The refrain is getting familiar by now: we have yet another very small daily fantasy hockey slate to work with tonight:
Edmonton Oilers @ Florida Panthers (Florida, -140, 5.5 over/under)
Washington Captials @ Philadelphia Flyers (Washington, -165, 5 over/under)
Boston Bruins @ Anaheim Ducks (even, 5 over/under)
Of the six teams in action the top two teams I want to target tonight are the Boston Bruins and Washington Capitals.
First let’s look at the Capitals. On the season Washington has scored a league second-best 3.34 goals per game and has a power play that is clicking at a league fifth-best 21.8 percent. On the road the Capitals still score at an impressive clip to the tune of 3.00 goals per game and on the season their road power play percentage of 21.5 percent is good for eighth-highest in the NHL. This month, through eight games, the goals have still have come in bunches with 33 goals over eight games played. Washington’s goal differential of 2.13 is the best in the league this month. In cash games, if you’re looking a goalie likely safe for the win, you can comfortably plug in Braden Holtby (make sure he’s starting). The only thing that holds me back from blindly plugging him in in tournaments is that Washington has allowed a league third-fewest 26 shots on goal per game over their past eight games. But against a Philadelphia team that has only scored 13 goals over their past eight games, there is shutout potential for Holtby.
Over their past 10 games Washington has a SCF/60 rate of 29.24 — 10th-highest in the NHL. On the road, in 5v5 situations with the score tied Washington has an xGF/60 of 2.98 — second only to Pittsburgh in the NHL. By contrast, Philadelphia has an xGA/60 at home of 2.73. This is my long-winded way of saying, yes, use Washington skaters.
The obvious choice is to start with the Ovechkin line:
Alex Ovechkin $8.8K (27G, 25A, 18 PPP, 220 SOG)
Nicklas Backstrom $6.7K (17G, 44A, 23 PPP, 107 SOG)
T.J. Oshie $6.9K (23G, 18A, 9 PPP, 101 SOG)
and on a three-game slate (or even a full slate) we can easily use