NHL Playoffs Series DFS Preview

The puck drops on the playoffs tonight and from a fantasy perspective we essentially will have the slates alternating days over the next week or so. Today’s slate consistent of the Boston Bruins at Carolina Hurricanes, Tampa Bay Lightning at Toronto Maple Leafs, St. Louis Blues at Minnestoa Wild and Los Angeles Kings at Edmonton Oilers. Each series is unique and presents different avenues to gain an edge over the field. 

Bruins at Hurricanes 

Defense Wins Championships 

Scoring will come at a premium in this one, both Carolina (29th, 1626) and Boston (32nd, 1476) were among the stingiest teams when it comes to limiting scoring chances against. In addition to keeping five on five offense to a minimum the Hurricanes bring a league leading penalty killing unit (88.04%) into the series and Boston isn’t far behind, checking in at 9th (81.47%). While neither team offers an overly imposing power play, Carolina 13th (21.98%), Boston 18th (20.85%). Not only does each team possess strong even strength defensive play and exceptional penalty killing but all four goalies in this series rank in the top ten of goals against average, Fredrik Anderson 2nd (2.17), Jeremy Swayman 5th (2.41), Linus Ullmark 7th (2.45) and Antti Raanta 7th (2.45). This might be a series to full fade until further notice. 

Lightning at Maple Leafs 

Name Recognition 

Nikita Kucherov, Austin Matthews, Steven Stamkos, Mitchell Marner, Victor Hedman and Morgan Reilly make up just some of the star power in this matchup. How you approach this series when setting your lineups will likely dictate how the rest of your roster shakes out, the players in this one will possess some of the highest ceilings, highest median point projects and highest price tags. Matthews, Marner and Stamkos have a combined 309 points between them and only two defensemen, Roman Josi and Cale Makar, scored more points than Hedman’s 85. Working in the Lightning’s favor is Toronto’s slate leading 3.11 goals against average on the other hand, no team brings a more lethal power play into the playoffs than the Maple Leafs (1st, 27.19%). It might be difficult to get any type of ownership discount in this one, but fade these stars at your own risk. 

Blues at Wild 

Situational Awareness 

St. Louis and Minnesota present stark contrasts of team defense. The Blues were the only team to allow over 2000 (2002) scoring chances against this season and allowed the most high danger chances against (580) of any team on this particular slate, however their penalty kill finished 5th (84.4%). For Minnesota they absolutely smothered teams at even strength, ranking 31st scoring chances against (1501) and 32nd in high danger chances against (421) but their penalty kill checked in at 26th (75.77%) the lowest on the slate. Being cognizant of the role of what players you choose from this series will be paramount to successfully identify the most valuable members for your roster. Considering the star power and the bigger markets in the other series there will be price and ownership discounts to be found in this one if you know where to look. 

Kings at Oilers 

McDavid and Draisaitl

This series will come down to the performance of Edmonton’s top stars and LA’s ability to contain them. McDavid and Draisaitl combined for 233 points, each of them going over the 100 point mark and finishing in the top five in scoring, with McDavid leading the league. No one on the Kings reached the 70 point threshold and the combined total of their top four scorers only reaches 221 points. However the Oilers have only eight postseason wins in the McDavid/Draisaitl era, no superstar duo has delivered less in the playoffs since Peyton Manning and Marvin Harrison. McDavid has 22 points in 21 postseason games (1.04/game), while impressive it is well off his regular season pace of 697 points in 487 contests (1.43/game). Draisaitl has fared slightly better in the playoffs with 27 points in 21 games (1.28/game) which is an improvement over his regular season numbers of 616 points in 558 games (1.10/game). This series will hinge on if these two superstars can exorcise their playoff demons. 

Dave Leonard is our Lead Fantasy Writer at HW Hockey
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