Daily Fantasy Hockey Update, November 29

Montréal Canadiens at Washington Capitals

The Habs are one of the hottest teams in the NHL, being the only Eastern team to be currently on a four-game winning streak, tying Chicago for the longest such streak currently. Remember that the lines are jumbled so The Kids (Gallagher/Galchenyuk/Eller) aren’t playing together anymore. Beyond those three up front, you’re throwing blind darts.

Washington has lost four in a row and their penalty kill is a paltry 16-for-25 over their last six games, just 64-percent. Not only are they getting pummeled with the disadvantage, they’ve allowed 31+ shots in five of their last six games as well. With the Habs having a really good power play and the Caps a subpar penalty kill, look for Holtby to give up at least two goals.

Colorado Avalanche at Minnesota Wild

Colorado is fully healthy and they’re still playing very good hockey. They are regressing a bit, but have still managed a 7-5 record this month. Part of their regression has been allowing goals, but they still aren’t getting lit up with any sort of consistency; the Avalanche haven’t allowed more than two goals in any consecutive pair of games this year (they allowed four on Wednesday).

Minnesota is really struggling with Zach Parise, averaging just 25.5 shots/game over their last two contests, potting just one goal. I don’t like Niklas Backstrom in this game, and I don’t like Minnesota’s power play either; the Wild have just seven power play opportunities in their last three games, converting none of them.

New Jersey Devils at Carolina Hurricanes

I will not have a single skater out of this match-up in any lineup. The only play I want is goalie Cam Ward for Carolina. It’s that simple.

Edmonton Oilers at Columbus Blue Jackets

This makes back-to-back nights on the road for the Oilers, and that’s terrible news for them, as Edmonton has lost all six back-to-back games this year, going 0-5-1 and being outscored 22-15 over those six contests. They got the win last night, but odds say that won’t happen again today.

The Blue Jackets have allowed at least four goals in three of their last five contests, including an embarrassing 7-0 shellacking from the Oilers 10 days ago. I don’t expect that same score, but it worries me enough that I’m not taking anyone from this game that isn’t playing top power play minutes.

Toronto Maple Leafs at Buffalo Sabres

Coming off a shootout loss to the Penguins, where they had a 4-1 lead, the Leafs will need a big rebound game. The Maple Leafs get the worst team in the NHL so the stars are aligning for Toronto. The worrisome part is that Toronto already has a loss in Buffalo this year, and their penalty kill is under 50-percent in the last two games. They are not coming in with any sort of positive streak.

As per usual, if you’re using Sabres players, you’re desperate. If you want a cheap play from the power play, that’s fine, but I would not be using any sort of stack, no matter how bad Toronto was on Wednesday.

Chicago Blackhawks at Dallas Stars

The Hawks have won four in a row, all on the road, outscoring the opposition 16-7. Those wins include Vancouver and Winnipeg, which aren’t gimme games on the road whatsoever. On top of that, only two of those goals were on the power play, which means there could be an added boost for any Hawks player in your lineup from plus/minus.

Dallas already lost to Chicago once this year 5-2, but it was closer than it appeared. Also, the Stars have scored at least two goals in 10 of their 11 games this month, which doesn’t bode well for a Chicago penalty kill that is 29^th in the NHL at 74-percent. The saving grace is Dallas’ awful power play, which is also 29^th in the NHL at 11.1-percent

Good luck today!

Michael Clifford

Michael Clifford was born and raised in Fredericton, New Brunswick, Canada and is a graduate of the Unviersity of New Brunswick. He writes about fantasy hockey and baseball for XNSports and FantasyTrade411.com. He can be reached on Twitter @SlimCliffy for any fantasy hockey questions. Follow @SlimCliffy !function(d,s,id){var js,fjs=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0],p=/^http:/.test(d.location)?'http':'https';if(!d.getElementById(id)){js=d.createElement(s);js.id=id;js.src=p+'://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js';fjs.parentNode.insertBefore(js,fjs);}}(document, 'script', 'twitter-wjs');

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