We're halfway through March on Monday! There are five games on the slate for the NHL, with the first contests starting at 7 p.m. EDT. Here are my NHL DFS lineup recommendations. Hopefully this Monday proves fruitful for you!
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SLATE PREVIEW
This is a straightforward picture when it comes to goalies. Not only is no team on the second leg of a back-to-back, only one team is on the first leg of a back-to-back. Unless the Bruins opt for Joonas Korpisalo over Jeremy Swayman on Monday, we're looking at a relatively easy-to-predict goaltending situation.
GOALIES
John Gibson, DET vs. CGY ($8,200): As the Red Wings deal with the absence of Dylan Larkin and the need to avoid another missed postseason, Gibson will be asked to come up big. To his credit, he does have a .921 save percentage over his last 22 outings. Gibson and the Wings need to take advantage of this opportunity to have any real playoff hopes. The Flames are last in the NHL at 2.47 goals per game.
Igor Shesterkin, NYR vs. LOS ($7,500): Both the Rangers and Kings have fallen by the wayside in the playoff race, and both have lackluster offenses. While it was the Kings who brought in Artemi Panarin when the Rangers shipped him out, it's L.A. that still sit in the bottom five in goals per game. Shesterkin has seen the team in front of him lose talent, but he still has a .916 save percentage in seven starts since returning from injury.
VALUE PLAYS/ONE-OFFS
Nazem Kadri, COL vs. PIT ($5,900): Since joining the Avalanche (again), Kadri has been slotted onto the top line and the first power-play unit. He's notched one goal, one assist, and 11 shots on net in four games. The Penguins are above average in terms of GAA, but they are banged up, and I don't trust the goaltending duo of Stuart Skinner and Arturs Silovs.
Alexis Lafreniere, NYR vs. LOS ($4,900): It seems that, at this point, Lafreniere won't end up at the level that a team hopes for when it drafts someone first overall. Also, remember the conspiracies about the NHL rigging that draft lottery so the Rangers could take Lafreniere? However, he is all but locked into his second 20-goal season, and he has a good chance of his second 50-point season. The 24-year-old is even seeing substantive power-play time after the trade deadline. That's a nice boost for Lafreniere here, as the Kings have a bottom-five penalty kill.
FORWARD LINE STACK TO CONSIDER
Devils vs. Bruins
Jack Hughes (C - $8,500), Jesper Bratt (W - $4,800), Connor Brown (W - $3,400)
Swayman, should he be in net, has been vital to the success of the Bruins. That's because Boston ranks in the bottom 10 in penalty-kill percentage and the bottom five in shots on net allowed per game. The Bruins have a porous defense, putting a lot of the onus on the netminder. Two of these three Devils are locked into the top power-play unit, and the third has flipped between the first and second unit for good measure.
One gold-winning goal goes a long way for a hockey player's esteem, apparently. Since returning from Milan, Hughes has 12 points and 30 shots on net in nine games. On the year he's notched 27 power-play points in 45 contests. With 51 points in 66 games, Bratt hasn't lived up to his usual standards. However, many an NHL player would love stats like that, and he has six points in his last four contests. That includes four points on the power play. Even with a move back down to the second power-play unit, Brown picked up an assist in his last game. On the year he has 29 points in 59 contests.
DEFENSEMEN
Moritz Seider, DET vs. CGY ($5,700): Larkin may be hurt, but Seider is still out there shouldering a massive load for the Red Wings. He has 46 points in 67 games, and he's managed both 148 shots on net and 148 blocked shots. The star defenseman from Germany has also notched 13 points in his last 17 outings. Calgary is a different team on the road, in part because Dustin Wolf is a different goalie on the road. He has a 3.56 GAA and .885 save percentage in away outings this year.
Vladislav Gavrikov, NYR vs. LOS ($3,700): Gavrikov left the Kings for the Rangers, and it's paid off for both player and team. He has 30 points in 66 games, including a whopping 13 goals. The Russian has tallied 15 points in his last 17 outings, including five on the power play. Los Angeles has a poor penalty kill, but the goaltending has also been an issue for a while. Since the start of the new year, Darcy Kuemper has an .871 save percentage.
