Welcome to the first edition of the @NotTonyM Top Shelf Knucklepuck!
In addition to practicing law, working as a professor of law, teaching yoga and attempting to live life without working, I am also a three-time award winning playwright. Yes, I have written three plays in my years on this Earth and have won three separate play-writing contests. So, on days that I am required to put pen to paper, well, fingers to keyboard in 2018-speak, I will attempt to do so with my own style that, I hope, keeps you entertained.
I am not seeking to win any awards with this writing, although maybe this is just me using reverse psychology on the universe, but I assure you that what I write is true and accurate. I use these same plays in my own DFS gameplay.
With that said, let’s have a look at the second night of action in the National Hockey League’s 2018-2019 season.
In looking at this 10-game slate as a whole, I see that one game that opened with an over/under of is now carrying an over/under of 6.5. In this contest, the Carolina Hurricanes are hosting a New York Islanders team that lost its captain, John Tavares, during the offseason. Anders Lee was named the captain today and he will skate on the second line with Brock Nelson and Jordan Eberle.
With the Islanders on the road, the second line makes an intriguing tournament play. It should be noted that Lee is on the top powerplay unit with Anthony Beauvillier (solid GPP play), Jordan Eberle, Mathew Barzal and Nick Leddy. As a whole, while I don’t love the Islanders, they will be your team that might help you take down a GPP if the Hurricanes’ newly-acquired, Petr Mrazek, falters in net.
On the other side of this game, with the Hurricanes sitting as -163 moneyline favorites, I do like the team’s top line (Michael Ferland, Sebastian Aho, Teuvo Teravainen) quite a bit as another low-owned GPP play. I wish Vegas had not bumped up the O/U or we may have seen the Hurricanes as a below 5%-owned play. The team’s top power play unit is in an even better position (and this is the play I want exposure to the most in this game) against an Islanders penalty kill that finished dead last in the NHL last year in killing off penalties.
Have a look at Aho, Jordan Staal, Teravainen, Valentin Zykov and Justin Faulk.
The chalk stack of the night will be the Dallas Stars top unit of Jamie Benn, Tyler Seguin and Alexander Radulov with Seguin being one of the top overall plays on the night. The Stars are at home and are hosting an Arizona Coyotes team that did not do much to improve itself over the summer. Antti Raanta gets the nod in net for the Coyotes and while he did have a spectacular second half of the season last year, he still faces a sharp offense that averaged 2.82 goals per game on 31.2 shots per game.
Two other chalk stacks that you will want some exposure to are the Vegas Golden Knights top line of Jonathan Marchessault, William Karlsson and Reilly Smith and the Chicago Blackhawks second line featuring Brandon Saad, Nick Schmaltz and Patrick Kane. Duncan Keith will get top defensemen minutes at the point.
One moderate-owned stack should be the Buffalo Sabres top unit centered by Jack Eichel. The Sabres picked up Jeff Skinner during the summer and he now (FINALLY) gets to skate with a talented center. Sam Reinhart skates on the right side of the line and is always underpriced given his output. The team faces a Bruins team that was embarrassed last night courtesy of the Washington Capitals and now Boston is starting its backup netminder.
Lastly, don’t overlook Minnesota 1 (Zucker, Staal, Granlund) or Boston 2 (DeBrusk, Krejci, Heinen)
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