Welcome to the Friday edition of the daily fantasy hockey morning coffee. We end the week with a four-game slate to work with for our DFS needs.
Tonight’s Slate
Philadelphia Flyers @ Columbus Blue Jackets (Columbus, -140, 5.5 over/under)
New York Islanders @ Carolina Hurricanes (Carolina, -170, 6.5 over/under)
Colorado Avalanche @ Winnipeg Jets (Winnipeg, -200, 5.5 over/under)
St. Louis Blues @ Dallas Stars (Dallas, -140, 5.5 over/under)
The Philadelphia Flyers vs. Columbus Blue Jackets game is an interesting case tonight. The Flyers have won four of their past five games and the Columbus Blue Jackets have been firing the puck on net at amazing rate over their past three games with 50-plus shots on goal in three straight.
Even though Columbus took the loss to Toronto on Wednesday night the game could have been a much different story if Frederik Anderson didn’t stand on his head. The following chart, courtesy of NaturalStatTrick, really tells a perfect story of the game at a quick glance:
Some great play by Toronto’s second line (Marleau-Kadri-Marner) helped drive Toronto’s victory. Going forward always keep that line on your DFS radar.
Philadelphia lost goaltender Brian Elliott for five to six weeks with an injury and will have to ride Michal Neuvirth for the majority of that time. Neuvirth has been good in his backup role going 7-7-3 with a 2.58 goals against average and a .915 save percentage.
Over their past 10 games the Blue Jackets have a SCF/60 of 32.39 — second-highest in the NHL. And many of the scoring chances are quality chances as Columbus has a HDCF/60 of 12.03 over their past 10 games — seventh-highest in the NHL. This month Columbus has scored an average of 3.00 goals per game.
But there are stats that lead make me want to stack up both sides of this game.
This month Columbus has allowed 3.14 goals against per game and their penalty kill percentage of 64.7 percent is the fourh-worst in the NHL in February. Philadelphia, on the other hand, has scored a league second-highest seven power play goals over seven games this month and a league 12th-best 3.43 goals for per game in February. Over their past 10 games the Flyers actually have a league fourth-worst SCF/60 of 24.07. But Columbus has been allowing plenty of scoring chances and have a SCA/60 of 29.47 — 10th-worst in the NHL — and have a HDCA/60 of 11.79 which is the sixth-worst in the NHL.
We do have a very stackable line of GIROUX/KONECNY/COUTURIER on the Philly end. Per LeftWingLock, this line has been the fifth-most productive line in the NHL over the past 10 games with eight goals for and 120 shot attempts for. And the Columbus line of FOLIGNO/WENNBERG/BJORKSTRAND line has been the sixth-most productive line in the NHL over the past 10 games with seven goals and 105 shots for.
Tonight I also have a lot of interest in the