Welcome to the Friday edition of the daily fantasy hockey morning coffee. Today we have a five-game slate to dig through for our daily fantasy hockey needs. Before I begin my DFS writing today I ask for a moment of indulgence, one that Mario Mergola, Owner of Sporfolio, so gracefully allowed me last season. October 13’s bring back strange memories, and especially Friday October 13ths. This is why …
On Friday October 13, 1995 I found myself face down, hiding, in a “friend’s” car, drunk, high as hell, with a police officer screaming at me to get out. I was 15. I remember the smell of that car floor. Warm grape bubble gum, dirty shoes, the vague smell of a wet dog.
My mother believed I was a runaway risk … and I guess I was. The police believed her, too. I had spent the first month and a half of my senior year of high school walking to school and usually walking right past the school to the woods behind it. I was doing it much longer than that if you count the summer school I was supposed to go to and the entire year before. I always brought a notebook to jot down little stories or poems as I hid in the woods while the world went about its business. Sometimes I smoked. Usually I had a few beers, a few pills, but I would always make my way back to school to my 7th period writing class. And I showed my face in school just enough to try to fly under-the-radar.
At some point, I decided going to school just didn’t make any sense. A few times the vice principal chased me as I ran through the woods — one time I hid in the bushes in front of an abandoned house across the street from the school while a police cruiser slowly drove by. I was nimble enough back then to sneak my way back into the school and play dumb. I’ve been here the whole time…
But eventually your luck runs out. The lie gets exposed. I peeled myself from the sticky grape bubble gum car floor and let the officer cuff me. I wasn’t exactly resisting and I wasn’t exactly cooperating. After a few minutes he took mercy on me, uncuffed me, told me to lean against his cruiser and just stay there.
I was sent away for about a month and a half. The weird thing is I can remember October 13, 1995 so vividly, but not the day I went home. I’ve spent many nights trying to figure out what that means. Maybe it means nothing at all, just a quirk of memory. October 13 is like a strange birthday. A day something changed — not for the better, not for the worse, just different.
In the early morning hours of October 14, I opened my eyes to a group of strange faces. I had slept on the floor in the common area of a secure facility. I don’t really remember getting there. My shoes were gone. Soon after, I was naked in a freezing shower with a guard watching my every move. It wasn’t juvenile hall and it wasn’t really a treatment center — it was more of a place to hold you for a month or two before the world was ready to have you back.
It’s curious how such a small frame of time — just over a month — can have on your future psyche. I probably met 100 new people in that facility, and I largely forget their names, but I don’t forget their stories. The people I met there would change me forever. But I’ll save those stories for another time and place …
Thanks, and now onto some NHL DFS:
Washington Capitals @ New Jersey Devils (Washington, -145, 5.5 over/under)
New York Rangers @ Columbus Blue Jackets (Columbus, -145, 5.5 over/under)
Anaheim Ducks @ Colorado Avalanche (Anaheim, -115, 5.5 over/under)
Detroit Red Wings @ Vegas Golden Knights (Vegas, -130, 5.5 over/under)
The New Jersey Devils are off to a blistering start to the season with 16 goals over their first three games. I think we’ll see a lot of ownership go to the Washington Capitals (and rigthtly so) but my tournament team of the night is New Jersey. Their last time out New Jersey looked very impressive with a 6-3 victory over the Toronto Maple Leafs. Let’s take a quick look at New Jersey’s top scorers so far this season:
- Jester Bratt (3G, 3A, 1 PPG, 1 PPA, 4 SOG)
- Will Butcher (D) (5A, 3 PPA, 2 SOG)
- Adam Henrique (1G, 3A, 1 PPG, 2 SHA, 6 SOG)
- Marcus Johansson (2G, 2A, 1 PPA, 4 SOG)
- Taylor Hall (3A, 1 PPA, 14 SOG)
We stacked New Jersey on Wedneday night and it worked out well. I’ll go back to the well again tonight against a Wasington team that has allowed 12 goals over their first four games.
New Jersey Line One Stack
TAYLOR HALL $7.1K
PAVEL ZACHA $3.6K
KYLE PALMIERI $5.4K
Line Two Stack
MARCUS JOHANSSON $4.4K
NICO HISCHIER $4.8K
JESPER BRATT $3.7
Power Play One Stack
PAVEL ZACHA
NICO HISCHIER
MARCUS JOHANSSON
DAMON SEVERSON (D) $4.1K
JOHN MOORE (D) $3.8K
Power Play Two Stack
TAYLOR HALL
ADAM HENRIQUE $4.2K
JESPER BRATT
KYLE PALMIERI
WILL BUTCHER $4.3K
The second tournament team I like tonight is the Colorado Avalanche. Colorado was simply terrible last season but the early returns have been nice as they have scored 15 goals over their first four games. A quick snap shot of Colorado’s top scorers:
- Matt Duchene (2G, 3A, 9 SOG)
- Nail Yakupov (3G, 2A, 11 SOG)
- Nathan Mackinnon (4A, 2 PPA, 7 SOG)
- Sven Andrighetto (3G, 1A, 1 PPG, 7 SOG)
- J.T. Compher (1G, 2A, 1 SHG, 6 SOG)
- Patrik Nemeth (3A, 2 SOG)
- Tyson Barrie (D) (1G, 2A, 1 PPA 17 SOG)
- Gabriel Landenskog (1G, 2A, 1 PPA, 10 SOG)
- Mikko Rantanen (1G, 2A, 1 PPG, 13 SOG)
As you can see the scoring has been pretty spread out over the first four games of the season … but I really like to keep my attention on the players with a healthy shot volume. This offers us some nice stacking choices tonight, espeically the second line of Duchene and Yakupov.
Colorado Line Two Stack
NAIL YAKUPOV $3.9K
MATT DUCHENE $4.9K
ALEXANDER KERFOOT $3.5K
Colorado Line One Stack
SVEN ANDRIGHETTO $3.7K
NATHAN MACKINNON $5.5K
MIKKO RANTANEN $5.6K
Both power play units are also in play for me tonight as we get some correlation of players who skate together at even strength and on the power play:
Colorado Power Play One Stack
GABRIEL LANDESKOG $4.9K
NATHAN MACKINNON
MIKKO RANTANEN
SVEN ANDRIGHETTO
TYSON BARRIE (D) $4.9K
Colorado Power Play Two Stack
ALEXANDER KERFOOT
MATT DUCHENE
COLIN WILSON $3.3K
NAIL YAKUPOV
ERIK JOHNSON $4K
The Nail Yakupov/Matt Duchene/Alenander Kerfoot line has been the fifth-most productive line in the NHL with five goals scored and 34 shot attempts for.
Notes
-While I didn’t specifically list Washington as a top stack please use Alex Ovechkin at your own discretion. In four games he already has eight goals and 25 shots on goal. I will never try to talk you out of inserting him into your lineup and he is the top overall single play tonight. And since I am advocating cheaper tournament stacks tonight you could likely fit him into your rosters.
-The Detroit Red Wings are on a second night of a back-to-back and James Neal and the Vegas Knights could continue their winning ways tonight. Neal is the player to target if you’re looking for a one-off play to fill out your rosters, but they are tournament-worthy-stackable. Vegas has won mainly through their ability to keep the puck out out of the net as they have only allowed four goals over their first three games played. But it’s hard to ingore Neal and his five goals (one on the power play). An interesting tournament stack is DAVID PERRON/CODY EAKIN/JAMES NEAL. Nate Schmidt makes for a nice one off play on the blue line and he has one goal and two assists early in the season.
-Going forward this season Pittsburgh is a team to target any time Murray isn’t between the pipes. Niemi hasn’t looked good to start this season (nine goals against in two appearances) and he was a goaltender we liked to pick on last season when he was with the Stars with a .892 save percentage last season.
-Fanduel caps the amount of players you can stack from any particular team. When choosing your PP stacks try to deploy players who skate together at even strength and the PP. I list all five players so you can see what your choices are.
Stats in this article are courtesy of ESPN, NaturalStatTrick and LeftWingLock
As always, please double check all line combos, injuries, and starting goalies prior to puck drop.