Our second-to-last Thursday night NHL slate has arrived! We have a slightly lighter than normal Thursday slate on our hands tonight with nine games to sift through, most of which have monumental effects on the Eastern Conference playoff picture. With desperation at its highest point in the season, it should be an exciting night both inside and outside of the DFS circle. Let’s take a look at who cracked the lineup tonight.

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Center

Patrice Bergeron (BOS): $7,200 vs. DAL
Poor Dallas. I just keep picking on the Stars, but mostly because they keep giving me a reason to. After yielding four goals to the Canadiens on Thursday, Dallas will take their road woes to TD Garden tonight in a spoiler attempt against the Bruins. However, Dallas still gives up 3.55 goals per game on the road (29th) and their road penalty kill still ranks dead-last at a woeful 72.4%. The Bruins don’t score a ton of goals at home at 2.88 per game, but Bergeron is easily their top centerman and his 273 shots on goal are tied for third in the league while averaging 19:23 of ice time per game while playing in all situations. He has a very high floor for this contest tonight.

Brayden Point (TB): $4,300 vs. DET
Point’s price still remains very attractive as the top centerman on the Lightning depth chart at both 5v5 and on the power play. That Lightning power play clicks at a solid 23.6% clip at home, good for fifth in the league. Point doesn’t shoot the puck like most number one centers, but he has been consistent on the scoresheet, racking up five points over his last five games. He has totaled three shots in five of his last eight games and has a solid matchup tonight against the visiting Red Wings who are officially eliminated from the playoffs after a glorious 25-year postseason streak.

Wing

Brad Marchand (BOS): $7,700 vs. DAL
Marchand is as close to a must-have tonight as there is on this slate. He has cooled off from his torrid stretch from earlier in the month, however, his favorable matchup tonight against the visiting Stars provides an excellent opportunity to start another hot streak. After all, he still ranks fifth in league scoring with 81 points while his 37 goals check in at third behind only Nikita Kucherov and Sidney Crosby. He and Bergeron form the top duo on tonight’s slate and are a must-play for cash games and most likely a solid play in GPP formats as well.

Jakub Voracek (PHI): $6,300 vs. NYI
I looked at pairing Voracek with Giroux, Filppula, or even Brayden Schenn, but their line combinations at this moment don’t appear to be favoring a Flyers stack. Therefore Voracek becomes a very attractive one-off due to his home and away splits. Voracek has 13 goals, 34 points and 151 shots on goal across 37 home games on the season compared to just six goals, 23 points and 88 shots in 39 road contests. He lines up against an Islanders team that gives up 3.05 goals per game on the road and a goaltender in Jaroslav Halak who is playing just his second NHL game in 2017 and gave up three goals in his first.

Ondrej Palat (TB): $5,800 vs. DET
While the goal here was to get to Kucherov, his price and his ownership are/will be sky-high so Palat is a nice fade at a much more reasonable price. He gets the same first line and first unit power play minutes as Kucherov and rides a five-game point streak into tonight’s contest with eight points in that stretch. He has a solid 142 shots and 52 blocks on the season and has averaged a whopping 21:44 of ice time in March as the Lightning desperately chase down a wild-card spot in the Eastern Conference.

Viktor Arvidsson (NSH): $6,700 vs. TOR
It may come as a surprise but the Predators check into tonight’s contest with the third-most goals scored on home ice this season as well as the third-most per game with an impressive 3.32 mark. Their 23.5% clip with the man advantage on home ice ranks sixth and Arvidsson is a huge part of that group with four power play goals and eight power-play points on the season. He also leads the NHL with five short-handed goals as well as seven short-handed points, providing extra incentive to roster him if his 29 goals, 56 points and 229 shots on goal weren’t enough already.

Defense

Torey Krug (BOS): $5,100 vs. DAL
As the quarterback of the Bruins’ top power-play unit alongside Bergeron and Marchand, Krug makes for an excellent play with a fair price tag tonight. He ranks sixth among defensemen with 23 power play points this season while his 198 shots on goal are good for eighth among blueliners. He has also blocked 76 shots on the season while tallying 49 points, with five of his seven goals coming on that Bruins top power play unit. He is easily my top play on the blueline tonight.

Jeff Petry (MTL): $3,600 vs. FLA
With just $3,600 left to spend on a defenseman to fill out this lineup, I am happy to get Petry. He was a value play on Tuesday night and while he didn’t get on the scoresheet, his three shots on goal and two blocks displayed the floor that we can expect from the rear guard. He now has 157 shots on goal and 141 blocks on the season to go along with his eight goals and 28 points. He should still see some power play time on the Habs’ second unit and will likely go up against third-string goalie Reta Berra of the Panthers tonight who makes just his second start of the season after giving up four goals to the low-scoring Hurricanes in his only other NHL start of the year.

Goalie

Andrei Vasilevskiy (TB): $8,300 vs. DET
Despite yielding four goals in four of his last five starts, I like Vasilevskiy’s matchup tonight at home against the Red Wings. Detroit scores just 2.38 goals per game on the road while their road power play of just 10.8% ranks dead-last in the NHL by a wide margin. Vasilevskiy recorded at least 22.4 fantasy points in seven straight starts from Feb 27 to March 14, so it’s clear he is capable of stifling opposing offenses. Considering he is facing one of the worst the NHL has to offer tonight on home ice he makes for a solid play between the pipes.

Kemper is a correspondent at FantasyPros. To read more from Kemper, check out his site www.doubleupsports.com and follow him @KemperDoubleUp.