This article is part of our FanDuel NHL series.
SLATE PREVIEW
It's a key night for the Pacific. All eyes are on Tyler Toffoli as he makes his Canucks debut against the Wild, and a win will vault them back into first place. A win would also put the Coyotes back at the top, but the Stars have found their scoring touch and a would put them ahead in the Central.
The Avalanche face a big challenge without Mikko Rantanen, but at least the first test will be relatively easy with the struggling Islanders. The Isles have a .553 Win% against the Avs all-time, but on the road they're only 17-26-3 (.402).
The Panthers can keep their playoff hopes alive against the Ducks, but their goaltending is so bad losing the game is a real possibility. The Panthers won in overtime in their last meeting, but not before allowing four goals.
The Rangers and Blackhawks is the only game without any real playoff implications even though mathematically neither have been eliminated. Both teams have mediocre defenses, shaky goaltending, but really elite offensive players (Kane vs. Panarin), which means goals aplenty.
GOALIES
Tuukka Rask ($9,000) seems like a dangerous choice. Leon Draisaitl is a one-man wrecking crew; he scored two points in their previous matchup. That does not mean either of the Oilers goaltenders are a good choice.
Ben Bishop ($8,700) should be a popular choice. The Coyotes lack an elite scorer (sorry, Hall and Kessel) and Bishop was 2-0 with a .944 Sv% against them last season. Antti Raanta ($8,300) could steal the game but it'll difficult when Tyler Seguin is scoring goals.
Jacob Markstrom ($8,600) will likely be another popular choice. The Canucks netminder has been their MVP this season and they added some goal support with Toffoli. Markstrom is 1-1 against the Wild this season but he was good games. His home record has also been impeccable: 12-6-2, .928 Sv%, 2.44 GAA.
No one can trust Sergei Bobrovsky ($7,600), but the odds are good the Panthers win this game. I would stay as far away from the Rangers-Blackhawks as possible. Both teams have defenses that rank in the bottom half.
Pavel Francouz ($7,300) will be a popular value play. He has to outduel Semyon Varlamov ($7,900), who has a .932 Sv% this month after a disastrous January, but Francouz will likely get more goal support even without one of the Avs' key forwards. Francouz showed in an overtime loss to the Lightning that he can keep his team in games, but it's unlikely he steals it.
VALUE PLAYS
Valeri Nichushkin ($4,100) played 16 minutes and scored a goal in the game Rantanen was injured. His good performance means he could get a piece of Rantanen's minutes Jared Bednar will be spreading around, including Rantanen's usual spot on the top power-play unit.
This is a bit of a gamble but… Jake Virtanen ($4,000) skated on the top line with Toffoli debuting with J.T. Miller and Elias Pettersson at practice, but perhaps this is Travis Green playing some 4-D chess. Toffoli is widely expected to play on Bo Horvat's right, so when he moves down and bumps Loui Eriksson, Virtanen is the most logical choice to play on the Canucks' dangerous top line.
Alex Galchenyuk's ($3,600) Minnesota debut… wasn't so bad? He had one shot in 13 minutes and took Jason Zucker's spot on the PP. He'll get his chance in the top-six.
FORWARD LINE STACKS
Florida Panthers (TOTAL: $17,600)
C – Aleksander Barkov ($7,100)
W – Jonathan Huberdeau ($6,700)
W – Noel Acciari ($3,800)
I like Acciari more than Evgenii Dadonov on this line because it makes it cheap. The Panthers forward are wild right now with two defensemen playing up, which means Joel Quenneville has to balance them out from time to time. Acciari doesn't usually play on the PP, so that's the drawback.
New York Rangers (TOTAL: $17,000)
C – Ryan Strome ($5,300)
W – Artemi Panarin ($8,000)
W – Jesper Fast ($3,700)
Chris Kreider's line is okay, too, but I like Panarin because he's one of the best play drivers in the league. Nearly all of the Rangers' offense runs through him, especially on the PP, and Strome is on a hot streak again with a five-game point streak. The downer is Fast, who produces like a bottom-six winger but a player David Quinn loathes to take off Panarin's opposite wing.
DEFENSEMEN
I like Cale Makar ($5,500) best in the top three. The Islanders have one of the league's worst penalty differentials (minus-22) but they've taken the eighth-fewest number of penalties. That means opportunity for Torey Krug ($6,000), but not a lot of them, and he tends to be very power-play dependent.
Quinn Hughes ($5,200) has been magic for the Canucks power play and despite being fifth in league scoring among defensemen remains underpriced. The Ducks take a looot of penalties so Keith Yandle ($4,600) is a good option.
Anthony DeAngelo missed the Rangers' most recent game and he's considered GTD, so if he misses another game it'll be Adam Fox ($3,800) running the power play once again. He has two helpers in three games. Darnell Nurse ($4,400) gets a similar bump because of more usage with Oscar Klefbom out. They're perhaps the two best value plays of the night given their increased roles.
