The Carolina Hurricanes are coming off of a hot 3-1 home stand and look to keep rolling on the road. Here are the fantasy players you should start tonight.
Carolina was hot at home, can they keep the heat up on the road? The answer is yes, yes indeed. At PNC Arena there was a lot of scoring, storm surges, and fun. This fun loving, winning team will not be slowing down anytime soon either.
You’re probably wondering, “well what about that New Jersey Devils game?” We aren’t going to win them all. It’s an 82 game season and there will be ups and downs. Luckily for the 2019-2020 Canes team there will be far more ups than downs.
Honestly, that Devils loss could be a good thing. We tried to do more than we needed, and didn’t stick to our normal game plan of heavy forechecking, and pretty hockey. That loss was disappointing but it’s going to fuel the fire for the guys and this game tonight will be red hot, and a win.
One of the biggest problems the Canes struggle with is there are too many great players. Yes this statement does not seem like a problem but not everyone will score every night, believe it or not. What the guys need to understand is that they will not score every game, the rock needs to be shared and their individual job needs to be done. This is where our first fantasy pick comes in to play for tonight.
The man now wearing the coveted “C”, Mr. Flow himself, Jordan Staal, has to step up tonight. As Canes fans we need Staal to step up, get the guys going on the right foot tonight. And Staal has done a good job of doing his job; not trying too hard to score, making the smart pass, and standing up for his teammates.
Tonight the approach needs to be, “we need a goal and fast.” Staal needs to gets the guys going early by leading by example and making an effort to get the flyers in a spot where they won’t be able to come back.
Bend the knee Staal, but stay classy.
The main concern, albeit during the Canes opening winning streak, was where was Sebastian Aho and Nino Niederreiter? Aho is back baby, and doing what he does best, getting points. This is good, and yes Niederreiter has seen the back of the net but not quite enough.
This game is where it changes. Expect a Niederreiter breakout, and with The Captain on his line, if one scores the other assists. Niederreiter was one of the main contributors of playing too hard and trying too hard to score. After that first goal Niederreiter seems a little less hard pressed and can focus on the game and doing his job now.
Expect great things from line one tonight.
Jake Gardiner was an off season acquisition for the Canes and quite a big one. Yes the Canes have some of the best blue line talent in the league and an incredible prospect pool as well, but Gardiner provides speed, toughness, and talent.
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Gardiner is highly athletic and wicked fast, he might not have too many points on the season but he is dynamic on the ice. He has great defensive positioning and excellent hockey IQ. This normally translates into making a stop and setting up the offense to do their thing.
Tonight expect Gardiner to get a little more involved in the offensive scheme. Using his speed and athleticism, we can hope to see Gardiner making more moves on the offense paired with Mr. Reliable, Brett Pesce.
Tonight’s game, hustle and intelligence will translate to goals. Pick up these three guys if you can and expect 5 points with around 8-9 potential total points from them in fantasy.
Question for CC readers: If you could move around the lines, who would you put on line one with Niederreiter and Staal?