What you need to know!
The 3 day Appreciation contest begins today, join in using the link below and remember to enter on Saturday and next Monday as well for those main slates. Tonight is an 11 game slate with lots of really good match-ups on paper, so plenty of choices.
Slapshot Appreciation Contest – Day 1
TODAYS STACKS
Knights vs Avalanche
Karlsson – Marchessault – Smith
MacKinnon – Landeskog – Rantanen
I will tell you this is overall my favorite game tonight. These are arguably not just the two best teams in … well, what used to be the Western Conference … but all of hockey. For a while the Avs were just puttering along and winning by virtue of getting to face teams like the Ducks, Sharks and Kings over and over. They have managed to survive without a dominant season from Nathan MacKinnon who missed some time with an upper-body injury. He’s back with plenty of game time under his legs and the Avs offensive machine could not be more locked in right now with a goal streak of 4-8-5-6-5-4 over their last six games. It is my belief that when you are a good offensive team scoring that hot, you do not suddenly turn it off to play a tough hard nosed hockey game when facing a great opponent.
That’s what they have tonight in Vegas who themselves have posted 4 or more goals in 3 of their last 4. They played some defensive styled games earlier this season, but tonight should be an epic shootout battle. It’s a tough spot for DFS because of the high salaries and on an 11 game slate they could score a ton of goals each with them spread out across various lines and it would still be tough to manage a full game stack, so it’s not the lead game. But we will be betting the over and we should look her for some one off late night hammers.
Detroit Red Wings
Dylan Larkin – Anthony Mantha – Filip Hronek
Honestly nothing more than being a strong believer in this play and watching it fail with a 0 the other night. So yes, I am going to go immediately back to this same spot.
New York Islanders
Brock Nelson – Josh Bailey – Nick Leddy
Pure value stack, but the Isles should be able to win this game against a team coming off a COVID pause and I like their depth here to do the damage. Could honestly say there’s no sense going full Islanders today on a big 11 game slate and that would be true – but a player here or there from this value spot is a strong consideration for me.
Other spots to target
- Toronto second line (Both AM and JT do well vs OTT, so take the cheaper play in JT)
- Washington (Kuzy paired with Ovi makes that line an affordable pairing, but Caps have been a really spread out team this year in terms of goals, hard to stack a line)
- Chicago (Some value with Acciari projected filling in for Barkov on the FLA side, but Hawks should control this game)
POSITIONAL ONE OFFS
CENTERS
Best pay up: Nathan MacKinnon
Best mid range: Dylan Larkin, John Tavares
Best value: Jordan Staal, Noel Acciari
Fade: Mika Zibanejad
WINGS
Best pay up: Mikko Rantanen, Alex Ovechkin, Gabe Landeskog, Jake Guentzel
Best mid range: Kevin Fiala, Jonathan Marchessault, Anthony Mantha
Best value: Jaden Schwartz, Josh Bailey
Fade: David Pastrnak
DEFENSE
Best pay up: Kris Letang, Roman Josi
Best mid range: Cole Makar, Morgan Reilly, Alec Martinez, Filip Hronek
Best value: Justin Schultz
Fade: Probably Letang, but I can’t not recommend D vs Buffalo
GOALIES
Kevin Lankinen: Gets a Florida team without Barkov
Semyon Varlamov: Expect a sluggish Bruins team
Carter Hart: Im sorry, I know how shitty their defense is right now but the Flyers losing 9-0 to the Rangers has to be weighing on them heavily tonight. This smells like a 3-2 Flyers win.
SLAP SHOTS
LINE LOCK OF THE NIGHT: Wild Bill – Marchessault – Smith (Vegas)
ONE OFF STUD: Alex Ovechkin if you aren’t playing COL1
ONE OFF CONTRARIAN: Mikko Rantanen (COL)
TOP DEFENSEMAN: Roman Josi (NSH)
FAVORITE BETS:
- Knights / Avs OVER 5.5
- Flyers ML
- Wings / Preds OVER 5.5
- Carolina Hurricanes to win the Stanley Cup – The Avs were my pre-season prediction and I had Florida winning this division but I now have the same feeling about the Hurricanes that I had about the Stars last year. The Hurricanes to win the Cup is a solid play IMO.