Welcome to the Wednesday edition of the daily fantasy hockey morning coffee. We’re halfway through another week and are rapidly approaching the end of the regular season. Today we have a four-game slate to work with for our DFS needs.
Tonight’s Slate
Arizona Coyotes @ Buffalo Sabres (Buffalo, -120, 5.5 over/under)
Montreal Canadiens @ Pittsburgh Penguins (Pittsburgh, -240, 6 over/under)
Boston Bruins @ St. Louis Blues (even, 5.5 over/under)
Anaheim Ducks @ Calgary Flames (even, 5.5 over/under)
Ryan Donato wasn’t available on FanDuel on Monday night and boy do I wish he was. Playing in his first NHL game he looked right at home on Boston’s top power play unit. He had three points his first NHL game, drew a penalty and had six shots on goal. Going forward keep him on your radar as a player with power play upside who will give you cap relief. With Boston’s power play showing serious signs of life Donato should get plenty of opportunities to put up numbers for the remainder of the regular season. When Patrice Bergeron returns to action we’ll have to reevalute the complete DFS upside of Donato, but he’s certainly a player who should come at a bargain and is very aggressive around the net. He’s not exactly going to be a secret, but will always be an intriguing play.
Even with Boston’s rash of injuries their top two lines — and power play — offer too much upside to ignore. Since the All-Star break Boston has scored a league fifth-best 3.46 goals for per game and have scored a league-best 19 power play goals. Over their past 10 games Boston has a CF% of 54.28 percent — fourth-best in the NHL. Over that same time frame Boston has a league second-best SCF/60 of 34.39 and a league second-best HDCF/60 of 15.67.
St. Louis, over their past five games (a five-game stretch where they have looked much better), has a CF% of 54.34 percent and a league fifth-best GF/60 of 3.25. A big downside for St. Louis is the potential absence of Tarasenko who, at the time of this writing, is doubtful for tonight’s game.
We should have another game with a playoff-like atmosphere as St. Louis has won four of their past five games to keep themselves within shot of the final wild card spot in the Western Conference. Boston is also still within shot of first place in the Eastern Conference. While we can cosider both sides of this game Boston is the more intriguing play.
Our Boston Snapshot
| Scor | Scor | Scor | Goal | Goal | Goal | Assi | Assi | Assi | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Player | Pos | G | A | PTS | EV | PP | SH | EV | PP | SH | S | BLK |
| Brad Marchand | LW | 31 | 44 | 75 | 22 | 8 | 1 | 30 | 12 | 2 | 157 | 22 |
| David Pastrnak | RW | 28 | 42 | 70 | 20 | 8 | 0 | 30 | 12 | 0 | 201 | 27 |
| Torey Krug | D | 13 | 39 | 52 | 8 | 4 | 1 | 24 | 15 | 0 | 173 | 63 |
| Danton Heinen | C | 13 | 29 | 42 | 11 | 1 | 1 | 19 | 10 | 0 | 115 | 29 |
| Riley Nash | C | 15 | 25 | 40 | 13 | 2 | 0 | 24 | 1 | 0 | 109 | 62 |
| David Krejci | C | 17 | 21 | 38 | 10 | 7 | 0 | 15 | 6 | 0 | 97 | 28 |
| Tim Schaller | C | 10 | 9 | 19 | 8 | 0 | 2 | 9 | 0 | 0 | 116 | 54 |
| Sean Kuraly | C | 6 | 8 | 14 | 6 | 0 | 0 | 7 | 0 | 1 | 129 | 19 |
| Matt Grzelcyk | D | 3 | 11 | 14 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 9 | 2 | 0 | 63 | 34 |
| Kevan Miller | D | 1 | 12 | 13 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 11 | 0 | 1 | 49 | 88 |
| Noel Acciari | C | 8 | 1 | 9 | 7 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 55 | 36 |
| Rick Nash | LW | 3 | 3 | 6 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 41 | 5 |
| Brian Gionta | RW | 2 | 4 | 6 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 2 | 0 | 25 | 5 |
| Brandon Carlo | D | 0 | 6 | 6 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 5 | 0 | 1 | 69 | 74 |
| Nick Holden | D | 0 | 4 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 3 | 0 | 16 | 5 |
| Ryan Donato | C | 1 | 2 | 3 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 6 | 0 |
| Adam McQuaid | D | 1 | 2 | 3 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 25 | 42 |
| Tommy Wingels | RW | 1 | 2 | 3 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 9 | 2 |
| Team Total | 236 | 411 | 647 | 177 | 51 | 8 | 305 | 98 | 8 | 2344 | 938 |
Our Boston Stacks
(These lines assume the same lines we saw Monday night)
Line One
BRAD MARCHAND $8.4K
RILEY NASH $5.8K
DAVID PASTRNAK $7.3K
Line Two
DANTON HEINEN $3.9K
DAVID KREJCI $6.3K
RYAN DONATO $4.2K
Power Play Stack
BRAD MARCHAND
RYAN DONATO
DANTON HEINEN
DAVID PASTRNAK
(D) TOREY KRUG $6.0K
Power Play Two Stack
TIM SCHALLER $3.5K (This could be Wingels, double check before lineups lock)
DAVID KREJCI
BRIAN GIONTA
(D) MATT GRZELCYK $3.5K
(D) NICK HOLDEN $3.7K
Even though