This article is part of our DraftKings NHL series.
College football? Playoff baseball? How about nine NHL games? Yeah, let's focus on that. That's the number of matchups happening in the evening, which is the slate that starts at 7 p.m. EDT. Who should be in your lineups? Let's get to it!
SLATE PREVIEW
We've got only two teams on the second leg of a back-to-back, and only one on the road. Tampa Bay is at home, while Colorado has itself an away game. A couple of iffy defenses are on the slate, though of course a lot of that is based on last season, since the sample size this year is still on the slight side.
GOALIES
Tristan Jarry, PIT at CLM ($8,400): Jarry rebounded with a 2.42 GAA and .919 save percentage last season, but this year he's been even better. Through three starts he has an 1.68 GAA and .952 save percentage. The Blue Jackets are middling in goals per game since the beginning of last year, but Patrik Laine is hurt and Columbus' porous defense makes me believe Jarry is in line for a win.
Jake Oettinger, DAL at MON (8,000): How do you follow up a season with a 2.54 GAA and .914 save percentage, plus a head-turning playoff performance? How about an 1.00 GAA and .966 save percentage through three starts? I have no fear of Oettinger being on the road here. The Canadiens are 27th in goals per game since the start of last season.
Logan Thompson, VGK vs. COL ($7,500): This is bold, to some degree. Colorado was great offensively last season. However, Nazem Kadri is gone, and Gabriel Landeskog is out injured. Plus, the Avalanche are on the road for the second leg of a back-to-back. Meanwhile, in his career Logan Thompson has a 2.57 GAA and .918 save percentage, and this year he has a .938 save percentage through three starts.
VALUE PLAYS/ONE-OFFS
Elias Pettersson, VAN vs. BUF ($6,500): It feels like Pettersson kind of flies under the radar in a way tucked up there in Vancouver. This is a guy who has never failed to have at least 27 goals and 66 points in any seasons where he's played more than 60 games. The Swede has three goals on 17 shots on net plus three assists through five games. Craig Anderson seems in line to get his second start of the season, but he had a 3.12 GAA and .897 save percentage last year, and he's 41 now.
Roope Hintz, DAL at MON ($6,000): Hintz gets to center a line with Jason Robertson and Joe Pavelski, which is nice. Not that the Finn is a mere product of circumstance. You don't tally 37 goals like Hintz did last year by luck. This season, he has five points through four games. Since the beginning of last year, the Canadiens have a 3.79 GAA and have allowed 34.1 shots on net per game, and this year's defense has less talent while the goaltending is the same.
Rickard Rakell, PIT at CLM ($5,100): Rakell gets to spend the whole season as a Penguin this year, and he's on Sidney Crosby's wing to boot. So far he has two goals, but he's put 16 shots on net through four games. The Blue Jackets have allowed 35.1 shots on goal per contest, and over the last season seasons Elvis Merzlikins has a 3.24 GAA and .906 save percentage.
FORWARD LINE STACKS
Islanders at Lightning
Brock Nelson (C - $4,600), Anders Lee (W - $5,000), Oliver Wahlstrom (W - $4,000)
The Lightning are on a back-to-back, as I noted. Andrei Vasilevskiy got the start Friday, and you know what that means. Brian Elliott will likely be in net. The 37-year-old has a 2.75 GAA and .905 save percentage over the last seven seasons. He basically only plays when the Lightning are pressed to give him a start, but this is one of those times where I expect it to happen, which plays into the Islanders' favor.
Nelson doesn't have a goal yet, but he has four assists. Last year he had 37 goals, though, so the lamp should be lit soon enough. Lee had 28 goals himself last year, and he has a goal in each of his last two games after having a three-assist game as well. Wahlstrom is still waiting to breakthrough, but maybe being on the Islanders' second line will help. He has three goals and an assist through three games.
Sabres at Canucks
Tage Thompson (C - $5,300), Alex Tuch (W - $6,500), Jeff Skinner (W - $4,800)
This isn't just Buffalo's first line. It's also a line featuring three guys on the top power-play unit. Since the start of last season, the Canucks have the league's worst penalty kill. That was true last year even though Thatcher Demko had a .915 save percentage. This year, Demko has a 4.30 GAA and .861 save percentage through four starts.
Thompson broke through in a major way last season with 38 goals, 10 of which came on the power play. He didn't do anything in his first two games, but he has a point in each of his last two outings. Tuch had five points through four games, including one on the power play. All in all, he's averaged 3:29 per game with the extra man. Skinner doesn't have a goal yet, but he's put 10 shots on net through four outings. Last year, though, he had 33 goals on a whopping 262 shots on net.
DEFENSEMEN
Rasmus Dahlin, BUF at VAN ($6,700): I want to go after that Canucks penalty kill one more time. Dahlin has been a power-play weapon since the first day he stepped on the NHL ice. Last year he had 21 power-play points. This year, he's averaged 4:08 with the extra man. He only has one power-play point so far, but he has six points total.
Miro Heiskanen, DAL at MON ($6,200): Heiskanen still hasn't taken "the leap," but he had a career-high 36 points in 70 games last year, including 11 with the extra man. Hey, he's still only 23, so improvement is very much possible. The Finn has three points through four games thus far. Jake Allen has been strong so far this season, but over his prior two seasons as a Hab he had a .906 save percentage.
Shea Theodore, VGK vs. COL ($5,200): Theodore has put at least 200 shots on net in his last three seasons where he played over 60 games. That includes last year when he had 14 goals and 38 assists. The Avalanche are on the road for the second leg of a back-to-back, and Alexandar Georgiev is going to be in net. The former Ranger has a career .908 save percentage.
