Welcome to the Tuesday edition of the daily fantasy hockey morning coffee. Tonight we have a nice 11-game slate to work with for our daily fantasy hockey needs. Of those 11 games, I think there are three clear top teams we should look to as the basis of our roster construction tonight.
Pittsburgh Penguins @ Buffalo Sabres (Pittsburgh, -185, 6 over/under)
Arizona Coyotes @ Tampa Bay Lightning (Tampa Bay, -280, 5.5 over/under)
Vancouver Canucks @ Chicago Blackhawks (Chicago, -300, 5.5 over/under)
The first team I want plenty of shares of tonight are the Pittsburgh Penguins. They get the Buffalo Sabres who are on the second night of a back-to-back. On the second night of back-to-backs Buffalo has the been the fourth-worst team in the NHL in terms of goals against per game with an average of 3.27 goals against per game. Since the All-Star break Buffalo has allowed 2.96 goals against per game and this month have allowed an NHL seventh-worst 3.11 goals against per game. Over their past 10 games Buffalo has a SCA/60 rate of 31.66 — second-worst in the NHL. Buffalo’s HDCA/60 of 13.9 over the past 10 games is also second-worst in the NHL.
And they bring all of this defensive ineptitude to a Pittsburgh team that has averaged 3.50 goals per game this month. Since the All-Star break, a time spanning 22 games, Pittsburgh has scored a league fourth-best 3.27 goals per game and on the season have been the sixth-best road team in terms of goals per game with 2.94. Over their past 10 games the Penguins have a SCF/60 rate of 33.36 — second-highest in the NHL. Additionally, their HDCF/60 of 15.36 over the past 10 games is the highest in the league. Per Corsica, Pittsburgh has the highest xGF/60 in the NHL at 3.08. Since Jan.1 Pittsburgh’s xGF/60 is a league-best 3.11. Over the same time frame Buffalo has a league third-worst xGA/60 of 2.80. Pittsburgh’s xGA/60 over that time is actually a league fifth-worst 2.75 which makes Buffalo an interesting