There are only two days of hockey action until a three-day break for Christmas. Tuesday is jam packed, but Monday is light. There are four games on the docket, with the first puck dropping at 7 p.m. EST. Here are my NHL DFS lineup recommendations. I won't be back around these parts until Saturday, so happy holidays!
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SLATE PREVIEW
No teams are on the second leg of a back-to-back, and the only team on the first leg that is relevant is Philadelphia. Dan Vladar is banged up, so maybe he's held back until Tuesday, which will matter since Samuel Ersson isn't on the same level.
GOALIES
Andrei Vasilevskiy, TAM vs. STL ($8,000): A future Hall of Famer with a 2.38 GAA this season is in line to face perhaps the NHL's worst offense, so I'd call that an opportunity. His two starts since returning from injury have been so-so, but this matchup should help. St. Louis has averaged 2.54 goals and 25.5 shots on net per game.
Lukas Dostal, ANA vs. SEA ($7,900): If the Blues don't have the NHL's worst offense, the Kraken do. Seattle has averaged 2.52 goals and 25.9 shots on goal per contest. Dostal has been erratic since returning from injury, including a nightmare game against Dallas. The Stars are the second-best team in the NHL. The Kraken are…not that.
VALUE PLAY/ONE-OFF
Mason McTavish, ANA vs. SEA ($4,000): McTavish has a point in each of his last two games. Also, he's been playing on the top power-play unit now. That's key here. The Kraken have perhaps the NHL's worst offense, but they definitively have the NHL's worst penalty kill.
FORWARD LINE STACK TO CONSIDER
Kings vs. Blue Jackets
Anze Kopitar (C - $4,500), Adrian Kempe (W - $6,600), Warren Foegele (W - $3,600)
Columbus is fun, and by "fun" I mean it has offensive dynamism but is bad defensively. It is a team rich in incident, as it were. The Blue Jackets are in the bottom three in GAA, shots on net allowed per game, and penalty-kill percentage. Two of these guys are on the Kings' top power-play unit, which helps boost this as a stack option.
Kopitar is shooting the puck less than ever, but he has 17 points in 30 games. He's also averaged 3:33 per game on the power play and has seven points with the extra man. Kempe has 10 points in his last 10 games. He's also averaged 3:26 per contest with the extra man. Foegele is not a power-play player, but he's had over 20 goals in each of the last two seasons. He has five goals this year, and that's while mostly not playing this high up in the lineup.
DEFENSEMEN
Jackson LaCombe, ANA vs. SEA ($5,900): LaCombe has seven points in his last nine games. Additionally, I'll get back to the power play, since the Kraken have the league's worst penalty kill. LaCombe has averaged 3:37 per game with the extra man and has six power-play points.
Darren Raddysh, TAM vs. STL ($5,700): With Victor Hedman injured, Raddysh is picking up the slack. Honestly, that undersells his season, as Raddysh has 21 points in his last 18 games. The Blues have a 3.38 GAA, which is bottom five in the NHL. Even that required a good run of play as of late, which I do not trust.
