Welcome to the post trade deadline edition of the daily fantasy hockey morning coffee. Now that the dust has settled from the flurry of activity on Sunday and Monday we have a clearer picture of what lines to target for stacking purposes. We have a have a five-game slate to work with tonight with one clear cut team that could have a huge night.
Tonight’s Slate:
New York Islanders @ Montreal Canadiens (Montreal, -130, 6 over/under)
Buffalo Sabres @ Tampa Bay Lightning (Tampa Bay, -320, 6 over/under)
Detroit Red Wings @ St. Louis Blues (St. Louis, -150 5 over/under)
Calgary Flames @ Colorado Avalanche (Colorado, -125, 6 over/under)
New York Rangers @ Vancouver Canucks (Vancouver, -120, 6 over/under)
The team sure to be the star of everyone’s DFS eye tonight is the Tampa Bay Lightning — and for good reason. Tonight Tampa Bay hosts the lowly Buffalo Sabres and will look to extend their four-game win to streak to five games. At the trade deadline Tampa Bay only strengthened their potent team with the aquisition of Ryan McDonagh and J.T. Miller — though for tonight’s purposes we’ll have to live without McDonagh as it looks like he’ll be out for about a week with an injury. We could also possibly see a Kucherov-less Tampa Bay team as he left his last game with an injury. The news on Kucherov seemed promising Tuesday night as Joe Smith of Tampa Bay Times tweeted Tuesday night:
Nikita Kucherov will also be evaluated Wednesday morning. We reported Monday night his injury is minor (no concussion), might return vs Buff https://t.co/1wg5d47BUz— Joe Smith (@TBTimes_JSmith) February 27, 2018
But Wednesday morning left things more doubtful:
So to recap: Vasilevskiy in net, Johnson likely in, Kucherov doubtful, Miller to make #TBLightning debut, McDonagh not til at least Tuesday— Joe Smith (@TBTimes_JSmith) February 28, 2018
Tampa Bay has scored an average of 3.77 goals this month — tied for second-best in the NHL with Nashville and Vegas. The Lightning have scored a league-leading 14 power play goals this month and have a power play percentage of 28.6 percent. Tampa Bay has a SCF/60 of 32.54 over their past 10 games — third best in the NHL. And their HDCF/60 over their past 10 games of 12.47 is good for 10th best in the NHL.
Buffalo has allowed an average of 3.08 goals against per game in February and their CF% of 45.01 percent over their past 10 games is the second-worst in the league. We should expect the puck to tilt heavily in Tampa Bay’s favor tonight as the possesion numbers greatly favor the Lightning — (Tampa Bay has CF% of 51.62 percent). On the road this season Buffalo has allowed an average of 3.31 goals against per game. Tampa Bay will be the chalk of the night, keep that in mind when constructing your tournament lineups.
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 | 33 | 49 | 82 | 27 | 6 | 0 | 25 | 24 | 0 | 227 | 10 |
| Steven Stamkos | C | 24 | 47 | 71 | 10 | 14 | 0 | 31 | 16 | 0 | 176 | 27 |
| Brayden Point | C | 25 | 29 | 54 | 18 | 5 | 2 | 23 | 4 | 2 | 167 | 41 |
| Yanni Gourde | C | 22 | 26 | 48 | 14 | 7 | 1 | 21 | 4 | 1 | 106 | 35 |
| Tyler Johnson | C | 18 | 27 | 45 | 13 | 3 | 2 | 18 | 9 | 0 | 141 | 42 |
| Victor Hedman | D | 9 | 35 | 44 | 7 | 2 | 0 | 16 | 17 | 2 | 168 | 84 |
| Alex Killorn | LW | 11 | 26 | 37 | 9 | 2 | 0 | 20 | 6 | 0 | 113 | 21 |
| Mikhail Sergachev | D | 8 | 23 | 31 | 6 | 2 | 0 | 12 | 11 | 0 | 111 | 51 |
| Chris Kunitz | LW | 11 | 10 | 21 | 10 | 0 | 1 | 10 | 0 | 0 | 65 | 25 |
| Anton Stralman | D | 4 | 11 | 15 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 11 | 0 | 0 | 94 | 75 |
| Ryan Callahan | RW | 4 | 10 | 14 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 8 | 1 | 1 | 84 | 32 |
| Dan Girardi | D | 3 | 9 | 12 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 8 | 0 | 1 | 60 | 131 |
| Jake Dotchin | D | 3 | 8 | 11 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 7 | 0 | 1 | 44 | 57 |
| Braydon Coburn | D | 1 | 10 | 11 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 10 | 0 | 0 | 54 | 62 |
| Cory Conacher | LW | 6 | 3 | 9 | 5 | 1 | 0 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 34 | 9 |
| Andrej Sustr | D | 2 | 4 | 6 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 36 | 31 |
| Cedric Paquette | C | 2 | 2 | 4 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 44 | 24 |
| Team Total | 223 | 386 | 609 | 161 | 54 | 8 | 274 | 104 | 8 | 2048 | 893 |
Our Tampa Bay Stacks (These stacks assume Tyler Johnson is in and Kucherov is out tonight — but double check before locking in your lineups)
Line One
BRAYDEN POINT $5.1K
STEVEN STAMKOS $8.8K
ALEX KILLORN $5.1K
Line Two
ADAM ERNE $3.0K
CORY CONACHER $3.0K
YANNI GOURDE $5.8K
Line Three
CHRIS KUNITZ $3.6K
TYLER JOHNSON $6.3K
JT MILLER $5.7K
Power Play Stack
ALEX KILLORN
STEVEN STAMKOS
TYLER JOHNSON
CHRIS KUNITZ
(D) VICTOR HEDMAN $7.2K
Power Play Two Stack
RYAN CALLAHAN
BRAYDEN POINT
YANNI GOURDE
JT MILLER
(D) MIKHAIL SERGACHEV $4.3K
The Kunitz/Johnson/Miller third line stack is a very intriguing tournament option tonight.
The second team I have interest in tonight is the