Daily Fantasy Hockey DFS Value Update – February 26

I will mention that I generally do not pick two players playing against each other in the same game for a daily fantasy hockey lineup. The same applies for a goalie and a player from opposite teams. You might see two players among the “value picks” from opposite teams, but that doesn’t mean you should take them both. No matter the value, you’re also likely cannibalizing points, so any gains made below a certain price point – the point where production and cost intersect – can be lost if production declines overall as well.

There are many things that determine value: The player’s history (both short and long-term), the price, recent production, opponent, line matching at even-strength, power play time and injuries are just some of the factors to consider. The “Top Value” doesn’t necessarily mean the cheapest player, either.

Finally, as far as goalies go, it’s the one position I’ll pay through the nose for if I really like the match-up. The same applies for back-ups with good match-ups. In a given night, with a full slate of games, I won’t have more than three different goalies across all my lineups, usually two. I’ll name the goalies I like specifically in the match-ups they appear in.

Here is today’s slate of games (and DraftStreet values). Reminder: check Left Wing Lock for up-to-the-minute information on starting goalies.

Games are color-coded as follows:

Green means stack for GPPs. Yellow means targets for cash games. Red means value plays only.

Boston Bruins at Buffalo Sabres

Boston starts the stretch run of their season with a game against the worst team in the NHL who is playing their second game in as many nights.

Going into the break, Boston was 3-0-1 with their only blemish coming against St. Louis (and that was without Zdeno Chara). Put simply, the Bruins were firing on all cylinders and were mostly healthy among their forward group. All the lines will stay the same as they were before the break so that means a Soderberg/Kelly/Eriksson third line with Dougie Hamilton manning the second power play unit.

Buffalo managed a 3-2 win last night at home against Carolina but needed a goal with under a minute left to do so and they were wildly outplayed all game. The final shot tally was 38-18 and the difference, as it has been all season, was Ryan Miller. With Jhonas Enroth getting the start tonight for Buffalo, I don’t anticipate a similar game.

I’m hesitant to stack teams in their first game out of such a long break but Boston seems as good a team as any to do that for GPP games tonight. I certainly will be staying away from anyone and everyone in a Buffalo Sabres uniform.

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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