and could be looked at as a tournament play and a borderline cash game play tonight. Zetterberg has tallied eight points in the last eight games and has been atop the red Wings scoring chart for most of the season. Mantha has tallied seven of his 29 points over the last eight games which leaves him 12 away from Zetterberg’s team leading 41 points. Frans Nielsen has some new line mates in Thomas Vanek and Andreas Athanasiou which could be the change of scenery the latter may need to improve on his 19 points in the 41 games he has played in. Meanwhile Vanek, who is a game time decision but should play, leads the team with 14 goals as Detroit is another team that doesn’t believe in putting your best scorer on the top power play unit. This rings true on the defensive end as well as Niklas Kronwall is back on the top power play unit while Mike Green is left the scraps on the second unit. To put this into perspective Kronwall has a total of six assists in 32 games while Green has lit the lamp ten times and has assisted on 16 other goals in the 48 games he has suited up for.
Elite Plays
STL: Vladimir Tarasenko
DET: Henrik Zetterberg
Secondary Plays
STL: Alexander Steen, Kevin Shattenkirk, Jaden Schwartz, Patrik Berglund, Alex Pietrangelo
DET: Anthony Mantha, Thomas Vanek, Mike Green
Philadelphia Flyers at Calgary Flames
| Philadelphia Flyers | Calgary Flames | ||||||||
 | Michal Neuvirth |  | Brian Elliott | ||||||
| Record | Record | ||||||||
| 27-22-7 | 28-26-3 | ||||||||
| Stats | GF/GP | GA/GP | PP% | PK% | Stats | GF/GP | GA/GP | PP% | PK% |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Team Stats | 2.54 | 2.93 | 20.80% | 80.60% | Team Stats | 2.61 | 2.80 | 20.70% | 80.40% |
The Flyers have somehow managed to win the four of the last eight games with just 11 goals and the kicker is they have only scored more than two goals just once in any of those eight games. They were tied with the Toronto Maple Leafs for the last playoff spot in the Eastern Conference going into last night’s action. The lack of scoring has prompted the Flyers to use Brayden Schenn, Claude Giroux and Wayne Simmonds on the top line while their power play partner in Jakub Voracek remains on the second line. Sean Couturier and Jordan Weal round out the second line with Voracek being a decent one of tonight as he leads the team with 47 points. Calgary will try their best to shut the top line down but coming off of a 5-0 loss at the hands of Arizona, they may not be able to stop the local high school team at that rate. Shayne Gostisbehere has had a rough go of it this season as he was benched on two different occasions so far this season. Nonetheless the Flyers second year defenseman has been able to collect 14 of his 22 points with the man advantage. Meanwhile Ivan Provorov has grabbed 23 points to lead all Flyers defensemen in scoring.
The Flames loss to Arizona the other night prompted Calgary to demote Johnny Gaudreau to the third line and also provided a lost opportunity as the team remains one point away from the Los Angeles Kings for the last playoff spot in the Western Conference. Gaudreau is back up on the top line with Sean Monahan and Troy Brouwer while Mikael Backlund will center the second line along with Michael Frolik and Matthew Tkachuk. Backlund leads the team with 38 points while Gaudreau is right behind him with 35 points despite Backlund playing in ten more games. Gaudreau’s line could be used in either cash or tournament games while Backlund’s line feels like a GPP play here. Frolik is the wild card as he is one of the streakiest players in the league as his 137 shots has yielded 13 goals and 31 points so far this season. Dougie Hamilton is the play on the back line as he leads all Calgary defenseman with 33 points on his team high 160 shots on goal. T.J. Brodie and Mark Giordano can also be used here if you need some salary relief as both players have each registered 22 points so far this season.
Elite Plays
PHL: Jakub Voracek
CGY: Johnny Gaudreau
Secondary Plays
PHL: Claude Giroux, Wayne Simmonds, Brayden Schenn, Ivan Provorov
CGY: Sean Monahan, Dougie Hamilton, Matthew Tkachuk, Mikael Backlund, T.J. Brodie
Florida Panthers at San Jose Sharks
| Florida Panthers | San Jose Sharks | ||||||||
 | Roberto Luongo |  | Martin Jones | ||||||
| Record | Record | ||||||||
| 24-20-10 | 34-18-5 | ||||||||
| Stats | GF/GP | GA/GP | PP% | PK% | Stats | GF/GP | GA/GP | PP% | PK% |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Team Stats | 2.43 | 2.74 | 15.10% | 84.20% | Team Stats | 2.70 | 2.35 | 17.10% | 81.20% |
With the NBA going on break and Sidney Crosby going for his 1,000th point tomorrow, I figured I had better start brushing up on my narratives. The ageless wonder, Jaromir Jagr turns 45 years old today as he skates on the top line with Jonathan Huberdeau and Aleksander Barkov. Jagr has tallied 31 points so far this season but was far more productive while playing next to Barkov who has missed his share of games. Barkov is arguably the team’s best player as he has lit the lamp 11 times this season while collecting 30 points in 39 games. Florida is in the same boat as the Buffalo Sabres in the Eastern conference as they both have 58 points to their credit which leaves both teams just five points away from the last playoff spot. Vincent Trocheck makes a decent one-off play here as he skates on the second line with Jussi Jokinen and Reilly Smith. Trocheck leads the team with 20 goals and 38 points while Smith’s six goals via the power play is the best on the team. With only eight teams in play tonight maybe Jonathan Marchessault is worth a dart-throw here as he is second on the team in points with 16 goals and 17 assists. Keith Yandle and Aaron Ekblad are the plays from the back line with Yandle having the upper hand as he quarterbacks the team’s top power play unit. He also has leads the defensive corps in scoring with 28 points so far this season.
After not winning a game in the last four tries the Sharks went on to beat New Jersey by a score of 4-1 to end their four game road trip. The win kept them atop of the Pacific Division as they now lead the Anaheim Ducks by three points with a game in hand. Joe Pavelski, Joe Thornton and Melker Karlsson will lead the team from the top line while Logan Couture and Patrick Marleau are joined by Mikkel Boedker to form their second scoring line. Even though Marleau and Couture play on the second line they are surely in play here as they skate with Pavelski and Thornton to form 80% of the top power play unit that has scored five goals over the last six games. Marleau has been on fire of late as he has registered 13 of his 33 points over the last 11 games while Couture leads the team with seven power play goals. Pavelski is second on the team’s scoring list with 48 points while Thornton’s eight points in the last 11 games has upped his total to 27 on the year. There is only one defensive play and that would come in the form of Brent Burns. We all know the story on him as his 24 goals and 35 assists are literally better than most of the players in the league. On a four game slate I say pay up for him and grab a few punt wingers like Karlsson and Michael Frolik to fill out the rest of your roster tonight.
Elite Plays
FLA: Aleksander Barkov
SJ: Brent Burns, Joe Pavelski
Secondary Plays
FLA: Vincent Trocheck, Jonathan Huberdeau, Keith Yandle, Jaromir Jagr
SJ: Logan Couture, Joe Thornton, Patrick Marleau