Boston Bruins DraftKings NHL Fantasy Hockey Preview: February 16 to February 22

After months of winning streaks and high-scoring games, the Boston Bruins have looked much like the rest of the league lately, winning just once in the last five games. Boston’s schedule was light for its first week back from All-Star break with just two matchups, the Washington Capitals and Dallas Stars.

The Bruins fell to the Capitals on Saturday, 2-1 in a tightly-contested match. Boston found itself down 2-0 in the second period but Nick Foligno netted the lone goal to try to push the team in the right direction. As a squad, the Bruins out-shot the Capitals but didn’t capitalize on their opportunities.

Boston holds the best record in the league, 39-8-5, and is seven points ahead of the next closest squad with 83 points with another tough matchup on the horizon for Tuesday’s tilt against the Stars.

Top Goal Scorer: David Pastrnak — 38 goals (Patrice Bergeron is second with 18 goals)

Top Point Getter: David Pastrnak — 72 points (Brad Marchand is second with 46 points)

Top Goaltender: Linus Ullmark — 26-4-1 record, 1.90 goals against on average (GAA), .937 save percentage

(All stats as of Feb. 14)

Bruins upcoming schedule for the week of February 16:

• Thursday, February 16 @ Nashville Predators
• Saturday, February 18 vs. New York Islanders
• Monday, February 20 vs. Ottawa Senators

Bruins DraftKings Fantasy Preview for Upcoming Games

Injury Update: Jake DeBrusk (lower body) practiced in full and could return for Thursday’s game against the Predators.

Thursday, February 16 @ Nashville Predators

• The Nashville Predators have a 25-20-6 record, are in fifth place in the Central Division and are ninth overall in the Western Conference with 56 points and a -9 goal differential.
• These two teams have not met yet this season but Boston swept the series last year. The Bruins have won six of the last ten matchups versus the Predators.
• Nashville has scored the fourth-fewest goals this season (140) but makes up for it with consistent defense and goaltending. Roman Josi (44 points) has been a consistent threat when in possession of the puck, posting the 11th-most assists by a defenseman this season while Juuse Saros has faced the second-most shots in the league (1,296) but still posts the ninth-most wins (20). The Predators are also tied for the fourth-most shots allowed per game (33.9).
• While it has taken a step back recently, Boston’s power play unit has still been stellar, good for seventh in the league (24.6%). Nashville sends out a bottom-five power play unit (16.4) so if it comes down to which team maximizes its opportunities the best, Boston has the upper hand here.

Saturday, February 18 vs. New York Islanders

• The New York Islanders have a 27-23-6 record, are in sixth place in the Metropolitan Division and are tied for ninth overall in the Eastern Conference with 60 points and a +7 goal differential.
• These two teams have met twice already this season with Boston winning both and scoring four goals both times. While Boston has won the battles this season, New York holds a 6-4 record across the last ten matchups.
• The Islanders’ offensive attack is led by both Brock Nelson (21G, 31A) and Mathew Barzal (14G, 34A), a duo the Bruins will look to minimize as much as possible. New York has four skaters with at least 14 goals this season but struggles to consistently put pucks in and on the net, averaging just 30.6 shots and 2.9 goals per game.
• New York finds much of its success thanks to Ilya Sorokin, who is tied for the most shutouts this season (5) and holds a 17-17-4 record thus far. The Islanders don’t face an absurd amount of shots per game (31.6) but the lack of consistency on both offense and defense has hurt his stats. He allows 2.41 goals per game and posts a .923 save percentage so it still won’t be easy for Boston.
• The biggest test will be how Boston’s top power play unit (24.6%) fares against New York’s top penalty kill (82.7%). Boston leads the league in penalty kill percentage (85.6%) already so the opportunities will be limited for New York but this game could stay close till the end if opportunities are not maximized.

Monday, February 20 vs. Ottawa Senators

• The Ottawa Senators have a 25-24-3 record, are in seventh place in the Atlantic Division and are fourteenth overall in the Eastern Conference with 53 points and a -10 goal differential.
• Ottawa has a strong offensive attack that gets plenty of shots on the net (33.4) led by Brady Tkachuk (21G, 33A) and Tim Stutzle (23G, 30A). Stutzle leads the team in goals and has 14 points in his last ten games. Despite the aggressive approach, Ottawa only nets 3.0 goals per game, the 11th-lowest average in the league.
• These two teams have faced twice this season with Ottawa walking away with wins in both, scoring 10 goals total. Boston is 6-4 in its last ten matchups versus Ottawa but has noticeably struggled recently and will look to correct the issues in the third matchup.
• The Bruins’ top penalty kill unit (85.6%) will need to be at its best because Ottawa deploys a top three power play unit this season. The Senators are successful on a whopping 26.5% of their power play opportunities despite their consistency issues so if Boston fails to play clean throughout the game, it may be a long night and the offense will need to be there.
• Boston should be able to take advantage of Ottawa’s poor goaltending situation, however. The Senators have had a near 50/50 split between Cam Talbot (12-13-1) and Anton Forsberg (11-11-2) but neither has been overly impressive. Forsberg allows 3.26 goals per game and posts a .902 save percentage while Talbot offers a bit more dependability in those categories. Either way, it’s not an ideal situation for Ottawa who has to face a strong offensive attack like Boston’s who averages 3.7 goals per game.

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