NHL DFS Plays: August 19th

Line Stacks

Colorado 1 — Landeskog ($6,400) – MacKinnon ($8,500) – Rantanen ($7,200)

The Avalanche are coming off of a dominating performance in Game 4, particularly by COL1. They had an absurd 81.3 CorsiFor% and out-chanced their opposition 9-to-1 at 5v5. As I said at the beginning of the series, the Coyotes couldn’t slow down Nashville’s top-line so they were definitely going to struggle with Nathan MacKinnon and Co. Through four games, MacKinnon has a CF% over 70 and ScoringChancesFor% over 72. They’ve been so dominant, it’s difficult to fade them in an elimination game.

St. Louis 1 — Schwartz ($5,500) – O’Reilly ($5,200) – Perron ($5,800)

Like NSH1 in the Qualifying Round, I’m going to keep going back to the well with STL1. Vancouver has not shown the ability to stop Ryan O’Reilly, Jaden Schwartz or David Perron in the series and that probably isn’t going to change in Game 5. O’Reilly is showing exactly why he won the Conn Smythe last year while Schwartz and Perron are shooting machines.

In the series, this trio has combined for an incredible, seven goals, seven assists, 51 shots for an average of 65.6 DraftKings Points per game.

Boston 2 — DeBrusk ($4,500) – Krejci ($4,500) – Kase ($4,100)

With David Pastrnak listed as a game-time decision, many DFS players are likely to gravitate to the “Perfection Line” while BOS2 provides much better value. As I’ve mentioned in previous Bruins games, head coach Bruce Cassidy loves this line right now. In the last two games combined, they’ve played roughly nine 5v5 minutes more than the Bergeron line. In Game 4, they finally got on the board, with Jake DeBrusk scoring two third period goals, Ondrej Kase with two assists and David Krejci extending his point streak to five games. For the series, DeBrusk, Kase and Krejci rank first, second and third on the Bruins in 5v5 scoring chances, with a combined 37 in four games. For a full-stack price of $13,100, you can easily pair BOS2 with either COL1 or STL1.

Defensemen

Alex Pietrangelo — STL ($6,400)

You have the choice to play Pietrangelo or Cale Makar ($6,000) and both are terrific options, I just slightly prefer Pietrangelo. Regardless of the five points, he’s picked up in the series, he’s averaged 4.75 shots and 0.75 blocks per game, giving him a great floor. Plus, if the first four games are any indication, he’ll probably pick up at least one point. All three members of STL1 play on the top PP unit, which is anchored by Pietrangelo, so pair that trio with him if you have the salary.

Brandon Carlo — BOS ($2,800)

If you’re going to play the high-priced lines like COL1 or BOS1, you’re going to need some value defensemen. At first glance, his numbers certainly don’t jump off of the page but his ice-time is consistent. He skates with Torey Krug, so he’ll see a lot of playing time and plays almost exclusively with BOS1 and BOS2. In the series, he’s averaging 1.0 shot and 2.0 blocks, so there’s a modest floor at the near-minimum price.

Goalies

Carter Hart — PHI ($7,900)

I like Philipp Grubauer but he’s $500 more expensive than Hart and is in a nearly identical situation. Both the Flyers and Avalanche are heavy favourites to close out their series tonight and neither team is giving up many shots. The lack of shot volume against limits their upside but both goalies have high win probability and shutout upside–Hart has two in a row.

Jake Allen — STL ($7,600)

I’ve played Allen in both games since he replaced Jordan Binnington and it has paid off. Since entering the series, Allen has gone 2-0 while stopping 61 of the 64 shots (.953 SV%) that he has faced. With STL1 playing as well as they are and the Canucks struggling to find secondary scoring, Allen has a good cache to make it three in a row tonight.