Written by LineStar Fantasy Life Coach @ZeroInDenver.

Check out the NHL Season Preview & Strategy Guide

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Welcome to the NHL Hat Trick.

ICYMI - The NHL Season Preview & Strategy guide goes over the basics of NHL DFS and what I look for when researching players.

Again, I hope y'all played Zibanejad and stacked the Rangers yesterday.

I try not to overthink NHL too much. It's such a random sport and I kept it as simple as "who are people going to gravitate to?" or "what is the optimizer giving me a lot of?" Sometimes, just backing away from what goes into your lineup easily is the move.

Short slate today so let's dive into it.

LETSSSSSSSSSSGOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!

Tonight's Slate

Here's numbers on the teams from their past 10 games. Generally, I start my research by looking for teams in good spots. For example, teams that score goals (GF60) that are facing teams that give up goals (GA60). I also look at teams that shoot a lot (CF60) that are facing teams that give up a lot of shots (CA60).

Based on this, my favorite teams to target on this slate are St. Louis, San Jose, Washington, and Calgary

Line Stacks

St. Louis is my favorite team on the slate. I love both top lines and love the full correlation. I wouldn't cross out the third line either. I'm tempted to run the 3rd line in some larger field GPPs.

The San Jose-Arizona game is interesting to me. You have two teams with sub 50% CF%. I've found that these typically are good games to target since both teams end up giving up a lot of shots and scoring chances. I'm mostly looking at SJS1 as a stack from this game but will have some light exposure to Arizona tonight too.

Washington has been playing well over the last 10 games. I'm not entirely in love with the matchup, but Washington has a slate-best 3.5 goals per game over their last 10. Both of the top 2 lines are in play for me, with a lean to WAS1.

Risk It For The Biscuit

On smaller slates, sometimes I like to think of who are people not targeting, that I could pair with a more popular stack? To me, that's the Flames tonight. Not a great matchup, and the Flames haven't been playing well, but I think you could get good leverage over the field with a CGY1 or CGY2 stack that scores a couple goals.

Goaltender Rankings

How to Read This: 

I'm giving you a comparison of LineStar projections vs the average fantasy points scored over their last 10 games. I've also given you their save percentage (over 0.910 is ideal), goals allowed (lower is better), saves per game (more is better), GAA (Goals Saved Above Average), and my projected upside for each goalie.

Generally, if I'm stacking a team, I'll correlate a goalie if I can. In GPPs, I may not have the salary to make this work. In this case, I usually spend down on someone that I expect will take a lot of shots and could pick up the W.

As always - double-check that your goalie is starting before the game starts.

My Favorites:

CASH: Connor Hellebuyck - WPG (DK: $7400, FD: $8400)

GPP: Martin Jones - SJS (DK: $7500, FD: $7600)

Forwards and Defensemen Rankings

How to Interpret C/D/W charts: In NHL DFS, I think it's most important to look at peripheral stats instead of goals which is why I put so much emphasis on shots. This includes shot attempts, high danger shot attempts (those shot attempts closest to the net with the highest probability of going into the net), shots on goal, and scoring chances. I've included projections and average fantasy points to see how each compares so you can more easily find value.

Center

My Favorite

Jack Hughes - NJD (DK: $5100, FD: $4700)

I wouldn't expect a repeat of Zibanejad's performance last night, but Hughes is relatively cheap and has solid peripherals.

Wing

My Favorite:

Evander Kane - SJS (DK: $7500, FD: $7800)

Kane has great shot volume and is facing a team that gives up a lot of shots.

Defensemen

My Favorite

Jakob Chychrun - ARI (DK: $6500, FD: $5100)

Automatic for me. I'll have a lot of him.

Bottom of the Barrel

Here are my cheap calls for a skater to pick up a goal or assist.

Dylan Gambrell: SJ - C (DK: $ 2800, FD: $ 3700)

Yegor Sharangovich: NJD - W (DK: $3800, FD: $3900)

 Alex Goligoski: ARI (DK: $3200, FD: $3700)

Disclaimer: Keep in mind, plays and thoughts listed are my own. You should all do your own research and you might (and probably should) disagree with me in some spots. Don't be afraid to go your own way.

Good luck today! Tag me in the LineStar Chat @ZeroInDenver if you have any questions or feedback. Follow me on Twitter @ZeroInDenver.

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