Welcome to the final edition of the daily fantasy hockey morning coffee for the 2017-18 NHL season. I hope this space has been helpful for you and produced an overall profit for the season. Our season ends with a four-game slate to work with for our DFS needs.
Tonight’s Slate
Buffalo Sabres @ Tampa Bay Lightning (Tampa Bay, -360, 6 over/under)
Ottawa Senators @ Pittsburgh Penguins (Pittsburgh, -230, 6 over/under)
St. Louis Blues @ Chicago Blackhawks (St. Louis, -155, 5.5 over/under)
Dallas Stars @ Anaheim Ducks (Dallas, -160, 5.5 over/under)
Tonight I want to start much of my roster construction around the Tampa Bay Lightning. Tonight Tampa Bay gets a Buffalo team that has allowed a league sixth-worst 3.39 goals against per game since the All Star break and have allowed a league ninth-worst 20 power play goals over that same period.
Since the All-Star break Tampa Bay has scored a league fourth-best 3.48 goals for per game and are tied for a league best 26 power play goals for. Targeting Tampa Bay’s power play is clearly in play tonight — and likely will see the heaviest ownership.
Over their past 10 games the Sabres have a SCA/60 of 29.76 and a HDCA/60 of 11.13. Over that same time frame Buffalo has a league third-worst GA/60 of 3.25 and the league’s third-worst team save percentage at 89.92 percent.
Over their past 10 games Tampa Bay has a league sixth-best CF% of 53.43 percent. Their SCF/60 of 31.95 over their past 10 games is good for fifth-best in the NHL and their HDCF/60 of 12.44 is good for sixth-best in the next over that same time period. Though Tampa Bay has long sinced clinched a playoff spot they still have plenty to play for with first place in the Atlantic Division up for grabs.
We can consider Buffalo a tournament option as they have played Tampa Bay tough this season. In three games played Buffalo has actually outscored Tampa Bay 7-6. Still, we’re talking about a Buffalo team that has allowed 19 goals over their past four games.
Our Tampa Bay Snapshot
| Scor | Scor | Scor | Goal | Goal | Goal | Assi | Assi | Assi | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Player | Pos | G | A | PTS | EV | PP | SH | EV | PP | SH | S | BLK |
| Nikita Kucherov | RW | 38 | 60 | 98 | 30 | 8 | 0 | 32 | 28 | 0 | 275 | 14 |
| Steven Stamkos | C | 27 | 59 | 86 | 12 | 15 | 0 | 41 | 18 | 0 | 212 | 35 |
| Brayden Point | C | 31 | 34 | 65 | 23 | 5 | 3 | 26 | 6 | 2 | 216 | 57 |
| Yanni Gourde | C | 24 | 37 | 61 | 16 | 7 | 1 | 30 | 6 | 1 | 133 | 42 |
| Victor Hedman | D | 16 | 45 | 61 | 14 | 2 | 0 | 19 | 24 | 2 | 211 | 108 |
| Tyler Johnson | C | 21 | 28 | 49 | 15 | 4 | 2 | 19 | 9 | 0 | 184 | 47 |
| Alex Killorn | LW | 15 | 29 | 44 | 13 | 2 | 0 | 22 | 7 | 0 | 147 | 23 |
| Mikhail Sergachev | D | 9 | 30 | 39 | 6 | 3 | 0 | 17 | 13 | 0 | 140 | 63 |
| Ondrej Palat | LW | 10 | 23 | 33 | 5 | 4 | 1 | 18 | 5 | 0 | 104 | 48 |
| Chris Kunitz | LW | 13 | 15 | 28 | 12 | 0 | 1 | 14 | 1 | 0 | 81 | 29 |
| Anton Stralman | D | 4 | 14 | 18 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 14 | 0 | 0 | 127 | 97 |
| J.T. Miller | LW | 10 | 7 | 17 | 5 | 5 | 0 | 6 | 1 | 0 | 39 | 4 |
| Dan Girardi | D | 5 | 12 | 17 | 4 | 1 | 0 | 11 | 0 | 1 | 90 | 151 |
| Ryan Callahan | RW | 4 | 13 | 17 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 11 | 1 | 1 | 100 | 37 |
| Braydon Coburn | D | 1 | 14 | 15 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 14 | 0 | 0 | 71 | 73 |
| Cory Conacher | LW | 8 | 4 | 12 | 7 | 1 | 0 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 44 | 13 |
| Jake Dotchin | D | 3 | 8 | 11 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 7 | 0 | 1 | 48 | 61 |
| Cedric Paquette | C | 5 | 4 | 9 | 5 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 1 | 0 | 60 | 29 |
| Anthony Cirelli | C | 3 | 6 | 9 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 5 | 0 | 1 | 19 | 6 |
| Slater Koekkoek | D | 4 | 4 | 8 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 42 | 24 |
| Andrej Sustr | D | 2 | 5 | 7 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 5 | 0 | 0 | 43 | 32 |
| Adam Erne | LW | 3 | 1 | 4 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 29 | 8 |
| Ryan McDonagh | D | 2 | 1 | 3 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 18 | 29 |
| Team Total | 281 | 484 | 765 | 206 | 66 | 9 | 347 | 127 | 10 | 2612 | 1098 |
Our Tampa Bay Stacks
At the time of this writing Stamkos is still not active
Line One
ONDREJ PALAT $5.6K
BRAYDEN POINT $6.3K
NIKITA KUCHEROV $8.6K
Line Two
J.T. MILLER $6.4K
TYLER JOHNSON $5K
CORY CONACHER $5K
Line Three
ALEX KILLORN $4.2K
ANTHONY CIRELLI $3.2K
YANNI GOURDE $5.4K
Power Play Stack
J.T. MILLER
ALEX KILLORN
NIKITA KUCHEROV
TYLER JOHNSON
(D) VICTOR HEDMAN $6.9K
Power Play Two Stack
CHRIS KUNITZ
BRAYDEN POINT
YANNI GOURDE
ONDREJ PALAT
(D) MIKHAIL SERGACHEV $4.1K
Though they are on the second night of a back-to-back I still want plenty of shares of the Pittsburgh Penguins tonight. Since the All-Star break Pittsburgh has scored a league-leading 3.86 goals for game while Ottawa has allowed a league fifth-worst 3.45 goals against per game. Ottawa only has two wins over their past 10 games but did get a 4-2 win over the Buffalo Sabres their last time out. But there is merit in considering Ottawa as a tournamnet option as we’ll likely see lower ownership and have scored nine goals over their past two games.
Over their past 10 games Pittsburgh has a league fifth-best CF% of 54.32 percent. Over that same time frame Pittsburgh has a league second-best SCF/60 of 34.52 and a league-best HDCF/60 of 14.59.
On the other side of this game we have an Ottawa team with a league-worst GA/60 of 3.87 and a league second-worst team save percentage of 88.61 percent.
Our Pittsburgh Snapshot
| Scor | Scor | Scor | Goal | Goal | Goal | Assi | Assi | Assi | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Player | Pos | G | A | PTS | EV | PP | SH | EV | PP | SH | S | BLK |
| Evgeni Malkin | C | 42 | 54 | 96 | 28 | 14 | 0 | 32 | 22 | 0 | 232 | 31 |
| Phil Kessel | RW | 31 | 56 | 87 | 20 | 11 | 0 | 27 | 29 | 0 | 255 | 17 |
| Sidney Crosby | C | 28 | 58 | 86 | 20 | 8 | 0 | 30 | 28 | 0 | 243 | 35 |
| Kris Letang | D | 8 | 41 | 49 | 5 | 3 | 0 | 24 | 16 | 1 | 218 | 105 |
| Jake Guentzel | C | 21 | 26 | 47 | 14 | 7 | 0 | 21 | 5 | 0 | 164 | 45 |
| Patric Hornqvist | RW | 27 | 19 | 46 | 12 | 15 | 0 | 13 | 6 | 0 | 242 | 64 |
| Bryan Rust | RW | 13 | 25 | 38 | 9 | 2 | 2 | 22 | 2 | 1 | 123 | 39 |
| Riley Sheahan | C | 11 | 20 | 31 | 10 | 1 | 0 | 18 | 1 | 1 | 101 | 44 |
| Carl Hagelin | LW | 10 | 21 | 31 | 9 | 0 | 1 | 20 | 0 | 1 | 162 | 35 |
| Conor Sheary | LW | 17 | 12 | 29 | 15 | 2 | 0 | 11 | 1 | 0 | 137 | 29 |
| Olli Maatta | D | 7 | 21 | 28 | 7 | 0 | 0 | 13 | 8 | 0 | 157 | 113 |
| Justin Schultz | D | 4 | 20 | 24 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 11 | 9 | 0 | 107 | 90 |
| Brian Dumoulin | D | 5 | 13 | 18 | 5 | 0 | 0 | 13 | 0 | 0 | 100 | 130 |
| Jamie Oleksiak | D | 4 | 9 | 13 | 3 | 1 | 0 | 9 | 0 | 0 | 62 | 47 |
| Dominik Simon | C | 4 | 8 | 12 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 8 | 0 | 0 | 36 | 18 |
| Matt Hunwick | D | 4 | 6 | 10 | 3 | 0 | 1 | 6 | 0 | 0 | 52 | 53 |
| Derick Brassard | C | 3 | 5 | 8 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 5 | 0 | 0 | 33 | 3 |
| Tom Kuhnhackl | RW | 2 | 6 | 8 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 4 | 1 | 1 | 62 | 48 |
| Zach Aston-Reese | C | 4 | 2 | 6 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 18 | 6 |
| Carter Rowney | RW | 2 | 3 | 5 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 21 | 24 |
| Chad Ruhwedel | D | 2 | 3 | 5 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 65 | 41 |
| Matt Murray | G | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Casey DeSmith | G | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Josh Jooris | RW | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 8 | 1 |
| Team Total | 261 | 449 | 710 | 190 | 65 | 6 | 314 | 129 | 6 | 2757 | 1154 |
Our Pittsburgh Stacks
Line One
JAKE GUENTZEL $5.4K
SIDNEY CROSBY $9K
BRYAN RUST $4.7K
Line Two
CARL HAGELIN $3.6K
EVGENI MALKIN $8.9K
PATRIC HORNQVIST $6.4K
Line Three
CONOR SHEARY $4.9K
RILEY SHEAHAN $3.4K
PHIL KESSEL $7.6K
Power Play Stack
EVGENI MALKIN
SIDNEY CROSBY
PATRIC HORNQVIST
PHIL KESSEL
(D) KRIS LETANG $6.2K
Power Play Two Stack
JAKE GUENTZEL
RILEY SHEAHAN
CONOR SHEARY
(D) OLLI MAATTA $3.9K
(D) JUSTIN SCHULTZ $4.7K
Notes
-Other top plays from tonight’s slate: Tarasenko, Kane, Seguin, Benn. Tarasenko has two goals and one assist over his past two games. Kane has two goals and one assist over his past five games. Seguin has a goal and five assists over his past four games. Benn has four goals and one assist over his past three games.
-Stats in this article are courtesy of Corsica, ESPN, NaturalStatTrick and Hockey-Reference and are up to date as of April 5.
-As always, please double check all line combos, injuries, and starting goalies prior to puck drop.