Welcome to Saturday’s two-game NHL Slate. The Rangers lead their series 3-0 and are looking to send the Hurricanes packing, while the Colorado Avalanche return home tied 1-1 and hoping to start this game on time. There are lots of great players to choose from on this short slate, but we need to find good value plays and pick the correct goalie. You can build daily fantasy hockey lineups on DraftKings and FanDuel for Saturday, May 11th, but before you build those NHL daily fantasy lineups, don’t forget to check out our NHL DFS projections, the NHL Value Finder, and the NHL DFS lineup generator. Let's now take a closer look at the daily fantasy hockey top plays for tonight's NHL DFS slate.


 

Highest Expected Goal Totals 

Carolina Hurricanes Vs Igor Shesterkin (3.1)

New York Rangers Vs. Pyotr Kochetkov (2.6)

Colorado Avalanche Vs. Jake Oettinger (3.5)

Dallas Stars Vs. Alexandar Georgiev (3.2)


 

Carolina Hurricanes Vs. New York Rangers


Players to target: Vincent Trockeck, Artemi Panarin, Chris Kreider, Alexis Lafreniere, Jacob Trouba, Igor Shesterkin,, Jake Guentzel, Seth Jarvis, 



The New York Rangers are 7-0 in the playoffs and are looking to complete another sweep. It’s been a treat to watch this team play with so much consistency and effort. They are loaded from top to bottom and are showing no signs of slowing down. Most of us thought that the Carolina Hurricanes would be better than this, but right now, they look like the Toronto Maple Leafs of the second round. 

We will continue to target the same New York forwards in this game as we have in the last two. Vincent Trocheck, Artemi Panarin, Chris Kreider and Alexis Lafreniere have all been exceptionally productive in this series and I expect that trend to continue here. If you have to pick just two plays, make it Panarin and Lafreniere. On the back end, we might want to change things around. Adam Fox is a great player, but he’s not hitting value and we can’t waste that kind of salary. Jacob Trouba is cheaper and has been a shot-blocking machine. He’s blocked 19 shots in three games and his price tag has gone up by just $100 on DraftKings. As long as he doesn’t get kicked out for trying to decapitate someone, he should be a lock to hit value.

In goal, we are all-in on Igor Shesterkin. DK has finally bumped his price tag all the way up to $8200, so we can’t take advantage of his soft price anymore. To be fair, he should have been at that price from the start of the series, but anyway, I love him tonight. The Rangers are giving up too many shots on goal but Igor is stopping them. He should see another busy workload and if we get lucky, this game goes to overtime, pushing his value even more.

On the Carolina side, there really isn’t much to love. They are going to be a desperate hockey team, but will that translate into a win? We won’t know who is starting in goal before warmups and even if we did know, does that really change anything? New York doesn’t shoot the puck much on the road and are still finding the back of the net, so it would be hard for whoever starts to hit value.

There are two players that I will keep in mind when building my lineup; Seth Jarvis and Jake Guentzel. Jarvis doesn’t have a point in this series, but he is a talented kid who is seeing a ton of minutes. He’s also under $5K, so it’s hard to pass up that kind of value. As for Guentzel, he has three goals, one assist and 12 shots on goal in 3 games. If Carolina wants to extend their series, they are going to need him to continue at this pace. He’s their best shooter, so if you trust him like I do, maybe he’s a good option as a single-bullet.


Colorado Avalanche vs Dallas Stars


Players to target: Wyatt Johnston, Logan Stankoven, Miro Heiskanen, Chris Tanev, Esa Lindell, Nathan MacKinnon, Mikko Rantanen, Valeri Nichushkin, Zach Parise, Cale Makar, Devon Toews.


The Dallas Stars were able to hold on in Game 2 and tie the series, but if I were them, I wouldn’t feel very confident heading into Colorado. For the second game in a row, they blew a sizeable lead, but this time, they didn’t lose. We know that Colorado is a great offensive team, but you can’t give them a chance to come back in hockey games. Now they return home where they were the highest-scoring team in the regular season and I have no idea how Dallas is going to slow them down.

I’m going to scale back my exposure to the Stars tonight because I just don’t see them coming out and getting a ton of scoring chances. They didn’t generate a ton of shots on goal at home, so why would they get better on the road? I will have a piece of Wyatt Johnston and Logan Stankoven because of how affordable both players are, but as for the rest of the offence, nothing else excites me.

On the back end, we will expand our exposure. Colorado is going to get the last change and I expect their best players to see a ton of ice time. Chris Tanev is an obvious choice because he blocks so many shots, but I would also consider Esa Lindell as a second affordable option. You could play both players if it allows you to pay up for an extra superstar. If you don’t want two cheap defenceman, Miro Heiskanen is a player to consider, but I don’t love his price tag and I don’t think he hits value.

On the Colorado side, it’s all about the top line and Cale Makar. I can’t for the life of me imagine fading Nathan MacKinnon on home ice. I know he’s over $10K tonight, but this team will go as far as he does and I expect him to carry the load in Game 3. Any combination of the top line works for me. If you really want to go all-out, you add Cale Makar to the mix. He didn’t register a point last game, but he did block seven shots. I don’t expect him to be defending much in this game, so we are looking for him to rack up some points and shots on goal.

If you’re looking for me to recommend a goalie from this game, you’re not getting one. Stay far away from both these netminders and don’t try to convince me otherwise. I know someone is going to say “Georgiev was good on home ice” but I’m not falling for that trap. If he plays well, good for him, but I refuse to get on a ship that could sink. It’s the same story for Jake Oettinger.