Daily Fantasy Hockey DFS Value Update – April 3

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.

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Columbus Blue Jackets at Philadelphia Flyers

Columbus has put themselves in a playoff spot and need to tread water to get to the postseason. They are only four points back of the Flyers, though, and getting out of the wild card position means avoiding Boston or Pittsburgh in the first round. This is a big game for this team and they know it.

The Jackets’ scoring troubles are becoming a serious issue in DFS; this team has only scored 19 goals in their last 10 games and have scored one or none in half of those. Surprisingly, the team is 4-for-11 in their last five games on the power play, so I would probably avoid this team for the most part but there are cheap power play options to help round out 50/50s and GPPs.

The Flyers have just one win in their last five games and are having about as much trouble as the Jackets in the goal scoring department with just 11 in their last five games. The penalty kill has been rock solid lately and that’ll be important in this game, but their power play is fairly punch-less in converting just two of their last 16 opportunities.

These two teams have combined for 25 goals in their three games against each other this year. If they were going to break out of a slump, this would be the game to do so. I’ll be sprinkling players from both sides in 50/50s but will be avoiding the goalies and stacking either team.

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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