This article is part of our FanDuel NHL series.
SLATE PREVIEW
It's a light night with just two games. Interestingly, none of the four teams have won a Cup. The Sabres are truly "Mr. October," now 9-2-1 and sitting atop the Atlantic Division, mirroring last year's surprisingly successful opening month. They're the only undefeated team at home with a perfect 5-0-0 record, but the visiting Coyotes have also been perfect, going 3-0-0 as they wrap up their tri-state road trip.
Dale Tallon returns to Vancouver, where the Canucks are 3-0-1 with the only blemish coming from a crushing 6-5 shootout loss after blowing a 5-1 lead against the Caps. The Panthers have just three wins in 17 games all-time at Rogers Arena, and both Aleksander Barkov and Vincent Trocheck are nursing injuries.
GOALIES
I like Darcy Kuemper ($8,400) -- who is expected to start after Antti Raanta played the last game -- slightly more than Carter Hutton ($8,300). After allowing six goals against the Rangers, it's clear Hutton's once-per-season hot streak is over, and the Coyotes offense has woken up, scoring five goals in three of their past five games. This is their final game of their road trip but they've had a two-day break, and the Sabres 5-0-0 record have involved a little luck, too.
Sergei Bobrovsky played yesterday, so Samuel Montembeault ($7,400) will likely get the start, and the young netminder has been quite good with four goals allowed in his past two games, both of which went to extra time. However, he's got a thin team in front of him and the Canucks have been good at home and have more quality depth. Jacob Markstrom ($8,100) and Thatcher Demko ($7,600) are both better options.
VALUE PLAYS/ONE-OFFS
The Coyotes spread out their offense too much to line stack, so you're better off picking individual players. Nick Schmaltz ($5,300) is playing on the "third line" but he's got the hot hand with three goals and seven assists in his past seven games. Barrett Hayton ($3,000) has substantial upside but doesn't get a lot of playing time.
Jake Virtanen ($3,500) blocked three shots and scored a goal against the Capitals, giving him two in two games since being promoted to Bo Horvat's line. His inconsistency is maddening, but there's no doubt Shotgun Jake has speed to burn and good-enough hands to score.
FORWARD LINE STACKS
Buffalo Sabres (TOTAL: $20,900)
C – Jack Eichel ($8,400)
W – Sam Reinhart ($6,100)
W – Victor Olofsson ($6,400)
Unless proven otherwise we're going to treat this line as elite, if only because Eichel demands it. Olofsson has, unsurprisingly, cooled off considerably, but still has two assists in his past three games and the trio continue to play on the top power-play unit.
Vancouver Canucks (TOTAL: $19,400)
C – Elias Pettersson ($6,600)
W – Brock Boeser ($7,100)
W – J.T. Miller ($5,700)
Easy. An elite line used heavily by the Canucks to generate offense playing against an injury-riddled team starting their backup, and all three play on a pretty good top power-play unit.
DEFENSEMEN
Rasmus Dahlin ($5,400) and Quinn Hughes ($4,400) are the two youngsters who quarterback their team's top power plays. Hughes generates more shots per 60 minutes than any other PP QB, according to Natural Stat Trick, and comes at a big discount to Dahlin. They should both be popular picks.
The Panthers power play has been just so-so, and with Jonathan Huberdeau taking the draws and Barkov ailing, I'm not sure Keith Yandle ($5,200) is a good play, especially since the Canucks goalies have been pretty solid all season. Aaron Ekblad ($4,500) is probably better because he's a good source of shots. MacKenzie Weegar ($3,800), with eight points this season and logging a lot of minutes, is an intriguing choice, however.
Jakob Chychrun ($3,600) has seen his minutes climb lately and skated a season-high 24 minutes against the Devils. He has three assists in his past three games, and his upside was never in question. He's averaged nearly two minutes on the power play per game over the past week, sharing duties with Alex Goligoski ($4,300) on the second unit. He has a booming slap shot and registered 19 shots this season, only one fewer than Oliver Ekman-Larsson ($5,700).
