Welcome to the Wednesday edition of the daily fantasy hockey morning coffee. We have a small three-game slate to work with for our daily fantasy hockey needs, but it’s still a slate that offers some nice opportunities in tournaments tonight.
(top stacks in bold)
Detroit Red Wings @ Toronto Maple Leafs (Toronto, -175, 6 over/under)
Chicago Blackhaws @ St. Louis Blues (St. Louis, -120, 5.5 over/under)
Montreal Canadiens @ Los Angeles Kings (L.A., -160, 5 over/under)
The two teams I have the most interest in tonight, at least from a cash game perspective, are the Toronto Maple Leafs and the Chicago Blackhawks. They will certainly be chalky tonight but the early season offensive returns make both teams a tough fade in cash games. The Montreal Canadiens are in Los Angeles and are purely a tournament option on this short slate if you are looking to set your team apart from the pack in tournaments. L.A. also gives us some nice value as the Kings have averaged 3.20 goals per game over their first five games this season.
Even though Toronto is on the second night of a back-to-back I am going lean on them in my cash games tonight. Toronto has scored 15 goals in just three home games this season and have averaged 44.7 shots on goal at home. What I like even more, especially playing on FanDuel, is that six of their 15 home goals have come on the power play.
Here’s a quick snap shot of what Toronto skaters have done early this season:
| Scor | Scor | Scor | Scor | Goal | Goal | Goal | Assi | Assi | Assi | Ice | Ice | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Rk | Player | Pos | GP | G | A | PTS | EV | PP | SH | EV | PP | SH | S | S% | TOI | ATOI | BLK |
| 1 | Auston Matthews | C | 5 | 5 | 3 | 8 | 4 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 17 | 29.4 | 89 | 17:47 | 4 |
| 2 | James van Riemsdyk | LW | 5 | 4 | 2 | 6 | 2 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 21 | 19.0 | 75 | 14:58 | 2 |
| 3 | Patrick Marleau | LW | 5 | 3 | 2 | 5 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 17 | 17.6 | 86 | 17:16 | 0 |
| 4 | Nazem Kadri | C | 5 | 2 | 3 | 5 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 15 | 13.3 | 81 | 16:07 | 3 |
| 5 | Nikita Zaitsev | D | 5 | 2 | 3 | 5 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 5 | 40.0 | 111 | 22:16 | 15 |
| 6 | William Nylander | C | 5 | 1 | 4 | 5 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 2 | 0 | 16 | 6.3 | 86 | 17:08 | 0 |
| 7 | Tyler Bozak | C | 5 | 1 | 3 | 4 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 12 | 8.3 | 77 | 15:20 | 0 |
| 8 | Mitch Marner | C | 5 | 1 | 3 | 4 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 14 | 7.1 | 81 | 16:07 | 4 |
| 9 | Jake Gardiner | D | 5 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 5 | 20.0 | 108 | 21:37 | 6 |
| 10 | Leo Komarov | C | 5 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 9 | 11.1 | 74 | 14:49 | 5 |
| 11 | Ron Hainsey | D | 5 | 0 | 3 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 4 | 0.0 | 105 | 21:01 | 7 |
| 12 | Morgan Rielly | D | 5 | 0 | 3 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 0 | 17 | 0.0 | 104 | 20:53 | 2 |
| 13 | Zach Hyman | C | 5 | 2 | 0 | 2 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 10 | 20.0 | 79 | 15:48 | 3 |
| 14 | Dominic Moore | C | 2 | 2 | 0 | 2 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 66.7 | 24 | 11:59 | 1 |
| Team Total | 5 | 26 | 38 | 64 | 18 | 8 | 0 | 24 | 14 | 0 | 187 | 13.9 | 65 |
In six games played this season The Detroit Red Wings have only allowed 2.50 goals against per game. They have also only allowed two power goals on 16 chances … so there is a somewhat of a cavaet with this team stack. A lot depends on who the Wings roll out in net. Jimmy Howard has had a stellar start to the 2017-18 campaign going 3-1, with a 1.97 goals against average and a .940 percent save percentage. Petr Mrazek has not been as consistent going 1-1, with a 3.08 goals against average and a .898 save percentage. I’m seeing some sites project Mrazek as the starter, which does give me more confidence with my Toronto stacks. And Gregg Krupa of the Detroit News tweeted Tuesday morning:
#RedWings on ice, practice. petr mrazek in starter’s net.#DETvsTOR 7:30 pm wednesday. pic.twitter.com/ZepShv49f9
— gregg krupa (@greggkrupa) October 17, 2017
Assuming we do get a Mrazek start, feel free to deploy Toronto stacks.
Line 1 stack
ZACH HYMAN $3.5K
AUSTON MATTHEWS $8.1K
WILLIAM NYLANDER $6.6K
Line 2 stack
PATRICK MARLEAU $5.8K
NAZEM KADRI $6.2K
LEO KOMAROV $4.2K
Line 3 stack
JAMES VAN RIEMSDYK $6.5K
TYLER BOZAK $5.6K
CONNOR BROWN $3.8K
Power Play One Stack
TYLER BOZAK
NAZEM KADRI
JAMES VAN RIEMSDYK
MITCH MARNER $5.8K
(D) MORGAN RIELLY $4.3K
Power Play Two Stack
CONNOR BROWN
AUSTON MATTHEWS
WILLIAM NYLANDER
PATRICK MARLEAU
(D) JAKE GARDINER $4.4K
I think Toronto can find the back of the net from multiple lines tonight so a tournament strategy would be to lean on the Leafs secondary scoring (Line 2 or 3) and stay with the Matthews’ line in your cash games.
The second team I will lean on in my cash games are the Chicago Blackhawks. Chicago has scored 25 goals over their first six games played. I also like the fact that