Daily Fantasy Hockey DFS Value Update – April 2

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.

Sign up for DraftStreet to create your own Daily Fantasy Hockey lineup

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.

New York Islanders at Ottawa Senators

With John Tavares out of the lineup, after last night’s win at home to the Panthers, the Islanders are 7-5-2. That’s kind of odd.

The nice thing about their streak and the teams they are playing is that there is a lot of value in the Islanders lineup. Four out of the five guys on the top power play unit were not there with any regularity all year (Frans Nielsen excepted) and they are now running a four forward power play. Over the team’s last five games, they have only allowed nine goals against. They have allowed 10 goals against in their last three games that were the second of a back to back though (and one of those games was a one-goal-against performance vs Buffalo).

Ottawa has gone 4-0-1 in their last five games to keep their very dim playoff hopes alive (even if they win out, they’ll need a lot of help). Over those five games, the team has scored 17 goals but this is just a wave of fortunate save percentages: The team has averaged nearly 40 shots against per game over those five games with their goalies providing a .940 save percentage in those games.

These two teams played each other in November and the result was eight total goals on 88 total shots on goal. I expect a high scoring game in this one but it’s likely that Ottawa skates out with a win. Craig Anderson will be tempting in net but I might be more tempted with him in GPPs than in 50/50s or heads up matches. Note: Jason Spezza is a scratch tonight, check Daily Faceoff for updated lineup combinations.

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');

See Full Bio