As the weather starts to get more wintry, hockey season fully blooms. Monday features four NHL games, with the first starting at 7 p.m. EST. Let's get the work week started on a high note! We're in the thick of November, and here are my NHL DFS lineup recommendations for Monday.
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SLATE PREVIEW
This is straightforward. No team is on the second leg of a back-to-back. Only the Blue Jackets are on the first leg of a back-to-back, but they have been stringent with their goalie rotation so the decision there seems clear.
GOALIES
Akira Schmid, VGK vs. FLA ($7,800): Schmid only has a .901 save percentage, but he has a 2.51 GAA because Vegas has only allowed 25.9 shots on net per game. While most expected the Panthers to be worse offensively without Aleksander Barkov and Matthew Tkachuk, they have not merely been underperforming, they've been outright bad. Florida has averaged 2.60 goals per game, which is in the bottom five in the NHL.
Juuse Saros, NAS at NYR ($7,200): Saros has stepped forward this season to a degree, as he has a 2.88 GAA and .902 save percentage. That's not remarkable, but the Rangers have been atrocious offensively, especially at home. New York has managed a meager 2.19 goals per game, so Saros shouldn't be too challenged.
VALUE PLAY/ONE-OFF
Jack Roslovic, EDM vs. CLM ($4,300): So, is anybody other than Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl doing anything for the Oilers? Yes, and, surprisingly, Roslovic is one of them. His first season with the Oil started slowly, but over his last nine games he has seven points and 25 shots on net. The Blue Jackets have a 3.21 GAA, which is below average but not bad this year, but they have put a lot of onus on their goaltending. Columbus has allowed a league-high 32.8 shots on net per game.
FORWARD LINE STACK TO CONSIDER
Blue Jackets at Oilers
Adam Fantilli (C - $5,200), Kirill Marchenko (W - $6,600), Dmitri Voronkov (W - $4,700)
This is not just because the Oilers allowed nine goals in their last game, but also… the Oilers allowed nine goals in their last game. Eight times on the season Stuart Skinner has allowed at least three goals, and Skinner is a better goalie than Calvin Pickard. This current first line for the Blue Jackets is a recent tweak, so another tweak could be on the way, but at the moment this appears to be a line worth stacking.
Fantilli's start has been slow after he broke through with 31 goals in his sophomore season. However, while he has eight points in 14 games, he has three multi-point games. Also, his 6.1 percent shooting should definitely improve, and possibly even double. Marchenko is off to an incredible start to the season, and he's only been held off the scoresheet once in his last 13 games. He's also coming off a three-point outing. Voronkov is also coming off a three-point game and put five shots on net in that contest, his fourth in a row with multiple shots on net.
DEFENSEMEN
Evan Bouchard, EDM vs. CLM ($6,200): I mentioned the Blue Jackets have allowed the most shots on goal per game in the NHL, and Bouchard is a defenseman who knows how to put pucks on net. In three of the last four seasons he's put over 200 shots on target, and he has 45 shots on goal to start this season. Bouchard is also on the top power-play unit, and the Blue Jackets have a bottom-10 penalty kill.
Simon Nemec, NJD vs. NYI ($3,100): While Nemec is only in his third season, there was a sense that he needed to really take a step forward this year. So far, so good. The second overall pick in 2022 has averaged 17:30 in ice time and has eight assists, 16 shots on net, and 26 blocked shots in 15 games. Meanwhile, the Islanders have a 3.27 GAA, and Ilya Sorokin has an .893 save percentage.
