NHL DFS Plays: August 8th (Day 8)

Golden Knights @ Avalanche [3:00 PM ET]

Colorado and Vegas were second and third in the Western Conference during the regular season but will play for the No.1 overall seed in this game.

The Avalanche looked scary good in their second round-robin game vs. Dallas and now they get a Vegas team that they obliterated in the regular season. They won 6-1 and 7-3 in their two meetings with contributions coming from everyone. If I’m targeting the Avalanche side, I’m playing their top-line (obviously, right?). Without Max Pacioretty, the Golden Knights aren’t as intimidating but the Nazem Kadri ($4,400) line will still likely handle the William Karlsson ($5,100)/Mark Stone ($6,300) line. That leaves COL1 to go head-to-head with the Paul Stastny ($4,200) line, which is good but not great. If you’d rather have more exposure to the other game, COL3 is really cheap and draws a nice matchup vs. VGK3, which has been horrible defensively in their first two round-robin games.

For Vegas, you have to look at their top-line as well. The Kadri line will be matched up with them but they were pretty leaky during the regular season, giving up 32 ScoringChancesAgainst/60. They’ve locked it down tight in the first two round-robin games but Karlsson and Stone should be able to breakthrough.

COL1 has played almost exclusively with Cale Makar ($5,300) and Ryan Graves ($4,500), so they’re the two D-men you want to pair with them. Preferably Makar but he’s $800 more expensive.

For VGK1, Shea Theodore ($6,000) is the clear top-choice but Alec Martinez ($4,100) gets you the same 5v5 exposure for $1,900 cheaper.

Flyers @ Lightning [8:00 PM ET]

This matchup is also for the No.1 seed. Both teams will be without a top-6 forward, with Steven Stamkos still out for Tampa Bay and Jakub Voracek sidelined for Philadelphia.

In the regular season, Tampa Bay crushed the Flyers 1-0 and 5-3. If the Flyers were the home team in this game, I would like their chances better. The Sean Couturier ($6,900) line has done a terrific job slowing the other team’s top players down in their first two round-robin games. With Tampa Bay getting the last change, they will get Brayden Point ($5,900) and Nikita Kucherov ($7,600) out there while Couturier is on the bench. In their game in Tampa Bay this season, TBL combined for five points (2G / 3A).

If you want to go heavy with Colorado/Vegas, Tampa Bay’s third line should provide some value. They’ve been really strong in a small sample size since the restart and should get the better of Philadelphia’s second and third lines.

For Philadelphia, their top-line is still in a good spot and Joel Farabee ($2,900) looks great at this price. With Voracek out, he’ll play with Couturier and Claude Giroux and should see plenty of ice-time to rack up the DK Points. There’s even a chance he’s also bumped to the top PP unit.

If playing TBL1 you’ll want to play Victor Hedman ($5,700) but Ryan McDonagh ($3,700) provides some salary savings and has a solid floor. In two round-robin games, he’s averaged over 23 and a half minutes while firing four shots and blocking five shots. That’s a stable 6.25 DKPt floor.