After a night where we only had one game on the NHL schedule we’re back in business with 11 games on the docket for us to sift through for our daily fantasy hockey needs. There are four teams I want to target tonight when constructing my lineups:
St. Louis Blues @ Toronto Maple Leafs (Toronto, -120, 5.5 over/under)
Pittsburgh Penguins @ Colorado Avalanche (Pittsburgh, -201, 5.5 over/under)
Vancouver Canucks @ Columbus Blue Jackets (Columbus, -225, 5.5 over/under)
Detroit Red Wings @ Washington Capitals (Washington, -260, 5.5 over/under)
We’re dipping back into a few pools tonight: targeting Toronto skaters and attacking the St. Louis Blues. But we have good reason. Last month St. Louis allowed a league-worst 3.62 goals against per game, were tied with Winnipeg with the most overall goals allowed with 47 and allowed the second-most power play goals with 12 (only a 73.3 percent penalty kill percentage). While their CF% of 51.28 is a solid number it just hasn’t translated to their overall goals against. And what do we have to blame for that? Goaltending. It all comes down to goaltending in St. Louis. Last month St. Louis had the worst combined Save Percentage at .868 percent. Of course the past two games (both shutouts for St. Louis) do give me pause, but it’s difficult to ignore the month-long numbers going back to January. Let’s just go back to Jan. 17 and look at St. Louis’ goals against per game:
Jan. 17: 6
Jan. 19: 7
Jan. 21: 5
Jan. 24: 0
Jan. 26: 5
Jan. 31: 5
Feb. 2: 1
Feb. 3: 4
Feb. 6: 0
Feb. 7: 0
Toronto, on the other hand, scored a fifth-best 3.46 goals per game in January and have scored a league seventh-best 3.17 goals per game at home. In 5v5 situations, at home at even strength Toronto has an xGF/60 of 3.23, the highest in the NHL. In four February games Toronto has scored 15 goals — so they are showing no signs of slowing down. Again, if you are multi-entering a tournament,