TheLeafsNation Fantasy Game Day — Toronto Maple Leafs square up for game two against the Vancouver Canucks
By Zach Laing
3 years ago
Welcome to TheLeafsNation Game Day where we take a look at today’s Leafs game and a few other things happening around the league.
After routing the Canucks in game one of their three-game set, the Maple Leafs look to pile on another lopsided victory tonight with a 7 p.m. EST matchup.
The Matchup
| Toronto | Vancouver | |
| Record | 8-2-1, .773 points % | 6-8-0, .429points % |
| GF/GA | 40-32 | 47-55 |
| Power play % | 40.0 | 16.3 |
| Penalty kill % | 75.6 | 80.3 |
| CF% | 51.75 | 46.21 |
| xGF% | 56.10 | 48.61 |
| PDO | 101.7 | 101.1 |
Analytics at 5×5 c/o naturalstattrick.com.
Toronto poured it on with a 7-3 victory Thursday night as they exploited all the defensive deficiencies within the Canucks lineup. I would look for that to happen again tonight, as the Canucks had no answers for the scoring up and down the Leafs lineup.
Who I like
If you stacked the Leafs top line, you probably had a good time. That trio combined for seven points and I would strongly consider firing up Auston Matthews ($8,400), Mitch Marner ($7,600), and Zach Hyman ($4,700) again.
At $5,500, William Nylander has been a solid value play this year averaging 11 FPPG. The point scoring matching had a three-assist night Thursday stacking up 19.5 points, and is now over a point per game on the season.
Vancouver’s offence was active Thursday night with J.T. Miller posting a 18 point fantasy night. He’s been dynamite for the Canucks since being acquired by the team and now has 13 points in 11 games on the season.
At only $2,900, Tyler Motte has been off to a great start this year. Averaging 8.3 FPPG, the bottom-six winger has still put up six points in 14 games. He averages two blocked shots a game, and there’s some value to be had here.
Around the NHL
So… the Carey Price play didn’t exactly hit on Thursday, but that’s okay. Back to the drawing board. I like Tristan Jarry ($7,200) in net for the Penguins against a New York Islanders team averaging the third worst goal scoring rate in the entire NHL.
At $4,500, Jesse Puljuarvi is could provide some solid cheaper value. Averaging 6.4 FPPG this year, he’s coming off a breakout two-goal performance against the Ottawa Senators. Tonight the Oilers play the Calgary Flames, who Puljujarvi has had his most NHL success against scoring six points in eight games.
Ryan Donato ($3,000) has been playing in the San Jose Sharks top-six and is quietly making a name for himself. He’s averaged 9.2 FPPG this year and has scored six points in nine games, including a 6.5 point fantasy game last night.
The Leafs Nation is a partner of DraftKings. I am also an avid fan and user (my username is zachlaing) and may sometimes play on my personal account in the games that I offer advice on. Although I have expressed my personal view on the games and strategies above, they do not necessarily reflect the view(s) of DraftKings and I may also deploy different players and strategies than what I recommend above. I am not an employee of DraftKings and do not have access to any non-public information.
Zach Laing is the Nation Network’s news director and senior columnist. He can be followed on Twitter at @zjlaing, or reached by email at zach@oilersnation.com.
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