In addition to the blizzard over the weekend, a weekend where I learned the older your body gets the longer it takes to recover from simple things like falling in soft snow, the Boston-Tampa Bay game was cancelled throwing many FanDuel NHL lineups off course. We had Dougie Hamilton in our weekend lineup and just had to eat those unsightly zeros next to Hamilton’s name. Even with the zeros, the lineup still went 3-0 in head-to-head matchups but failed to place in the money in the one tournament I entered. Full disclosure: that puts us at 10-6 in head-to-head matchups for the year.
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Here’s the lineup I’m rolling with tonight:
LW: Jiri Tlusty $4,800—Tlusty is seeing first line minutes and ample power play time. As long as he stays at $4,800 he’s a good value play.
LW: James van Riemsdyk $6,400—I really feel James van Riemsdyk is turning into a force in front of the net on power plays. Phil Kessel is starting to heat up and they make a nice power play unit.
RW: Phil Kessel $8,400—I’m rolling with Kessel tonight. He has two goals and two assists over his past four games and has seen most of his scoring on the power play.
RW: Vladimir Tarasenko $5,500—We need a cheap high-upside winger to fill out our roster. He has 10 points in 11 games this season but has struggled recently.
C: Joe Thornton $7,900—I know Thornton has not recorded a point in five straight games. With a day off and going against Steve Mason and Columbus, I like his chances of reversing that trend. Thornton will receive the majority of San Jose’s power play ice time and Columbus allows 3.17 goals per game—eighth worst in the NHL.
C: David Backes $6,100 —Maybe a new linemate (Andy McDonald) is what he needs to heat up.
D: Jay Bouwmeester $4,300—I like the fact Bouwmeester has six shots on goal over his past two games. He has five points in nine games this season.
D: Dion Phaneuf $5,000—He showed signs of life against Montreal on Feb. 9 with two power play points.
G: Leland Irving $6,400—I’ll admit it, this is a pick purely based on his price and is risky. At $6,400, it’s a risk I’m willing to take.
