Chicago Blackhawks at Toronto Maple Leafs
This game comes in with the highest over-under on the board set at seven along with both teams scoring over 3.50 goals per game over the past month. This is likely where most of the ownership will be concentrated, so you can be with the field, or decided to go contrarian and go with the goalies.
The Maple Leafs will have Frederik Andersen in net tonight who has allowed three or fewer goals in 11 of his last 12 games but is coming off a game against Tampa, where he allowed four goals and got pulled early. Toronto comes in as -240 favorites, so they are still likely for the win. On the other side, Chicago will have Corey Crawford in net who has allowed only one goal in each of his last two starts, as the Blackhawks make a final push for the playoffs.
When it comes to the offenses on both sides, they are both scoring a ton of goals right now, both have expensive options, but doing a game stack is still viable here. Patrick Kane, Jonathan Toews and Alex DeBrincat lead the way for Chicago, with Kane being the top dollar option. He has four points and 22 shots in his last five games, Toews has five points and 17 shots in that same span. The Maple Leafs come in with the worst Corsi For of the past month set at 53, which means going to the Blackhawks will provide plenty of fantasy points. The second power-play unit with Brandon Saad, Artem Anisimov, Dominik Kahun, is the much cheaper option and gets you exposure to multiple different forward lines since they are spread out a bit.
On the Maple Leafs side of things, Auston Matthew only has two points but 19 shots in his last five games and makes a great stacking option with Andreas Johnsson and William Nylander on the second forward line. If you have a bit more salary to spend, look for John Tavares and Mitch Marner, who are on the first forward line and first power-play. The second forward line is really a nice spot to start a stack for either a game stack or going to pair it will another team from a different game.
New Jersey Devils at Edmonton Oilers
The Devils are on the second night of a back to back where they gave up a whopping nine goals to the Flames last night. That might not be the case tonight but with the Oilers having an implied goal total set at 3.84, we should be looking at plenty of goals tonight.
The Oilers are the largest home favorites on the slate at -280 tonight, so we should be looking at Mikko Koskinen in net as a safe option tonight. Connor McDavid is the most expensive skater on both sites and you should be looking to have exposure to him tonight. Simple as that. It’s a three-game slate and passing on a player who has multi-point potential every night and is now in a great matchup is not the right call. Leon Draisaitl has a whopping 11 points and 19 shots in his last five games and is also a top-tier option on this slate. The Devils are giving up 3.36 goals per game over the past month, so yes, we want to attack them. Zack Kassian is also on the first forward line, is cheap, and gets you some exposure to McDavid, which is always the answer on a small slate. Ryan Nugent-Hopkins and Oscar Klefbom are on the first power-play, which is the ideal stack tonight, but up there in terms of pricing.
The Devils are one of the thinner options on the slate, but Kyle Palmieri, Travis Zajac, Blake Coleman, and Will Butcher are the best options to consider. They are also very cheap which brings much needed salary relief on this very small slate.
New York Rangers at Vancouver Canucks
This game has the lowest over-under set at 5.5, so the expectation for scoring is lower but presents a spot for being contrarian in tournaments. The Canucks come in scoring just 1.92 goals per game over the past month, which is the lowest of any team on the slate, making Henrik Lundqvist a nice goalie to roster since they are only +105 on the road. He is also cheaper on both sites which makes roster construction easier across the board tonight.
The Canucks come in with the third highest expected Corsi For tonight at 48.4 tonight, since the Rangers have a 49 Corsi Against over the past month, right where they’ve been all season. The Canucks are a very interesting team to stack tonight, since they do have a positive matchup, but haven’t been scoring at all over the past month. The Canucks are allowing three goals per game over the past month, while the Rangers are allowing 3.15 per game over the past month. Mika Zibanejad, Vladislav Namestnikov, and Filip Chytil are on the first forward line, which is VERY cheap and is the spot to start when it comes to the Rangers. Bo Horvat, Elias Pettersson, Brock Boeser, and Josh Leivo are the players to target for the Canucks, but as mentioned before, they are suffering in the goal scoring department.