Daily Fantasy Hockey - Basic Strategy

There are not too many websites running Daily Fantasy Hockey Contests out there. This post will cover some of the basic strategy considerations for the Fantasy Hockey Contests on Fantasy Sports Live. First off, like all other daily fantasy sports, daily fantasy hockey requires a pretty good knowledge of the sport and the match-ups for the day. Just like any other sport you should be drafting players that are facing weak competition or weak defenses. You also want to draft players that are "Hot" and have been putting up solid fantasy numbers over the past few games. On these points Fantasy Hockey is really no different than the other fantasy sports offered at FantasySportsLive.com

Where Fantasy Hockey gets unique is in some of the scoring rules. The two most important are listed below.

1) Goalie Scores 20 points for a win
While goalies in general do not score much more fantasy points than the top skaters, they do get a big 20 point bonus for a win. So it is pretty important to have a goalie on your team that will get the win. This is similar to Fantasy Baseball where the pitcher gets a bonus for the win. However, with Fantasy Hockey it is not always obvious who the starter will be for the game. So the key strategy is that you want a goalie that is likely to get the win and even more important is very likely to start. For the likely winner, you can check the online sportsbooks to find what teams are heavily favored. For the likely starter this is a bit tougher. Obviously teams who rarely rotate goalies are safer than teams with two strong goalies. Sometimes you will just need to do some research and find out who the planned starter is for the day. The bottom line is that the 20 points are going to be important to your fantasy teams success so choose your goalie wisely, and don't be afraid to spend a few bucks here.

2) +/- Statistics Count 5 points
This is a very unique scoring rule for Hockey. If your player is one the ice when their team scores you get 5 points, if they are on the ice when their opponent scores, you lose 5 points. So you obviously want players who do well in +/-. Many players in general do well on +/-, but that is reflected in their cap value. What you really want to know is how well will they do in the next game on +/-. Here is where you will want to have players from the day's winning teams. Since the winning team scored more goals than the loser, the winning team will have more "plus" stats than "minus" stats in general. You can again consult an online sportsbook to see who the most heavily favored teams are, and in general draft players from those teams, and not from teams expected to lose. Don't make the mistake of drafting a good fantasy hockey skater, who is facing a tough match-up and whose team will likely lose. Their personal stats may not be able to overcome the minus stats that may come.