Welcome to the Friday edition of the Daily Fantasy Hockey Morning Coffee. We end the week with just two games to work with when constructing our rosters tonight.
Chicago Blackhawks @ Winnipeg Jets (Chicago, -120, 5.5 over/under)
Tampa Bay Lightning @ Minnesota Wild (Minnesota, -170, 5.5 over/under)
With only four teams on the slate we have to consider all options, but the team I’ll target the most tonight is the Minnesota Wild. Last month Minnesota scored an NHL second most 3.92 goals per game and had a power play that clicked at a league fourth-best 30.6 percent. Minnesota has scored 14 goals over their past four games and on the season have the fourth-ranked offense in terms of goals for per game at 3.46.
On the road Tampa Bay has allowed 2.82 goals per game and last month allowed a league fourth-most 3.46 goals against per game. Tampa Bay has been better over their past three games with only seven goals against and Minnesota has allowed 14 goals over their past four games — so we can look to both sides of this one (and we are essentially forced to with only four teams in action).
Tampa Bay’s penalty kill struggled a bit last month with a modest 80.5 percent penalty kill rate. To that end I’ll look to Minnesota’s power play as the the basis of some of my lineups tonight:
Zach Parise $6,600 (11G, 14A, 7 PPP, 135 SOG)
Eric Staal $5,600 (16G, 27A, 11 PPP, 133 SOG)
Nino Niederreiter $5,400 (17G, 23A, 9 PPP, 114 SOG)
(D) Ryan Suter $5,300 (7G, 23A, 8 PPP, 102 SOG)
(D) Mathew Dumba $4,600 (7G, 17A, 8 PPP, 88 SOG)
Some Minnesota Player Notes:
Over his past five games Parise has three goals and 22 shots on goal. Staal has two assists over his past three games. Mikko Koivu has one goal, two assists and 11 shots on goal over his past five games. Jason Zucker has two goals, three assists and 10 shots on goal over his past five games. Nino Niederreiter has two goals and two assists over his past two games. Jason Pominville has two goals, five assists and 10 shots over his past five games. Granlund has been held pointless over his past two games, but prior to that had a 12-game point streak where five goals, 12 assists and 37 shots on goal.
Minnesota has allowed five power play goals over their past five games so there is merit in grabbing shares of Tampa Bay’s power play tonight:
Brian Boyle $4,400 (12G, 7A, 6 PPP, 88 SOG)
Vladislav Namestnikov $4,600 (6G, 14A, 6 PPP, 82 SOG)
Nikita Kucherov $7,600 (21G, 28A, 17 PPP, 151 SOG)
Jonathan Drouin $5,500 (16G, 18A, 15 PPP, 128 SOG)
(D) Victor Hedman $6,300 (7G, 35A, 18 PPP, 97 SOG)
make up Tampa Bay’s top power play unit.