Welcome to the Thursday edition of the daily fantasy hockey morning coffee. After a Wednesday where we only two games to work with to construct our rosters … we’re only one game better tonight with a small three-game slate to dig through for our daily fantasy hockey needs.
Tonight’s Slate:
Carolina Hurricanes @ Washington Capitals (Washington, -155, 5.5 over/under)
Columbus Blue Jackets @ Buffalo Sabres (Columbus, -160, 5.5 over/under)
Tampa Bay Lightning @ Calgary Flames (Tampa Bay, -220, 5.5 over/under)
The team I want the most shares of tonight is the Washington Captials. After a December where Washington averaged a league seventh-best 3.29 goals for per game, they have increased that number to an average of 4.00 goals per game over three games in January. Washington has won five straight games and put up five goals against Carolina on Jan. 2.
Over their past eight games the Capitals have a SCF/60 of 30.22 — eighth-highest in the NHL. While Carolina, over their past 10 games, have a SCA/60 of just 24.48 (best in the league) they have allowed 13 goals over their past four games. Goaltending is an issue as Carolina has a team save percentage of just .847 percent over that time period — dead last in the league. And last month, though Carolina only allowed an average of 28.9 shots against per game (third-best in the league) they still allowed a league 12th-most 2.93 goals agaisnt per game.
Notable recent stats of Washington skaters:
Alex Ovechkin: 4 goals, 5 assists over his past five games
N. Backstrom: 2 goals, 6 assists over his past five games
John Carlson: 2 goals, 5 assists over his past five games
Lars Eller: 3 goals 1 assist over his past five games
Our Washington Snapshot
| Scor | Scor | Scor | Goal | Goal | Goal | Assi | Assi | Assi | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Player | Pos | G | A | PTS | EV | PP | SH | EV | PP | SH | S | BLK |
| Alex Ovechkin | LW | 27 | 19 | 46 | 19 | 8 | 0 | 11 | 8 | 0 | 185 | 11 |
| Evgeny Kuznetsov | C | 13 | 27 | 40 | 10 | 3 | 0 | 16 | 11 | 0 | 96 | 18 |
| Nicklas Backstrom | C | 9 | 27 | 36 | 7 | 2 | 0 | 16 | 11 | 0 | 78 | 26 |
| John Carlson | D | 5 | 29 | 34 | 3 | 2 | 0 | 16 | 13 | 0 | 121 | 79 |
| T.J. Oshie | RW | 11 | 15 | 26 | 4 | 7 | 0 | 11 | 4 | 0 | 68 | 30 |
| Lars Eller | C | 7 | 12 | 19 | 7 | 0 | 0 | 11 | 1 | 0 | 80 | 27 |
| Tom Wilson | RW | 6 | 12 | 18 | 5 | 0 | 1 | 11 | 1 | 0 | 60 | 16 |
| Jakub Vrana | LW | 10 | 6 | 16 | 9 | 1 | 0 | 6 | 0 | 0 | 87 | 7 |
| Dmitry Orlov | D | 5 | 9 | 14 | 5 | 0 | 0 | 8 | 1 | 0 | 77 | 65 |
| Devante Smith-Pelly | RW | 6 | 7 | 13 | 6 | 0 | 0 | 7 | 0 | 0 | 67 | 42 |
| Brett Connolly | RW | 9 | 3 | 12 | 6 | 3 | 0 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 31 | 12 |
| Jay Beagle | RW | 4 | 8 | 12 | 3 | 0 | 1 | 8 | 0 | 0 | 41 | 24 |
| Matt Niskanen | D | 3 | 9 | 12 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 8 | 0 | 1 | 54 | 37 |
| Chandler Stephenson | C | 2 | 8 | 10 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 8 | 0 | 0 | 14 | 15 |
| Madison Bowey | D | 0 | 10 | 10 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 10 | 0 | 0 | 33 | 31 |
| Alex Chiasson | RW | 7 | 2 | 9 | 6 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 46 | 24 |
| Andre Burakovsky | LW | 3 | 5 | 8 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 4 | 1 | 0 | 29 | 6 |
| Christian Djoos | D | 3 | 5 | 8 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 5 | 0 | 0 | 35 | 26 |
| Brooks Orpik | D | 0 | 6 | 6 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 6 | 0 | 0 | 23 | 98 |
| Taylor Chorney | D | 1 | 3 | 4 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 14 | 31 |
| Team Total | 132 | 223 | 355 | 103 | 26 | 3 | 169 | 51 | 3 | 1248 | 634 |
Our Washington Stacks
Line One
ALEX OVECHKIN $8.6K
NICKLAS BACKSTROM $6.6K
DEVANTE SMITH-PELLY $3.4K
Line Two
JAKUB VRANA $3.7K
EVGENY KUZNETSOV $6.7K
TOM WILSON $3.5K
Line Three
BRETT CONNOLLY $3.2K
LARS ELLER $4.0K
T.J. OSHIE $5.6K
Power Play Stack
T.J. OSHIE
NICKLAS BACKSTROM
EVGENY KUZNETSOV
ALEX OVECHKIN
(D) JOHN CARLSON $60K
Power Play Two Stack
BRETT CONNOLLY $3.2K
LARS ELLER
JAKUB VRANA
(D) MATT NISKANEN $4.2K
(D) DMITRI ORLOV $3.8K
The second team I want shares of tonight is the