This article is part of our Yahoo DFS Hockey series.
We're into the second calendar month of the NHL season, and a few teams have not yet played double-digit games. Given that, it might be time to focus primarily on the statistics from this season, though obviously the sample size is still small. What's not meager, though, is the slate for Tuesday. There are nine NHL games happening. Here are some players to target, and to avoid, for your DFS lineups.
GOALIE
Cam Talbot, MIN vs. OTT ($34): Only one team is playing the second leg of a back-to-back Tuesday, and that's the Senators. Offensively, they are in the bottom half of the league to begin with. Talbot has started seven games already this season, and he has a 2.55 GAA and .912 save percentage.
GOALIE TO AVOID
Juuse Saros, NAS at CGY ($31): Saros is the clear top dog in net for the Predators, and so far his .917 save percentage has shown he's not slipping up in that role. However, he's also started six of his seven games at home. That road game? It was in Winnipeg, and he allowed six goals. Now he's back on the road facing a Flames team that has averaged 3.63 goals and 35.4 shots on net per contest.
CENTER
Sean Couturier, PHI vs. ARI ($21): Couturier just had a four-game point streak end, but he still has nine points in seven games. Plus, even in the game in which he was held without a point he put four shots on goal and played 3:35 on the power play. The Coyotes have been brutal defensively, as they have a 4.22 GAA.
CENTER TO AVOID
Elias Pettersson, VAN vs. NYR ($20): Pettersson may be healthy, but he's off to a slow start. He had two points in the second game of the season, but since that he's only notched two assists in his last seven games. Igor Shesterkin has been stellar to start the year for the Rangers, as he's managed a 1.70 GAA and .947 save percentage.
WING
Kirill Kaprizov, MIN vs. OTT ($24): Kaprizov doesn't have a goal yet, but he has six assists in eight games. Additionally, with 26 shots on net, clearly he's active on that front, and a goal will come. Matt Murray may have returned from injury this weekend, so no third-string goalie will be necessary for the Senators, but this is still a team on the road for the second leg of a back-to-back.
Josh Anderson, MON vs. DET ($15): Anderson only tallied seven assists in 52 games last year, but he notched 17 goals. He already has three assists in 10 games this season, and he's added two goals on 27 shots on net. The Wings have played a lot of fun games this year. They've scored 3.22 goals per contest, but they also have a 3.44 GAA and have allowed 33.2 shots on net per game.
WINGS TO AVOID
Filip Forsberg, NAS at CGY ($20): Forsberg has six points in eight games, though with a 15.0 shooting percentage that would be a career high. Jacob Markstrom has been providing some truly elite goaltending for the Flames. He has an 1.33 GAA and .957 save percentage with back-to-back shutouts in his last two games.
Jonathan Marchessault, VGK at TOR ($17): Marchessault does have three points in his last two games, but notching two assists against the Ducks isn't exactly a minor miracle. Also, this gives him all of four points on the season. Toronto's team GAA is hurt by Petr Mrazek's performance thus far, because Jack Campbell has a 2.31 GAA and .918 save percentage.
DEFENSE
Moritz Seider, DET at MON ($18): The promising German defenseman is delivering on all his promise thus far. He's picked up eight assists in nine games, including four on the power play. Seider has averaged 3:25 per game with the extra man, and the Canadiens have a bottom-five penalty kill.
Keith Yandle, PHI vs. ARI ($12): Yandle switched teams this offseason, but once again he's been given a key power-play role. He's averaged 2:51 per game with the extra man thus far. The Coyotes, unsurprisingly, have the league's worst penalty kill, so this matchup is right up Yandle's alley.
DEFENSEMEN TO AVOID
Thomas Chabot, OTT at MIN ($19): Chabot is on the road for the second leg of a back-to-back, which is my primary concern here. There's also the fact Talbot has a 2.55 GAA. Additionally, the Wild have only allowed 29.2 shots on net per contest.
Quinn Hughes, VAN vs. NYR ($17): Hughes has six points in eight games, although he's only put 16 shots on goal. His 12.5 percent shooting is definitely going to regress toward the mean. While Hughes is a big-time playmaker, he has yet to have more than eight goals in a season. As I previously noted, Shesterkin has a 1.70 GAA and .947 save percentage.
