Welcome, RotoBallers. Hockey season has now entered the postseason which is the most exciting time to watch and partake in NHL DFS! As always, I'll give you the stats and info you need to build the best lineups possible for your GPP and cash game NHL contests on both DraftKings and FanDuel.
If you are new to playing NHL DFS, there are several things to know that will help you get caught up to speed. The first thing to know is that stacking lines is important and correlating your plays can pay off. In hockey, if someone scores a goal, there's a good chance that some on his team will receive an assist on that goal, so you want to build lineups around players skating together.
In the image above, you'll see that Sidney Crosby is skating in-between Jake Guentzel and Bryan Rust and this line has skated together for most of the year. The idea behind staking forward lines is that if Crosby gets a goal, there is a higher percentage and chance that either Rust or Guentzel would get credited with an assist, therefore, resulting in more fantasy points.
The second thing is to make sure you look at the two sites and see the different ways to obtain points. On DraftKings, you get bonus points for 5+ shots or 3+ blocked shots so someone like Alex Ovechkin who is a volume shooter tends to be a better play on that site just because he can rack up additional points based on his style of play.
Today I'll be bringing you my NHL lineup picks, analysis, and advice for NHL DFS contests on DraftKings and FanDuel for Tuesday, June 1st, 2020 at 7:30 PM. Be sure to also check out our awesome NHL tools including our Lineup Optimizer, Research Station, Projections, and DFS Cheat Sheets! Feel free to follow me on Twitter @jorgepucks as I am happy to engage with readers and try to answer your questions. Good luck RotoBallers!
NHL DFS Analysis and Picks for 6/1
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- Tampa Bay Lightning (-105) vs. Carolina Hurricanes (-115) - 5.5U
NHL DFS Goalie Analysis Matrix
The matrix above takes the averages of four categories and creates a rating scale to help you decide which goalies to use, which goalies to target against, and conversely which teams could be viable from a stacking standpoint. It looks at four categories: Goals Allowed (GA), Shots Allowed (SA), Goals For (GF), Shots For (SF). The higher the overall rating in the total column indicates that it is a more dangerous matchup for that team's goalie while it might be beneficial to stack against him. If the total is low, that means he is in a good matchup from a fantasy perspective and should be considered for your goalie selection. I match and sync this every day to the actual opponents that they are facing every slate so this is always slate specific.
NHL DFS Power Play Matrix
The Power Play matrix is to help locate matchups that can be exploited should there be an odd-man advantage during the game. Just like the goalie matrix above, the teams are matched up based on their own power play percentage rank and their opponent's penalty kill percentage rank. When looking at this matrix, you will want to look for teams that succeed in the power play rank (lower the rank the better they are) while their opponent has a poor penalty kill rank (the higher the rank, the worse their penalty kill is).
Did you know RotoBaller has a Premium NHL DFS subscription? Like what you read today? You can show your support for Jorge by using the promo code JORGEPUCKS when purchasing an NHL DFS Premium Pass. You get 10% off, and exclusive access to all of our Premium NHL cheat sheets, DFS research tools, Premium Slack Chatrooms, Stack Builder, Correlation Matrix, and Lineup Optimizer!
NHL DFS Core Plays- Showdown Edition
Captain Picks
- Andrei Vasilevkiy ($10,800 DK) - Vasilevskiy turned out a very dominant game one performance as he stopped 37 out of 38 total shots faced and collected his fourth win against the Canes this season. Vasilevskiy is 4-3-1 against the Canes this season and is averaging close to 20 DK points per game against Carolina this year. If Vasilevskiy can be the brick wall that we know he can be, he could be the highest-scoring player on the slate over on DK.
- Nikita Kucherov ($10,200 DK/ $15,500) - Kucherov has provided the Lightning with an additional spark on offense and continues to produce no matter that matchup. Since his return against Florida, Kucherov has scored a point in six of his seven games played and has accrued 12 total points in that seven-game span. While his price point is high on both sites, he has the highest ceiling for any skater on the slate which is ideal for tournament builds.
- Andrei Svechnikov ($7,400 DK/ 12,000 FD) - If you're wanting a lower owned play that still offers upside at the captain position, look no further than Andrei Svechnikov. Svechnikov took five shots on goal while also recording an assist in their opening game against the Lightning and he could get more shot opportunities by being moved down to the third line which could benefit him from a matchup standpoint.
Value Picks
- Brock McGinn ($3,600 DK/ $6,000 FD) - With Nino Niederreiter getting injured, the Canes switched up their lines which resulted in Brock McGinn getting moved up to the top line to skate alongside Sebastian Aho and Teuvo Teravainen. McGinn has been in good form over his last five games as he has taken 17 total shots while also recording four total points and has averaged close to 12 DK points over that five-game span.
- Barclay Goodrow ($3,800 DK/ $6,500 FD) - Goodrow has been in great form over his last five games as he has recorded a point in four of those games. He is seeing over 15 minutes of ice time per game in the playoffs and would be a cheap tournament option to consider as he is getting more involved in the offensive end as his line usually gets matched against other opposing team's top lines that tend to push the pace.
- Erik Cernak ($5,000 DK/ $7,500 FD) - Cernak looks to be one of the better defensive options on this slate and if you're needing someone with a solid floor, he could be one to consider. Cernak is averaging over three peripheral stats per game over his last five games and has actually recorded four points in that five-game span. He sees a good amount of ice time and would be one that would be great for a cash game showdown lineup.
Stacks
- TBL 1- Palat/ Pooint/ Kucherov
- CAR 2- Martinook/ Trocheck/ Necas
- TBL 3- Goodrow/ Gourde/ Coleman
Player Pool (In order of preference)
C- Point, Aho, Trocheck, Staal, Cirelli, Gourde
W- Kucherov, Svechnikov, Stamkos, Teravainen, Necas, Palat, McGinn, Goodrow, Coleman, Foegele, Killorn
D- Hamilton, Hedman, Sergachev, Pesce, Cernak, McDonagh, Skjei
G- Vasilevskiy, Nedeljkovic
Key Abbreviations:
xGF/60= expected goal for per 60 minutes of ice time
GF/60= goals for per 60 minutes of ice time
SC/60= Scoring Chances per 60 minutes of ice time
If you have any additional questions, make sure to reach out to me on Twitter or in our NHL room at the RotoBaller slack chat!
