Nashville Predators
Schedule This Week
Monday: vs. Phoenix
Wednesday: at Columbus
Thursday: at Edmonton
Saturday: vs. Philadelphia
I bet you wouldn’t think the Predators have a Top 10 power play, but they do, coming in at 10th with a 21.1-percent efficiency for the season.
Other than that, they are really scoring-challenged. In that sense, if you go with Predators skaters, you’ll want to go early in the week when they face teams with bad penalty killing.
Also, keep an eye on rookie goalie Marek Mazanec. No one else has stepped up in net, and he’s allowed no more than two goals in four straight games. Columbus would be the best spot for him.
New Jersey Devils
Schedule This Week
Monday: vs. Winnipeg
Wednesday: vs. Carolina
Friday: at Carolina
Saturday: vs Buffalo
After a successful California trip, the Devils return home to get a Winnipeg team that has been playing good hockey recently. I tend to avoid Devils players on the road, I would recommend you do the same.
The Devils have not allowed more than three goals since October 17th, and every team New Jersey meets this week is in the bottom-third in the league in goals for/game. I would look to Schneider on those specific home dates particularly.
New York Islanders
Schedule This Week
Wednesday: vs. Winnipeg
Friday: vs. Detroit
Saturday: vs. Washington
It’s not a killer row of games, but the Islanders goaltending makes me nervous, which relates to the upside of skaters in daily fantasy because of plus/minus concerns. If Pavel Datsyuk is still out by Friday, that turns into a good game to start some higher-priced players from the Islanders.
The studs are useful, like John Tavares and Thomas Vanek, but the real plays for the Islanders are in their depth guys. You’ll want the high-priced guys against Winnipeg, as the Jets have the worst penalty kill of all three Islanders opponents this week. The blue line is fluid for match-ups, so check back for the daily updates.
New York Rangers
Schedule This Week
Monday: at Tampa Bay
Wednesday: at Florida
Friday: at Boston
Saturday: vs. Vancouver
After a pretty abysmal start to the season, the Rangers are 9-4 in their last 13 games, allowing three goals just twice over that stretch and two or less in the rest of those games. With Tampa missing Steven Stamkos and Florida pretty much a sinkhole, those are good goalie starts.
The Rangers are a bit fickle because coach Alain Vigneault tends to spread out the ice time at times. The upside is they don’t produce a lot of minus players, recently anyway, so you shouldn’t get dinged hard regardless of who you choose early this week. When the weekend rolls around, though, those are much tougher games and I would hesitate to use anyone but cheap value plays against Boston or Vancouver.
