There are only two NHL games today, but they are great matchups tonight. We have Washington at Pittsburgh and Colorado at Vegas.
Washington Capitals Vs. Pittsburgh Penguins
Getting started with Washington at Pittsburgh. Pittsburgh is the favourite to win, and has an implied goal total of 3.4, while Washington has an implied total of 3.1
The Penguins come into the game this afternoon having only played one game in the last week. Over the last two weeks, we had seen Evgeni Malkin start to pick things up three points in three games, as had Sidney Crosby’s linemates Bryan Rust and Jake Guentzel who also have three points, while Crosby himself has two points in those three games. If you’re going to go with the Penguins, Crosby is the most obvious play, but you can mix and match any of the four players mentioned.
If you’re looking at Pittsburgh’s defence, you really can’t look far past Kris Letang. He won’t be cheap tonight, but he is your most likely source of points. If you’re looking for value tonight, you can look at Pierre Olivier Joseph, he has four points in his last four games and is near the minimum price.
In goal, Tristan Jarry will get the start. He hasn’t played well this season, and I would likely avoid him.
Washington has started to get healthy. They should see Evgeny Kuznetsov, Jacob Vrana, and TJ Oshie return, which will help their power-play and take some pressure off of their top line. Whenever you are talking about the Capitals, you always need to mention Alexander Ovechkin. Ovi has five points in his last three games, and has 16 shots as well, which should make him a cash game staple. Tom Wilson and Nicklas Backstrom both have four points in that same time period.
John Carlson is your go-to on defence, but Justin Schultz had been very productive prior to getting injured, with six points in three games, so he is a cheaper alternative.
Wilson, Vrana and Oshie all come in under 5k on DK today, and Wilson and Oshie are both cheap on FD as well if you’re playing there.
The Caps will go back to Vitek Vanecek again this afternoon, with Ilya Samsonov sent down to Hersey to get a few games in. Vanecek has played well in spurts this year and is someone to look at in GPP's.
Colorado Avalanche vs Vegas Golden Knights
Finally a matchup between the two best teams in the West Division. Vegas is on the back-end of a back-to-back, and Colorado is playing its first game since February 2nd.
Colorado got very lucky with the layoff coming shortly after Nathan MacKinnon’s injury, who is making his return tonight. With MacKinnon back, you will want to look to Rantanen to stack on a short slate if you’re buying in on the Avs, which makes some sense especially if they have to go to Marc-Andre Fleury again in back to back games due to Robin Lehner’s injury.
Cale Makar is where you should look on defence, but the Avs have plenty of capable defensemen, including Samuel Girard and Devon Toews, although they are less dependable.
The Avs will go to Phillipp Grubauer tonight. He has played well this season, with a 0.934 save percentage and goals saved above average over 6. He should be solid in both cash and GPP’s.
For the Golden Knights, we have seen Chandler Stephenson come alive as of late with six points in his last four games, three of those have come on the powerplay. We have also seen more production from Jonathan Marchessault and Reilly Smith on line two. Max Pacioretty is often the go-to with Vegas, but you do get similar shots from Marchessault, and with Colorado likely to try and neutralize Stone and Pacioretty with Landeskog tonight, going to line two could be the place to go. Alex Tuch and Cody Glass have also been contributing recently also, both with four points in their last four games, and Glass sees time on the top powerplay, so he is a nice value play today.
Shea Theodore is likely to be out again tonight, so Alex Pietrangelo is going to be your target on defence. We have been seeing production from Alec Martinez, and Zach Whitecloud as well recently, so those are players you can look to for some salary relief today as well.
Lastly, we don’t yet know the status of Vegas’ goalies, but I will take no news as bad news on the Robin Lehner front, so if I had to pick early in the day I would go with Fleury. Fleury has played well and is coming off a strong performance yesterday against the Sharks, but I am a little wary of using him on back-to-back nights especially going up against a team like Colorado.