Thursday NHL: Valuable Lessons Learned on DS

by landsharkhockey Last Updated 2011-12-08 17:11:33

So far this season on Draftstreet, I’ve been playing every large NHL contest offered, pretty much on a daily basis with mixed results. If you’re like me, the morning after, you check how you finished, smile or pound your desk, and start into setting your lineups for the next day. This week I decided sift through the last few weeks of games to see what I can learn by examining the rosters of the teams that finished at the top of the stack each day. While no silver bullet emerged, I did find some patterns and approaches worth noting, some of which I already do, others I will look to tinker with over the next few weeks. Your approach to setting a roster should be different when playing in a large contest, versus when you’re going head to head. Here are a few things I’ve found:

Ignore the Defense

This is one thing I’ve been preaching forever, and it seems to typically hold true for those winning the big fields. On most nights, the winning team was spending on average 3k on each defenseman. While that severely limits your options, the truth is, the choices at the bottom of the page aren’t significantly worse than those in the 4 to 5k range.

You can do particularly well by focusing on blocked shots at this position. Draftstreet bumped up the value of this stat early this season. Blocked shots is probably one of the most predictable stats out there. While scoring comes in streaks and can be hard to predict, the big-time shot blockers are very consistent from night to night. Here are a few guys that border on free who consistently show up on winning rosters:

• Tomas Kaberle (CAR) – practically washed up, but < $2k
• Hal Gill (MON) – shot blocking machine at $2k
• Jonathan Blum (NAS) – Rising youngster in Nashville will score some day. Adequate for now at $2.3k
• Kevin Klein (NAS) – similar story, similar price
• Bryan Allen (CAR) – $3.7k for one of the best shot blockers in the game

Stack a Team

A few times a week, there is one game in the NHL that goes wild and produces a ton of scoring. Inevitably, the winning roster for that night stacked their team with every viable option in that game. It happens enough, that this strategy cannot be ignored, particularly in games that allow multiple entries. If you’re willing and able to place two or three entries into these games, I highly recommend using this approach on one of your rosters. Look at the team with the best chance of blowing out their opposition and go down the line, adding in all of their offensive weapons. Fill in the gaps as best you can from others NHL games. I never use this approach in small fields, or in head-to-head matchups, as you’re not optimizing your chances player by player. However, when you’re up against 200 other teams, you need to swing for the fences, and this is often the best way to go about it.

You Can’t Win If Your Goalie Loses

This is probably obvious, but cannot be overemphasized. In a head-to-head matchup, you can get away with an average night from your goalie, but in a large field, you don’t have that luxury. Without fail, the top 10 teams every night have a goalie that comes away with the W. If there’s a shutout, it becomes even more critical to have that guy on your team. So what does this mean in terms of strategy? I would say that 90% of your preparation should be spent in determining who to play in net. Always check for confirmation that your goalie is getting the start. Twitter is a great place to catch this information early in the day. Goalies are relatively streaky beasts, so pay close attention to who is hot. Brian Boucher went on a 5 game shutout streak a few seasons back with Phoenix. You can bet if that happened today, by the third game, he would be on every winning roster out there.

Don’t Pit Offense Vs Goalie

Once again, you can largely ignore this point in head-to-head games, but in a large field, there is no point in playing a bunch of forwards who will be shooting on the goalie you have selected. You’re working against yourself and have virtually no hope of finishing on top. Every goal scored is a goal against your goalie. Once you’ve selected your goaltender for the night, you should more or less write off players from the opposing team for that evening. I couldn’t find a single winning lineup over the past month that violated this rule.

My Roster for Tonight’s Action on Draftstreet

Time to put my observations to the test…I’m entering uncharted territory here, as I’ve never submitted a roster so heavy on one team. Looking at the 12 games on the schedule, my guess is Chicago vs NY Isles has the best potential for a blowout. In fact, I’m banking on that, going all in with anything that breathes in a Hawk uniform. That flex position comes in handy, since 3 of the top 4 forwards in the Windy City are listed at the RW position. To fill out the gaps, I didn’t have much space, which explains the first time I’ve ever started the likes of Brassard. It’s all or nothing tonight… Go Hawks!

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About the Writer: ‘Chewy’ aka Gary Wilson, operates LandShark Hockey, and has been helping others dominate Fantasy Hockey Leagues for almost 20 years now. Landshark Hockey provides fantasy hockey fans with daily news, updates, and draft strategy including the LandShark Hockey War Room for Daily Fantasy Hockey Lineup Help.