The Chicago Blackhawks will play the Anaheim Ducks in the Western Conference Finals. The Blackhawks swept away the Minnesota Wild in the last round while the Ducks took out the Calgary Flames in five games. The Ducks had the better record during the regular season and they will have home ice advantage in this series. Let’s look at the top fantasy players to consider for this series.
Season Series
The Blackhawks and Ducks played three times during the regular season with Chicago winning two of the three games. The Ducks won 1-0 in Chicago in late October while the Blackhawks won 4-1 in late November in Anaheim and 4-1 in late January in Anaheim. Patrick Kane had four goals and one assist in the three games to lead Chicago and he was a plus-7. Patrick Sharp had four assists in the three games. Goaltender Corey Crawford stopped 44 of 46 shots in the two Chicago wins. The two Anaheim goals were scored by Hampus Lindholm and Rickard Rakell. Patrick Maroon did have two assists. Goaltender Frederik Andersen was 0-2 with a 3.52 goals against average against the Blackhawks this season.
In the lone Anaheim victory the matchup was John Gibson in goal against Scott Darling and the only goal was unassisted by Anaheim’s Devante Smith-Pelly who ended up being traded to Montreal.
Chicago Blackhawks Fantasy Picks
The Blackhawks are led by Patrick Kane (7 goals, 13 points, +8), and Jonathan Toews (4 goals, 11 points, +3). The Hawks are not quite as deep as their only other reliable fantasy forward is Marian Hossa (1 goal, 8 points, +2). What the Blackhawks do have is top defensemen in Duncan Keith (2 goals, 8 points, +10) and Brent Seabrook (3 goals, 5 points, +4).
Chicago has the edge in goal in this series as Corey Crawford is a Stanley Cup winning goaltender. He is 5-1 with a 2.60 goals against average in the playoffs.
Anaheim Ducks Fantasy Picks
The Ducks have an excellent top line of Ryan Getzlaf (two goals, 12 points, plus-7) Corey Perry (seven goals, 15 points, plus-7) and Patrick Maroon (four goals, seven points, plus-6). “They’ve got a lot of big bodies, similar to [the Kings] last year,” Chicago’s Jonathan Toews said. “So we could probably expect a little more physicality. Every series you see that raised level of play and that’s probably what we’re going to see and can expect for the next one.”
The Ducks also have a good second line in Ryan Kesler, Jakob Silfverberg and Matt Beleskey with Beleskey scoring a goal in each of the five games in the series against Calgary. Anaheim’s defense has also been solid as they have combined for 26 points in the first two rounds, Sami Vatanen (two goals, seven points, plus-5), Hampus Lindholm (one goal, six points, plus-1), Francois Beauchemin (six assists, plus-3) and Simon Despres (five assists, plus-5).
Goaltender Frederik Anderson is 8-1 with a 1.97 goals-against average and a .925 save percentage.
Sleepers
My sleeper pick for the Ducks is Andrew Cogliano who has five points in 9 games. He is a high energy player who should thrive in this series. For the Blackhawks, Brandon Saad is my sleeper as he is way overdue to break out. He has just three points in the playoffs and that is hard to believe considering he plays a lot with Toews and Hossa.
