Kaprizov Worth the Wait
McDavid, Draisaitl, Laine all have big nights
Kirill Kaprizov is not the typical prospect.
It’s not all that often that a fifth-round pick from five years ago makes much of an impact on an NHL team. Hardly ever, really.
But, Kaprizov has been hyped a lot since the Wild drafted him in the fifth round in 2015. A couple of seasons later, he had nine goals and 12 points in seven games at the World Juniors.
The next season, he produced nine points in six games at the 2018 Winter Olympics.
The past two seasons, he has produced 113 points in 114 KHL games. Statistically, point production tends to travel well from the KHL to the NHL, so it was anticipated that Kaprizov would be the offensive star that the Wild sorely needed.
He was for at least one night. In his debut, Kaprizov had a goal and two assists, scoring the winner in overtime, in a 4-3 win at Los Angeles.
Kaprizov could still use more support, particularly from a playmaking center but, for one night at least, he was the difference-maker for the Wild attack.
THURSDAY STARS
EDM C Connor McDavid 3 G, 1 A, 12 iCF, 9 SOG
EDM C Leon Draisaitl 4 A
WPG RW Patrik Laine 2 G, 1 A
MIN LW Kirill Kaprizov 1 G, 2 A
THURSDAY GAMES
Washington 6 Buffalo 4
BUF D Jake McCabe, LW Taylor Hall, and RW Victor Olofsson 1 G, 1 A
BUF C Jack Eichel 2 A
BUF RW Tage Thompson moved up to play with Hall & Eichel but the Sabres are also playing Jeff Skinner on the fourth line with Curtis Lazar and Riley Sheahan which is a debacle right from the start.
BUF winger Dylan Cozens 1 A played 12:09 in his NHL debut.
WSH RW T.J. Oshie 1 G, 2 A
WSH D John Carlson and C Nicklas Backstrom 1 G, 1 A
WSH LW Alex Ovechkin 2 A
WSH D Brenden Dillon 1 G and on the ice for 3 GF, 0 GA
Boston 3 New Jersey 2 (SO)
BOS LW Brad Marchand 1 G, 1 A
BOS D Matt Grzelcyk 1 A, 8 iCF, 6 SOG, 24:07 TOI
NJ rookie LW Egor Sharangovich played on the top line with Jack Hughes and Kyle Palmieri. Unfortunately, they were caved in (21.1 CF%, 28.0 xGF%).
N.Y. Islanders 4 N.Y. Rangers 0
NYI LW Anders Lee 1 G, 1 A
NYI D Nick Leddy 2 A
NYI G Semyon Varlamov 24-save shutout
NYR line of Artemi Panarin, Ryan Strome, and Kaapo Kakko got crushed (23.5 CF%, 20.2 xGF%)
NYR G Igor Shesterkin allowed four goals on 33 shots but had a tough start, allowing three goals on seven shots to start the game.
Carolina 3 Detroit 0
DET G Thomas Greiss stopped 40 of 42 shots in the loss.
DET line of Vladislav Namestnikov, Robby Fabbri, and Filip Zadina was buried (21.4 CF%, 29.6 xGF%)
CAR G Petr Mrazek 14-save shutout
Columbus 1 Nashville 3
NSH G Juuse Saros stopped 29 of 30 shots in the win.
Nashville’s two leading shooters were defensemen: Roman Josi (9 iCF, 6 SOG) and Ryan Ellis (9 iCF, 5 SOG).
Mikhail Grigorenko joined Pierre-Luc Dubois and Oliver Bjorkstrand on the Blue Jackets’ top line.
Vancouver 2 Edmonton 5
EDM C Connor McDavid 3 G, 1 A, 12 iCF, 9 SOG
EDM C Leon Draisaitl 4 A
EDM LW Ryan Nugent-Hopkins 2 G, 1 A
EDM RW Kailer Yamamoto 2 A
EDM G Mikko Koskinen stopped 38 of 40 shots for the win.
Vancouver played rookie RW Nils Hoglander 21:45, second-most among forwards on the team.
Calgary 3 Winnipeg 4 (OT)
WPG RW Patrik Laine 2 G, 1 A
WPG LW Kyle Connor 1 G, 1 A
CGY C Elias Lindholm 1 G, 1 A
San Jose 4 Arizona 3 (SO)
ARZ LW Clayton Keller, RW Connor Garland 1 G, 1 A
Garland also had 13 iCF, 7 SOG
ARZ D Jakob Chychrun 2 A
SJ C Tomas Hertl 2 G, 1 A
SJ LW Evander Kane 1 G, 2 A
SJ rookie RW John Leonard 2 A
Anaheim 2 Vegas 5
VGK RW Mark Stone 1 G, 1 A
ANA LW Max Comtois 2 G
Vegas played five defensemen and their time on ice ranged between 22:00 and 25:30 but they played winger Mark Kolesar 4:36, so hardly at all.
Minnesota 4 Los Angeles 3 (OT)
LA RW Jeff Carter 1 G, 1 A
LA C Anze Kopitar 2 A
MIN LW Kirill Kaprizov 1 G, 2 A
Friday Picks
Unfortunately, the only lines that have much variance with my projections are the two most lopsided games of the night, the Tampa Bay Lightning at home against the Chicago Blackhawks, Tampa Bay -255 and the Toronto Maple Leafs -199 at the Ottawa Senators. Maybe parlay the two because otherwise that’s a steep price that I tend to avoid.
DFS Tips:
OTT C Josh Norris $3000 vs. TOR
TOR RW Mitch Marner $6200 at OTT
TOR RW William Nylander $5900 at OTT
OTT RW Evgeni Dadonov $3100 vs. TOR
BUF D Rasmus Dahlin $4100 vs. WSH
PHI D Erik Gustafsson $2900 vs. PIT
Not a lot of underrated value in net. Maybe try whichever Avalanche goaltender is going tonight, either Philipp Grubauer or Pavel Francouz, both are $7700 vs. STL.