In reference to the Thompson Twins, (Tage and Logan), I believe it was the ancient Australian explosives expert and vocal philosopher, Sir Bon Scott, who so eloquently referred to Tage Thompson (DK: $7,200) with these lines of verse…
Tage Nathaniel Thompson…I’m dynamite
Tage Nathaniel Thompson…and I’ll win the fight
Tage Nathaniel Thompson…I’m a power load
Tage Nathaniel Thompson…watch me exploooooooooooooooode!
Buffalo’s main piece in the Ryan O’Reilly deal has started to silence the critics that thought the Sabres made yet another terrible move in a series of terrible moves (see : Leino, Ville … or Reinhart, Sam over Draisaitl, Leon). But Tage Thompson’s impact this season has been pretty explosive. The 6’6” Sabres pivot said in a post game interview this week that he’s happy with the way he’s been playing and has been working on his skating. I think it’s safe to say that the practice has been working. If you saw his hat trick (and 6 points!) against the Red Wings on Halloween, you know what I mean. Buffalo’s ‘T.N.T.’ has been one of the hottest players in the league recently with 14 points in 10 games (before Friday night’s game). The Sabres are coming off a back to back today, but I wouldn’t be surprised to see him ‘blow up’ for a few more points against Tampa in this one.
It’s a 14 gamer Saturday again today with a healthy dose of afternoon matchups (4 games) and 10 games with a start time of 7:00 PM ET or later. We’ve got a bunch of chalk to analyze today, but also a good bit of potentially under-priced pickups to help fill in our DFS sheets. Let’s get to it!
C: Jack Eichel, DK: $7,300 – I don’t know if anyone caught Eichel’s crazy OT winner vs. the Jets on Sunday, but it was a thing of beauty. Sabres fans that are excited about the kind words for Thompson above will probably be just as miffed by these words for their former hero here, but…it looks like Jack Eichel is back. With 13 points in 12 games, it looks like he’s ready to reclaim status as a top player in the league. $7,300 is a steep price to pay for another center, but I like his chances against the Habs even if Vegas is on the road tonight.
W: Taylor Hall, DK: $3,900 – Full disclosure, I call this guy ‘the new Kovalev’. And speaking of Sabres fans, a lot of folks in Buffalo can attest that when things are going bad it looks like Hall is ok with coasting and taking some nights off. But when things are good? Well, just like with Alexei Kovalev, the true talent shines pretty brightly. Hall has 4 goals in his last 7 games and managed to pitch in a couple of apples in Thursday night’s win over the Rangers. I did want to play Pastrnak or Marchand against the Leafs tonight, but they were too expensive with T.N.T. and the other names below.
W: Conor Sheary, DK: $3,900 – I tried to save some more cash in a value play at the wing today and went with Sheary instead of Lucas Raymond. Sheary has been averaging 7.9 FPPG and is getting first line duty with Ovie and Kuznetsov. The PP2 time, as with anyone on the second unit, usually only equates to 30 seconds per advantage but that’s better than not seeing any 5-on-4 time at all.
W: Cole Perfetti, DK: $4,000 – Well, I wanted to play ‘the other Cole’ (Caufield) today, but $6,600 vs $4,000 was the ultimate DFS money swing for this one. Perfetti is holding his own on the left side of Line 2 with Pierre-Luc Dubois and Blake Wheeler. He has 6 points in 10 games and faces a rookie backstop in Arvid Soderblom as the Blackhawks travel to Winnipeg. Seems like a lot of checkmarks in the right boxes for Perfetti this afternoon.
D: Erik Karlsson, DK: $7,800 – Sticking with the format from last week, I’ll give a chalk D play and a value play here. To be honest, Karlsson’s price tag was a bit surprising when I checked the numbers. He’s looking a lot like the Erik Karlsson of old with 18 points in 13 GP with a bit of a resurgence in San Jose. The Sharks host a less than impressive 3-7-1 Ducks squad tonight, so look for more points from the former Sens superstar.
D: Hampus Lindholm, DK: $5,900 – Talk about a decently priced D play that has worked out well for both his NHL team and fantasy owners this season. Bruins fans were certainly not thrilled about not having Charlie McAvoy for the start of the year, but the team’s success over the first month can be directly linked to the excellent play of Lindholm on the back end. Coming off a 4 point night against the Penguins on November 1st, (including an OT game winner), Lindholm played 19 minutes in the B’s victory against the Rangers on Thursday night. He scored again, had an assist, and chipped in two blocked shots and two hits along with his 3 SOG. He’s got 13 points in 11 games, leads the NHL in +/- at +12, and looks to keep it rolling with PP1 time, (at least until McAvoy returns in a week or two). DraftKings has noticed too, as his price jumped from $4,400 Thursday to $5,900 today.
UTIL: Charlie Coyle, DK: $3,900 – This was how much we had left and Coyle was the top option at $3,900. Coyle checks in with an average of 8.5 FPPG and the privilege of running center on PP2. Like Lindholm above, Coyle has enjoyed recent success with a goal in each of his last 4 games. He’s well priced for today, especially with the Bruins on the roll that they’re on.
G: Logan Thompson, DK: $8,300 – Well, I never thought I’d be recommending a player that played at the same school that I went to, but here we are. Granted, this Thompson played his university hockey a good 20+ years after I graduated, (but that just means he never had the ‘luxury’ of free parking at school). Signed by the Golden Knights as an undrafted FA in July 2020, the Calgary native has been more than the Knights could have asked for, especially with Robin Lehner out for the year with a hip injury. Thompson has 2 shutouts along with a 5-2 record so far this season for the 2nd place Vegas Golden Knights and has posted respectable ratios with a 1.73 GAA and a .938 SV%. He’s priced very well tonight against a Canadiens team sitting at .500 on the season.
This comes in right around our $50,000 cap. I did have to set up some prices based on earlier week numbers, so the big jump for Lindholm definitely pushed us over. If you’re looking to save some salary here, I could see going with a lower priced D1 in Drew Doughty ($5,100) or MacKenzie Weegar ($4,500) instead of Karlsson.
For other bets each week, I’ll give you a few plays for prop or team bets based on odds posted at the time of edit.
The Sea Bass : (Favorite)
Edmonton comes in at (-170) at home vs. Dallas. The Stars are without their top goalie in Jake Oettinger, and I’m not convinced that Scott Wedgewood and Matt Murray (not THAT Matt Murray) are exactly huge difference makers. The Oilers could drill Dallas so many times that they’re … um … seeing Stars in this one.
The Happy Gilmore : (Underdog)
I don’t want to jinx the Bruins and recommend them against the Leafs tonight, so I’ll go with the Preds at the Canucks as our moneyline underdog. I don’t think Juuse Saros is as bad as he’s shown this year, and unfortunately the Canucks look lost no matter whether they’re at home or on the road. I’d take Nashville as an underdog here, although the moneyline is fairly modest at (+110).
The Claude Lemieux : (Turtle/Flop)
This is where we look at a favorite that seems like a bad move (like a Claude Lemieux sucker punch). Pittsburgh at home is usually not a bad bet, but their odds (-210) against Seattle today look like a bet that’s doomed to fail. The Pens are on a 6 game losing skid and Seattle is on a 2 game win streak. At the very least, it’ll be a lot closer than it should be based on the elite players that the Pens have and the results they’ve shown over the last couple of weeks.
That’s it for this week! I hope everyone enjoyed it. If you have any comments or questions, feel free to leave them below or give me a shout @MarmosDad.
