Pittsburgh Penguins at Tampa Bay Lightning
The defending Stanley Cup champion Tampa Bay Lightning will kick off the season facing off against the Pittsburgh Penguins.
Tampa Bay comes into tonight with no notable injuries, Pittsburgh however cannot say the same. They will be without Sidney Crosby for the first few weeks of the season, Evgeni Malkin will be out for what looks like a couple of months, and Jake Guentzel could be out as well with COVID, but we should keep a closer eye on him as he could play.
When looking at Tampa everything starts with Nikita Kucherov. He has the highest ceiling of any player on today’s slate. He could easily give you multiple points while chipping in 3 plus shots. He should be a cash game staple today. You will want to try to stack him with Brayden Point on a short slate as well. Point has shown that he can produce at a point per game pace or better, and we shouldn’t forget that it was Point who lead all skaters in goals scored in last year’s playoffs. The important thing to remember in this game is that without Crosby, Pittsburgh doesn’t have a shutdown option to slow down Tampa’s top line. Other Lightning forwards of interest today are Alex Killorn, who while getting second-line minutes he looks to be on the top power play, and Anthony Cirelli, who is value-priced today and will see second-line minutes, and time on the second power-play unit.
On Defence, Victor Hedman’s value is an obvious choice. He is capable of hitting the shot, block, and points bonus, and while he was less effective in the second half of last season, I expect he will be ready to go after having a couple of months off. If you’re looking to pay down, you can look to Mikael Sergachev, who has the shots and points upside, or Ryan McDonaugh who is the best candidate to provide you with some cheap blocks.
In goal, Andrei Vasilevskiy is going to be highly owned, but for good reason. Pittsburgh could be without their three best players, so I would want to keep his usage to cash games, as he may not have much upside, but he is a safe play.
For the Penguins we don’t see a lot of great options. Jeff Carter is going to see a lot of minutes, but his price is a little high for my liking on DK and FD, so I wouldn’t be looking to pay up for him. The same goes with Bryan Rust. He might give you five shots, but his production is likely to suffer without Crosby. You could look at Jason Zucker who may see top-line and power-play minutes if Guentzel is out, so he is a good value play. Kasperi Kapanen is another value play who will give you time on the top power play, but likely won’t give you too much production five on five.
Kris Letang led all Penguins defencemen in both scoring and in blocked shots last year, He will be relied upon to provide offence in this contest for the Penguins, but I see him as a GPP play only as there is certainly no certainty in how much we should expect the Penguins to score. If you’re looking at the low end for defecemen on the Penguins you can look at John Marino, who has some upside with points, and will likely give you a couple of blocked shots as well.
We know that Tristan Jarry will be in goal for the Penguins, but what we don’t know is which version of Jarry we will get. He is in play for GPP games as he could face a lot of shots, so if he comes out ready to play he could provide a high point total, and he likely won’t see a lot of ownership with Tampa being a heavy favourite.
Seattle Kraken at Vegas Golden Knights
We will learn a lot about Seattle in this game, but we know what Vegas is at this point and that it is one of the best teams in the league. When it comes to Seattle we expect them to play a more defensive style based on their coaching decisions and the roster choices they made in the expansion draft.
Looking at injuries tonight, Yanne Gourde is going to be out for the Kraken, and Vegas will be without Alex Tuch, Nick Roy, and Brett Howden.
Not much has changed for Vegas over the summer. Their top two lines remain intact, so we have the familiar stacks of the shot heavy Max Pacioretty(always a great cash game option), with the lower priced Chandler Stephenson, and if you’re looking to pay up you can use Mark Stone. Vegas’ top line is the preferred stack today with them being at home and getting last change. That said, the second line has some value too. Jonathan Marchessault is a volume shooter, and then you just need to choose if you are going to use someone with him. Reilly Smith had a rough 19-20 campaign, which has reduced him to value pricing, while William Karlsson remains a strong option and is a candidate for PP1 time. I tend to not want to look too far down the lineup, but Evgeni Dadanov could be a sneaky play. Vegas was willing to take on his contract, and he is projected to start the year on the top power play.
On the backend we have three consistent options. Alex Pietrangelo is the pricest and top option, as he is capable of hitting the blocks, shots, and points bonuses. Shea Theodore, has the highest points upside, and Alec Martinez consistently hit the blocks bonus last year, and provided some points.
Robin Lehner should be a solid option in both cash and GPP games as this should be a game that Vegas wins, but how many shots he will face remains to be seen.
When I look at Seattle’s forward lines, I don’t expect to make too much of an investment. I think you could see some production from their top line, with Jaden Schwartz, Jared McCann, and Jordan Eberle, but they are more of a one off type of option as opposed to a stack.
On the back-end, I think you can use Mark Giordano, he will get the top power play, and he averaged nearly three shots and two blocks last season. I also really like Jamie Oleksiak as a low cost option, as he averaged nearly three blocks per game last season.
Philipp Grubauer is a play I like today in GPP. All of the money is going to be on Lehner and Vasilevskiy today, but we saw what Grubauer can do last season in Colorado, and if Seattle plays the defensive style I expect he should be in position for a strong showing.
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