I’m back again, somewhat riding a nice little wave of non-failure. Zack Kassian has been my personal FanDuel hero and has kept these picks respectable. Again, I looked at “important minutes” when crafting the following team. Power play ice time is my tie breaker when I’m down to two players at any given position.
LW: Zack Kassian $4,500. As long as Kassian remains at this price I’m gonna roll with him. He could see three-plus minutes of power play time and the fact he’s not afraid to throw down every now and then only enhances his value. If only FanDuel gave points for missing teeth, his price would skyrocket.
LW: Cory Conacher $4,800. I love the fact we can get both of our left wingers for under $5,000. Conacher has three goals, six assists and is plus-5 on the season. Three of his six assists have come on the power play. He’s difficult to pass up at this price.
RW: T.J. Oshie $5,800. Oshie is not afraid to shoot the puck (17 SOG) and is coming off a two assist performance against Columbus (both assists came on the power play). Detroit has had a rough time killing penalties this season (73.3 percent penalty-kill percentage) so I’ll roll with Oshie at $5,800.
RW: Vladimir Tarasenko $5,300. It’s just impossible to not play Tarasenko—especially at this price. His average ice time is increasing and he’s delivering—Tarasenko has five goals, four assists, 24 SOG and a plus-6 rating. I doubt he’ll be at this price very long.
C: Steven Stamkos $9,900. Not much explaining to do here. He is Steven Stamkos. But this is the stat that made me comfortable to pull the trigger on his $9,900 cap hit: five of his 11 points have come on the power play. He has a goal in three straight games—ride the hot hand to FanDuel glory.
C: Claude Giroux $8,000. I have a love/hate relationship with Giroux right now. I feel nice and warm inside when I play him, then feel the icy cold grip of fantasy fury when he lays another pointless egg. He led the league in power play points last season and eventually will break out of his slump. I feel warm right now—talk to me tomorrow if we see zeros across the board again.
D: Mike Green $5,200. Green sees a ton of power play time and comes in at a fair price. Washington is playing a Philadelphia team that has only killed off 67.7 percent of power play chances. He gets the puck on net and has a great chance for a power play point tonight.
D: Brendan Smith $4,200. This is one of those “important minutes” picks. Smith has seen a slight increase in his average ice time and could get on the board tonight, especially on the power play.
G: Anders Lindback $7,300. Lindback is getting the start tonight and is 4-1-0 with a 2.80 GAA and a .914 save percentage. I’m breaking one of my own personal rules by starting a goalie in the same lineup with competing forwards. I always stay clear of this kind of potential point-cannibalism (a term I stole from Michael Clifford at some point after seeing it on Twitter). But the remaining goaltenders at this price inspire such little confidence in me I’m willing to go cannibal for a night.
