Daily Fantasy Hockey Playoff Preview: 04/23/18

Each day of the NHL Playoffs, Dylan and Brock will be collaborating on a full preview of that night’s playoff action. Dylan will break down each game from a Daily Fantasy Hockey perspective, giving you some of his favourite targets. Brock will provide his Daily Fantasy Notebook after morning skates, including Projected Lineups, Injury Updates, Goalie Rankings and DFS Value Plays. Enjoy playoff hockey and the best time of the year!

By: Dylan Berthiaume

Toronto Maple Leafs vs. Boston Bruins

Thanks to an outstanding performance from Freddie Andersen, and a nice burst of offense from their third line, the Maple Leafs were able to stave off elimination in Boston on Saturday night. Tonight’s matchup poses an entirely different look than the first two games in Toronto, as Nazem Kadri will be in the lineup at home for the first time this series. Over the last two seasons Mike Babcock has had great success hard-matching Kadri against the Patrice Bergeron line at home, with the Maple Leafs going 4-0 at home against the Bruins over that span. After Kadri’s suspension in game 1 forced him to miss the Leafs’ first two home games of the series, Tomas Plekanec took over Kadri’s role as the opposing centre to Bergeron. It’s unclear whether Babcock will opt to match Kadri or Plekanec against Boston 1 tonight, but neither should be seen as a favourable 5v5 matchup for the Bruins’ top line.

Kadri was skating in his more familiar spot between Mitch Marner and Patrick Marleau at today’s morning skate, while Plekanec centred Andreas Johnsson and William Nylander, who happened to be Kadri’s linemates on Saturday night. All of this suggests Babcock intends to use a mix of Plekanec and Kadri against Boston 1 tonight, with the two of them potentially going back and forward between the Marner and Nylander lines. It’s a strategy that could very well work out for the Maple Leafs, but it’s a nightmare for line stacking in DFS, and you’ll want to stick to stacking Toronto 1 tonight as a result, who are free from the suppression of Boston 1 at 5v5. Jake Gardiner has been rather snake-bitten this series with zero goals on nine shots, and his price has dipped to $3,600 on DraftKings as a result. He can add a lot of value and powerplay compatibility to a Toronto 1 stack tonight as he mans the Leafs’ second powerplay unit alongside Auston Matthews.

Columbus Blue Jackets vs. Washington Capitals

The Capitals will look to punch their ticket to the second round against the Blue Jackets tonight as the series shifts back to Columbus. The series has been by far the tightest of the first round, with four of the five overtime games we’ve seen in the first round coming courtesy of Washington and Columbus. Tonight should be another high-scoring affair with a flurry of lopsided matchups at even strength. John Tortorella does not line match at 5v5, meaning Washington 1 will no longer be hard matched against Columbus’ top line. While Capitals’ coach Barry Trotz may prefer the best on best approach, there’s no question that facing a mix of all four Columbus lines bodes much better for the production of Alexander Ovechkin than a hard-match against Artmei Panarin. While the powerplay is still the bread and butter for Washington 1, in this matchup specifically, their ceiling is raised on the road by some more favourable matchups at 5v5 (all of Ovechkin’s even strength points in this series have come on the road). Both John Carlson and Dmirty Orlov make for strong additions to a Washington 1 stack tonight.

Panarin, Cam Atkinson, and Pierre-Luc Dubois have combined for 14 points (5G/9A) in the first five games of the series and they make for another strong play tonight. The lack of line matching from Tortorella makes their 5v5 production more difficult to forecast, but any shifts they endure against the stifling play of Washington 2 should be mitigated by the time they see against the Capitals’ bottom-six. Seth Jones has been an excellent addition to this stack all series long, and it’s hard to justify playing the Blue Jackets’ top line without him at this point.

By: Brock Seguin

Injury Updates

IN

– T.J. Oshie skipped the Capitals morning skate but will play in Game 6.

OUT

– Andre Burakovsky (upper-body) will not play in the remainder of the series.

Projected Lineups

Toronto Maple Leafs vs. Boston Bruins

Maple Leafs	Bruins

Columbus Blue Jackets vs. Washington Capitals

Blue Jackets	Capitals

Goalie Rankings

✅ – Confirmed
????️ – Probable
????️ – Projected

Value Plays