Daily Fantasy Hockey DFS Value Update – February 6

I generally do not pick two players playing against each other in the same game for a daily fantasy hockey lineup. The same applies for a goalie and a player from opposite teams. You might see two players among the “value picks” from opposite teams, but that doesn’t mean you should take them both. No matter the value, you’re also likely cannibalizing points, so any gains made below a certain price point – the point where production and cost intersect – can be lost if production declines overall as well.

There are many things that determine value: The player’s history (both short and long-term), the price, recent production, opponent, line matching at even-strength, power play time and injuries are just some of the factors to consider. The “Top Value” doesn’t necessarily mean the cheapest player, either.

Finally, as far as goalies go, it’s the one position I’ll pay through the nose for if I really like the match-up. The same applies for back-ups with good match-ups. In a given night, with a full slate of games, I won’t have more than three different goalies across all my lineups, usually two. I’ll name the goalies I like specifically in the match-ups they appear in.

Here is today’s slate of games (and DraftStreet values). Reminder: check Left Wing Lock for up-to-the-minute information on starting goalies.

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Games are color-coded as follows:

Green means load up. Yellow means grab a couple of players. Red means value plays only.

Calgary Flames at New York Islanders

The Flames have two wins in seven games away from home since Christmas and they lost their last time out on the road 2-0 in Montréal. This shouldn’t surprise anyone, but Calgary has the second-fewest road wins this year in the NHL with nine. Besides their five-game winning streak, the Flames have been getting rolled in the possession game, finishing below 50-percent in seven of their last 10 games. They’re still without goaltender Karri Ramo and are relying on Reto Berra, which is just more bad news for this team.

The Islanders snapped a five-game losing streak on Tuesday night with a 1-0 win over the Washington Capitals. Typically, this team has kept the shots on goal margin close in their recent games so it’s probably fair to say there’s a little bad luck going on for this team of late. The penalty kill has been excellent since the start of that losing streak, rolling along at a 93.8-percent efficiency in their last six games. The power play, however, is 0-for-25 in those games.

This is the first meeting this year between these cross-conference teams but I think the Islanders win this game fairly handily. New York is a team that can consistently create chances every game and rarely doesn’t get their fair share of opportunities to score (power play or otherwise). If they get their chances on Berra, they should be able to take this game. That’s not an endorsement of Evgeni Nabokov, however.

Michael Clifford

Michael Clifford was born and raised in Fredericton, New Brunswick, Canada and is a graduate of the Unviersity of New Brunswick. He writes about fantasy hockey and baseball for XNSports and FantasyTrade411.com. He can be reached on Twitter @SlimCliffy for any fantasy hockey questions. Follow @SlimCliffy !function(d,s,id){var js,fjs=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0],p=/^http:/.test(d.location)?'http':'https';if(!d.getElementById(id)){js=d.createElement(s);js.id=id;js.src=p+'://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js';fjs.parentNode.insertBefore(js,fjs);}}(document, 'script', 'twitter-wjs');

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