RADIO
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 Saturday, August 8th, 2020 at 3:00 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!
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NHL DFS Analysis and Picks for 8/8
- Vegas Golden Knights (EVEN) vs. Colorado Avalanche (-120)
- Philadelphia Flyers (+115) vs. Tampa Bay Lightning (-135)
NHL DFS Goalie Analysis Matrix
| Team | Rank GA | Rank SA | Rank GF | Rank SF | Total |
| Philadelphia | 4 | 30 | 31 | 21 | 21.25 |
| Vegas | 11 | 31 | 29 | 1 | 20.25 |
| Tampa Bay | 6 | 19 | 22 | 29 | 19.25 |
| Colorado | 3 | 25 | 13 | 26 | 14.5 |
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.
| Matchups | PP % Rank | Opp PK % |
| Philadelphia Flyers | 8 | 23 |
| Tampa Bay Lightning | 27 | 15 |
| Vegas Golden Knights | 11 | 4 |
| Colorado Avalanche | 15 | 30 |
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) DFS Center: Nathan MacKinnon ($8,300 DK / $8,700 FD)
MacKinnon has been in great form since hockey has returned for the postseason. He has points in every game played so far and is averaging over 16 DK points per game during that span. What truly is exciting is that he is averaging 21 minutes of ice-time and has taken 11 shots on goal in just two-game span which is truly hard to pass up on a two-game slate. MacKinnon has had success against Vegas this year by racking up four points in just two games played. He is a great option in all formats but will be heavily owned due to it being such a small slate.
Other Top Center Plays:
- Brayden Point ($8,600 DK/ $7,300 FD)
- William Karlsson ($8,400 DK/ $6,300 FD)
2) DFS Winger: Nikita Kucherov ($7,800 DK / $8,100 FD)
Another player that will garner higher ownership is Nikita Kucherov. Kuch is the best winger available on the slate and has done pretty well since hockey has returned for the postseason. He has two points and six shots on goal during that span. One thing to note is it seems as if Steven Stamkos will be out for this game which means Kucherov has even more of a green light to shoot the puck when it comes his way. Kuch carries one of the highest upsides on the slate so if he has one of his monster performances and you don't have him, your lineups could be sunk.
Other Top Winger Plays:
- Mikko Rantanen ($5,500/ $7,400 FD)
- Claude Giroux ($5,900/ $7,300 FD)
3) DFS Defenseman: Victor Hedman ($5,700 DK / $6,300 FD)
There are some strong defenseman options on this slate with Victor Hedman being close to the top of the list. Hedman tends to be a little bit more volatile than Theodore and Makar but is always a candidate for nothing in several assists or getting points on the powerplay.
Other Defenseman Plays:
- Cale Makar ($5,300 DK /$5,600 FD)
- Shea Theodore ($6,000 DK/ $6,100 FD)
4) DFS Goalie: Colorado Goalie
The Avs have been very impressive on the defensive end during the second half of the season and the goaltending has been fantastic since the postseason began. Both Philipp Grubauer and Pavel Francouz have seen action and have combined for 58 saves on 59 shot attempts so whoever gets the nod Saturday afternoon should be primed and ready to go. Vegas comes into this matchup scoring 11 goals in the last two games played so it won't be an easy afternoon for whoever tends the net for the Avs in this one.
Other Goalie Options: Andrei Vasilevskiy ($8,100 DK/ $9,000 FD)
DFS Value Plays: Center
- Paul Stastny ($4,200 DK/ $4,600 FD)
- Yanni Gourde ($3,200 DK/ $4,000 FD)
- Pierre-Edouard Bellemare ($2,500 DK/ $3,500 FD)
DFS Value Plays: Wing
- Joel Farabee ($2,700 DK/ $3,300 FD)
- Vladislav Namestnikov ($2,700 DK/ $4,600 FD)
- Ondrej Palat ($4,100 DK/ $5,400 FD)
DFS Value Plays: Defensemen
- Nate Schmidt ($4,300 DK/ $4,800 FD)
- Travis Sanheim ($3,800 DK/ $4,400 FD)
DFS Value Plays: Goalie
- Carter Hart ($7,300 DK/ $7,600 FD)
Top Team and Line DFS Stacks
Tampa Bay Lightning (L1, PP1, L2)
The Lightning should always be in consideration to be a top stacking option when they are on a slate. While they do face a stingy defensive team in Philly with one of the best young goaltenders in the game in Carter Hart, the home ice matching advantage should be able to give the Lightning the edge in this one. Looking back at the regular-season matchup when the Lightning was the home team, they ended up dropping five goals on the Flyers. The top line should garner a lot of ownership so if you were looking to be different in tournaments, stacking the top powerplay line or even and stacking their second or third line could be beneficial.
Colorado Avalanche (L1, L3)
The Avs have looked really solid since the postseason started but they have also found success against Vegas throughout the regular season. These teams faced each other twice and Colorado hung a combined 13 goals scored against Vegas during that span. What's even more surprising is that Colorado won both of those games on the road in Vegas which is generally a tough feat to accomplish. The top two lines for Colorado will have high ownership but shockingly enough, their bottom two lines have also played extremely well and could be viable from a mini-stack perspective in tournaments.
Other Stacks that could be lower owned: Philadelphia (L1, PP1, L2)
