Welcome to the Friday edition of the Daily Fantasy Hockey Morning Coffee. I hope you’re week was profitable. We end the week with a nice eight-game slate to dig through for our daily fantasy hockey needs.
Tonight’s Slate
Columbus Blue Jackets @ Washington Capitals (Washington, -145, 5.5 over/under)
Detroit Red Wings @ New York Islanders (New York, -130, 6 over/under)
Calgary Flames @ New York Rangers (Calgary, -130, 5.5 over/under)
Los Angeles Kings @ Florida Panthers (Los Angeles, -115, 5.5 over/under)
Vancouver Canucks @ Carolina Hurricanes (Carolina, -175, 5.5 over/under)
St. Louis Blues @ Winnipeg Jets (Winnipeg, -155, 5.5 over/under)
Pittsburgh Penguins @ Dallas Stars (even, 6 over/under)
Edmonton Oilers @ Anaheim Ducks (Anaheim, -120, 5.5 over/under)
My first pick comes with an asterik as I want to load up against the New York Rangers but tonight the team playing the Rangers — the Calgary Flames — is on the road on the second night of a back-to-back. So while will roll with it with the slightest of hesitations it’s too difficult ignore just how bad New York looked on Wednesday night in their 6-1 loss to Boston. Even on the power play it appeared as if their was just a lack of passion. If you’re familiar with this column you know I hate looking at things like “passion” as a determining factor to make a DFS decision, but recent history combined with the fact New York could be simply playing out the stretch is quite a bit of turmoil is a lot to deal with. Now we have multiple reports from around the league that the Rangers could be sellers at the NHL Trade Deadline. It’s really a perfect storm of events — and the data we’ll get to in a second — that leads me to believe Calgary will have a nice night, even on the second night of a back-to-back.
Last month the Rangers allowed a league third-worst 3.67 goals against per game, only killed off penalties at a clip of 72.4 percent, and have lost four straight games while allowing 17 goals over that time. Over their past 10 games the Rangers have a GA/60 of 2.9 — second-worst in the NHL. Over their past 10 games their SCA/60 of 30.32 is eighth-worst in the league, their CF% of 43.37 percent is third-worst in the league and their HDCA/60 of 12.22 is fifth-worst in the league. Not much has gone right for the Rangers this season. On home ice, per Corsica, New York’s xGA/60 is 2.89.
After six-game losing streak that lasted from Jan. 20 to Feb. 1, Calgary rebounded with two straight wins over the Chicago Blackhawks. On the road the Calgary Flames have an xGF/60 of 3.13 — second-highest in the NHL. Last month Calgary averaged 2.82 goals per game and have scored 11 goals over their past three games.
Over their past 10 games Calgary has a SCF/60 of 31.62 — fourth-best in the NHL. And their HDCF/60 of 12.8 is good for third-best in the league over the past 10 games. Per LeftWingLock, the first line of FERLAND/MONAHAN/GAUDREAU has been the fourth-most productive line in the NHL with 29 goals for and 582 shot attempts for and make a great place to start when thinking of roster construction tonight.
Our Calgary Snapshot
| Scor | Scor | Scor | Goal | Goal | Goal | Assi | Assi | Assi | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Player | Pos | G | A | PTS | EV | PP | SH | EV | PP | SH | S | BLK |
| Johnny Gaudreau | LW | 16 | 45 | 61 | 13 | 3 | 0 | 30 | 15 | 0 | 149 | 12 |
| Sean Monahan | C | 25 | 22 | 47 | 18 | 7 | 0 | 18 | 4 | 0 | 143 | 12 |
| Matthew Tkachuk | LW | 17 | 19 | 36 | 11 | 6 | 0 | 14 | 5 | 0 | 129 | 14 |
| Mikael Backlund | C | 10 | 24 | 34 | 8 | 2 | 0 | 14 | 8 | 2 | 127 | 27 |
| Micheal Ferland | LW | 20 | 13 | 33 | 14 | 6 | 0 | 13 | 0 | 0 | 108 | 21 |
| Dougie Hamilton | D | 9 | 18 | 27 | 7 | 2 | 0 | 15 | 3 | 0 | 159 | 49 |
| T.J. Brodie | D | 3 | 22 | 25 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 13 | 9 | 0 | 87 | 78 |
| Mark Giordano | D | 9 | 15 | 24 | 7 | 1 | 1 | 9 | 6 | 0 | 139 | 106 |
| Sam Bennett | C | 7 | 11 | 18 | 6 | 1 | 0 | 10 | 1 | 0 | 96 | 22 |
| Michael Frolik | RW | 8 | 9 | 17 | 6 | 0 | 2 | 9 | 0 | 0 | 97 | 18 |
| Mark Jankowski | C | 8 | 7 | 15 | 8 | 0 | 0 | 6 | 1 | 0 | 71 | 37 |
| Troy Brouwer | RW | 3 | 12 | 15 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 8 | 3 | 1 | 53 | 34 |
| Garnet Hathaway | RW | 2 | 7 | 9 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 7 | 0 | 0 | 33 | 15 |
| Travis Hamonic | D | 1 | 6 | 7 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 6 | 0 | 0 | 62 | 81 |
| Curtis Lazar | RW | 0 | 5 | 5 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 5 | 0 | 0 | 36 | 13 |
| Matt Stajan | C | 3 | 1 | 4 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 42 | 21 |
| Michael Stone | D | 3 | 1 | 4 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 59 | 103 |
| Brett Kulak | D | 0 | 4 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 37 | 34 |
| Matt Bartkowski | D | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 12 | 11 |
| Team Total | 148 | 256 | 404 | 115 | 30 | 3 | 192 | 60 | 4 | 1738 | 732 |
Our Calgary Stacks
Line One
JOHNNY GAUDREAU $8.0K
SEAN MONAHAN $7.7K
MICHEAL FERLAND $5.4K
Line Two
MATTHEW TKACHUK $6.7K
MIKAEL BACKLUND $5.8K
MICHAEL FROLIK $4.5K
Line Three
SAM BENNETT $4.3K
MARK JANKOWSKI $3.2K
TROY BROUWER $3.5K
Power Play Stack
MATTHEW TKACHUK
SEAN MONAHAN
TROY BROUWER
JOHNNY GAUDREAU
(D) MARK GIORDANO $5.7K
Power Play Two Stack
SAM BENNETT
MIKAEL BACKLUND
MICHEAL FERLAND
(D) T.J. BRODIE $4.5K
(D) DOUGIE HAMILTON $5.6K
The second team I want shares of is the