NHL DFS Power Play for FanDuel, DraftKings: DFS Value Plays, Goalies Matrix, Stacks (8/5)

Jorge Pucks delivers his top DraftKings, FanDuel NHL DFS value plays and research for August 5th including DFS analysis for goalies, power plays, core 4, stacks.

Welcome, RotoBallers. Hockey is one of my favorite sports to watch and play from a DFS perspective and I am thrilled to be covering this sport over at RotoBaller! As always, I will do my best to give you the stats and info you need to build the best lineups possible for your GPP and cash game NHL contests on 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. 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 there 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 for Wednesday, August 5th, 2020 at 2:30 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 8/5

• New York Islanders (-120) vs. FL Panthers (EVEN)
• Nashville Predators (-132) vs. Arizona Coyotes (+114)
• Tampa Bay Lightning (-105) vs Boston Bruins (-115)
• Colorado Avalanche (-130) vs. Dallas Stars (+110)
• Pittsburgh Penguins (-170) vs. Montreal Canadiens (+150)
• Edmonton Oilers (-140) vs. Chicago Blackhawks (+120)

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 last column indicates that it is a more dangerous matchup for that team's goalie while it might be beneficial to stack against him. I match and sync this every day to the actual opponents so for example, the Islanders GA and SA will get matched with the Panthers GF and SF.

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. When looking at this matrix, you will want to look for teams that succeed in the power play rank while their opponent has a poor penalty kill rank.

NHL DFS Core Four

The Core 4 picks are to help you construct your cash game lineups while also giving you plays that you can use and build around in GPPs. Stacking is critical in NHL DFS so you might want to pair these suggestions with a linemate or two, especially when building your tournament lineups.

1) Center: Sidney Crosby ($6,900 DK/ $8,500 FD)

Crosby has been extremely active throughout this series against Montreal. He has averaged 18 DK points per game against them in the postseason while tallying nine shots and two points in a two-game span. Throw in the fact that Crosby is under $7,000 on DraftKings and this makes him almost a lock when it comes to cash game lineups.

Other Top Center Plays: 

• Connor McDavid ($8,700/ $9,000 FD)         
• Nathan MacKinnon ($8,400 DK/ $8,600 FD)
• Leon Draisaitl ($7,700 DK/ $8,400 FD)
• Jonathan Toews ($6,100 DK/ $6,900 FD)

2) Winger: Patrick Kane ($7,500 DK/ $8,400 FD)

Patrick Kane has been playing great over his last 10 games. Over his last ten games (eight from the regular season and two in the postseason), he has accrued 10 total points and averaged 17.8 DK points per game during that stretch. With the Blackhawks having home-ice advantage from a line matching perspective, I expect Kane’s line to get good looks against a porous Edmonton defense all-game long.

Other Top Winger Plays: 

• David Pastrnak ($8,200/ $8,800 FD)
• Ryan Nugent-Hopkins ($7,300)
• Filip Forsberg ($6,000 / $7,700 FD)
• Dominik Kubalik ($5,700/ $5,400)

3) Defenseman: Cale Makar ($5,400 DK/ $5,700 FD)

Makar is still somewhat underpriced for the upside that he presents.  He ranks second on the Avs squad in total points scored with 50 and has the second-most assists on the team as well. He benefits skating with the likes of Nathan MacKinnon and Mikko Rantanen and is a cheaper way to get exposure to the top line for the Avalanche. The Avs have a plus matchup when it comes to the power play against Dallas and Makar has the second most power-play points on the squad so this looks to be a great spot for him to rack up some scoring chances and points. 

Other Defenseman Plays: 

• Roman Josi ($6,500/ $7,400 FD)
• Oscar Klefbom ($6,200 DK/ $5,600 FD)
• Ryan Ellis ($5,700 DK/ $5,800FD)
• Darnell Nurse ($5,200/ $4,500 FD)

4) Goalie: Philipp Grubauer ($7,900 DK/ $1,000 FD)

The Avs won a big game against St. Louis on Sunday afternoon. In this game, Grubauer made 31 of 32 saves and only allowed one goal and scored 24.2 DK points during that game. Looking at his last 10 games played, he has won seven of those games and posted double-digit points in eight of those contests. The Stars have only averaged 2.62 goals scored per game since the all-star break which has them closer to the bottom third of the league during that stretch. Colorado ranks third in the league over that stretch of time with only allowing 2.29 goals per game so this seems to be a good time to look at the Avs goaltender in all formats.

Other Goalie Options: Matt Murray ($8,000/ $8,500 FD), Tuukka Rask ($7,800 DK/ $9,100 FD)

Value Plays: Center

• Dylan Strome ($4,000 DK/ $4,500 FD)
• Ryan johansen ($4,300 DK/ $5,100 FD)
• Kirby Dach ($3,200 DK/  $4,100 FD)

Value Plays: Wing

• Viktor Arvidsson ($4,500 DK/ $5,700 FD)
• Phil Kessel ($3,900 DK/ $6,300 FD)
• Roope Hintz ($3,700 DK/ $5,20 FD)

Value Plays: Defensemen

• Mattias Ekholm ($4,200 DK/ $4,100 FD)
• Miro Heiskanen ($4,600 DK/ $4,700 FD)
• Jason Demers ($2,600/ $3,700 FD)

Value Plays: Goalie

• Corey Crawford ($7,500 DK/ $7,400 FD)
• Ben Bishop ($7,100 DK/ $8,600FD)

Top Team and Line Stacks

Edmonton Oilers (L1, L2, PP1)

 It’s hard to not consider the Oilers to be a top stack on Wednesday’s slate. This should be the highest-scoring game and even warrants game stacking consideration. The Oilers are averaging five goals per game in the series and present the most upside on the slate so they should not be overlooked.

Nashville Predators (L1, PP1, L2, L3)

The Preds really looked to be in control of game 2 of the series against Arizona. Their top line generated two goals with one of them coming on the power play. Nashville as a team posted a 60.98 cf percentage at even strength which showed how well they were able to control the puck in addition to generating 31 scoring chances and limiting Arizona to just 24 chances.

Chicago Blackhawks (L2, L1)

Even though I mentioned the Oilers above, the Blackhawks themselves are also in a great spot. We have seen that Edmonton doesn’t play great team defense and while Koskinen is a better goalie option than Smith, they will still allow chances. Chicago gets a bump since they will have the home-ice matching advantage which means they should be able to match up their top two lines and put them in good scoring opportunities.

Other Stacks that could be lower owned: Pittsburgh Penguins (L1, PP1), Colorado Avalanche (L1, PP1)

NHL Player News and Updates

More DFS Lineup Picks and Analysis