The NHL has a shorter 5-game schedule tonight, but it includes some intriguing matchups. The late games featuring Anaheim / Vancouver and Pittsburgh / San Jose should be very entertaining to watch and could also be high scoring matches. These games will be a factor in deciding tournament winners in daily fantasy hockey, and those on the east coast will have to decide whether to stay up and follow them or not. The other three games all feature a matchup of a strong playoff-bound team against one of the worst teams in the league, and these all have blow-out potential.

When building lineups for daily fantasy hockey tonight, it will be important to get exposure to several teams in your cash game (50/50s, head-to-head) lineups. For tournaments many different combinations of the teams in action should be used with building multiple lineups.

Top Team to Target Tonight for Daily Fantasy Hockey

New York Islanders – The Islanders remain the top scoring team in the league on home ice (3.53 goals per game) and have a great matchup tonight at home to Toronto. The Leafs continue their free fall with issues both on and off the ice, making things very tumultuous in Toronto. This should be an easy win for New York and the question might be how big the blowout is. For daily fantasy hockey, the players on the Isles’ top line (John Tavares, Anders Lee, Josh Bailey) are the ones to target, as they are all now on the top powerplay unit as well. Joining them there are Frans Nielsen and Nick Leddy who are both good targets. Since the Islanders players will be highly owned, it’s a good strategy to target secondary players on their team in some tournament lineups, including Ryan Strome, Brock Nelson and Johnny Boychuk.

Recommended Plays for FanDuel

TOP DEFENSEMEN PLAYS

Nick Leddy ($4,500) – Leddy has now taken over as the Islanders’ powerplay quarterback and he’s shown his offensive potential with two goals and three points in his past couple games. Leddy already has 10 goals this year (which is a new career high), to go along with a great plus/minus and other stats. One of his 10 goals was earlier in the year against Toronto, and he could snipe one again, or perhaps a couple assists tonight.

Marek Zidlicky ($3,400) – A deadline day acquisition for Detroit, Zidlicky has scored in two of the three games he’s played for the Wings since the trade. Since joining Detroit, Zidlicky also has been getting a lot of powerplay time and they face the Oilers who rank dead last on the penalty kill since the All-Star break.

TOP RIGHT WINGER PLAYS

Patric Hornqvist ($7,400) – Hornqvist is among the higher priced players at RW tonight, but his salary has still not caught up to his recent production. Playing with Malkin, Hornqvist has been very consistent lately with seven goals and nine points in his past seven games, including plenty of shots (and averaging 5 FanDuel points per game). He’s a great choice tonight as a single Penguin in a cash game lineup, and as part of a Penguins stack in tournaments, with his ability to score goals and have big fantasy nights.

Josh Bailey ($4,200) – Bailey has been on the Islanders’ top line ever since the injury to Okposo, and he’s recently been added to the top powerplay unit as well. His salary has remained very low though and we can take advantage of that with Bailey becoming a top VALUE play. He has points in three straight games and should continue that streak tonight.