Daily Fantasy Hockey DFS Value Update – March 30

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.

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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.

Calgary Flames at Ottawa Senators

The Flames have had a better month of March than most playoff teams, going 9-6-0 so far and having beaten San Jose and the New York Rangers in the last week.

This isn’t some sort of fluky streak either; the Flames have won the possession battle in six of their last eight games and some of their positive games have been against Dallas and Anaheim. The percentages have gotten better for them of late (shot and save), but it’s nothing extreme, it’s more returning to normal after being below-average for the first four months of the season. All this is to say, the Flames are not the team they were even two months ago. This is not an easy out.

The Senators have one regulation win in their last nine games, and it was on Friday night against Chicago in a game were Ottawa gave up 49 shots against. Even the team’s wins, when they do happen, are an unlikely event. With a power play goal against in that Chicago game, the Senators now have 13 power play goals against in their last 13 games. They have also given up 172 shots against in their last four games, an average of 43 shots against per game. All this to say that Ottawa is playing some pretty poor hockey right now.

These two teams played in Calgary a little over three weeks ago and the Flames came out with a 4-1 win after the Senators gave them seven power play opportunities. At the least, this should be a close game and I don’t even mind using whoever starts for Calgary in GPP games. I won’t stack either team, but there will be some good value plays.

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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