Daily Fantasy Hockey DFS Value Update – April 23

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.

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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.

Pittsburgh Penguins at Columbus Blue Jackets

Pittsburgh was barely able to squeak by the Blue Jackets in Game 3 but in reality, the Jackets were lucky to hang on for as long as they did as the team pretty much caved in after the first 10 minutes of the first period. One note from this morning’s skate was that Brian Gibbons did not take part so the assumption is that he will not be in the lineup for tonight.

Pittsburgh is leading the series and their stars haven’t started rolling yet. Sure, Evgeni Malkin and Sidney Crosby have some assists, but they have zero goals so far (on 21 total shots). Once those shots start going in, it’s going to be too much for Columbus to overcome consistently.

One thing that Columbus has been able to do when they plan to do so is that they’re executing their set plays to perfection. Twice in the last game, off of neutral zone faceoffs, Ryan Johansen was given zone entries with speed off a set play. If that continues, he could provide a goal just based off these plays alone.

I’m going to hold off on stacking the Penguins as has been the case in this series so far, I will be looking at mostly value plays and holding off on taking either goaltender.

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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