NHL Slate Summary: Saturday, November 2nd
Each Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday, a daily fantasy hockey analyst will overview the upcoming daily fantasy hockey slate, picking out the most favorable sports to attack. NOTE: This article will primarily focus on FanDuel and DraftKings NHL DFS contests.
Saturday, November 2nd
After a busy Friday on the ice, the NHL is back with a ton of action again today. We have a couple of matinee games in Nashville and Pittsburgh, and even though Crosby vs McDavid should be entertaining, I’m going to focus only on the massive 12-game Main Slate here.
General Observations
Back-to Back Situations – There’s a lot to consider here tonight. These are the teams that were also in action last night: BUF, CAR, CBJ, COL, DAL, DET, NJ, NYI, PHI, STL, TB, VAN, WAS and WPG. Of these 13 teams on B2B’s, Vancouver, St. Louis, New Jersey and Montreal will be playing their third game in four nights. Legs should still be relatively fresh this early in the season, but we’re definitely starting to get into the grind of the long NHL season.
Let’s just address the obvious right off the bat. Boston has a home matchup awaiting them tonight against the Ottawa Senators. This is going to be chalk that is incredibly dangerous to fade. Pastrnak/Bergeron/Marchand have been absolutely dominant once again this season and this matchup is about as good as it gets. If you’re not starting your cash game build here, then….well… yikes. Here’s a few added nuggets about this one:
1) Boston has scored 41 goals this season. Bergeron, Pastrnak and Marchand have accounted for 24 of them. If you’re bad at math, that’s nearly 59% of the team’s goals for the season and that’s nuts. Further, using our Player vs Opponent Tool, you’ll see these three combined for 10 goals and 14 assists in four meetings games last season.
2) No duo in the NHL has combined for points on the same goal more frequently than Brad Marchand and David Pastrnak (17 times).
3) Boston won all four meetings between these two teams last season; outscoring Ottawa 15-7 in the process.
4) Tuukka Rask has been unbelievable to start the season. He’s 6-0-1 with a 1.41 GAA and .951 SV%. The only arguable downside to playing him tonight would be potential low shot-volume (though Ottawa is averaging a reasonable 31.1 SOG/G) and the fact that it would take one more player you could stack from the Bruins.
Ok, moving forward and with Boston still in mind…. If the Bruins are going to be massive chalk (and they are), does that mean we can load up on Florida at low/moderate ownership this evening? The Panthers face a Detroit team that, how do I put this nicely… (pause)… is an absolute f*cking disaster. Detroit was blown out of the gym in Carolina last night and Florida’s offense is heating up and already happens to be averaging 3.75 goals per game on their home ice.
The Minnesota Wild have been borderline horrible to start the season, but Wild fans can take solice in the fact that they do happen to lead the NHL with a 57.87 HDCF% at even strength this season. Meanwhile, they’ll face an STL team without their superstar who happens to have allowed the third most high-danger scoring chances against in the early going at 5×5 (120 HDCA).
John Tavares is expected to make his return to the Toronto lineup tonight, which should be music to the ears of Mitch Marner. This comes just in time for the home matchup opposite Sean Couturier, which should also make this music to the ears of Auston Matthews who otherwise was likely staring at a full shadow from the game’s best defensive forward (to be fair, he still might be).
Players to Target
There are some obvious top-tier options to target tonight. These picks are designed to be guys that can help fill in your rosters thanks to their affordable price-tags and/or help differentiate your lineups with a few players that should go overlooked.
Mike Hoffman – Florida Panthers – I expect most FLA ownership to fall on their top forward line, leaving Mike Hoffman as a potential overlooked option. He has picked up points in each of the last two games and has already racked up five power-play points on the young season. With Detroit owning an Eastern Conference worst 71.1% penalty kill, Hoffman could be lined up for a big night.
Andrei Svechnikov – Carolina Hurricanes – The #2 overall pick from last season’s NHL draft started his career a bit on the slow side, but he’s been a man possessed out of the gates this season as quickly ascending his way to stardom. Svechnikov has racked up multiple points in each of the last three games and now owns six goals and eight assists in 13 games this season. He’ll face a New Jersey team that has allowed an Eastern Conference high 4.00 goals against per game this season and he is still reasonably priced on both DraftKings and FanDuel.
Alex Tuch – Vegas Golden Knights – He finally made his season debut on Thursday night and promptly scored his first goal of the season. Often overlooked on this Vegas squad, Tuch quitely amassed 20 goals and 32 assists in 74 games last season. The Winnipeg Jets have been a disaster in their own end this season and just allowed 53 SOG in their win over San Jose last night. Tuch is cheap and almost guaranteed to see limited ownership.
Adam Boqvist – Chicago Blackhawks – Expectations are high for Boqvist as he prepares for his NHL debut this evening. He was the 8th overall pick in the 2018 NHL draft and racked up 20 goals and 40 assists in 54 games with the OHL’s London Knights last season and figures to see plenty of work including a job as the point man on Chicago’s #2 power-play unit. He doesn’t figure to be priced at the minimum for long, so enjoy this discount while it lasts.
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