Written by LineStar Daily Fantasy Life Coach @ZeroInDenver.

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Welcome to the NHL Hat Trick.

The NHL season resumes on Saturday, August 1 with an expanded playoff tournament. If you haven't been paying close enough attention to how this will all work, let me bring you up to speed.

• The playoffs will be held in two "hub" cities: Edmonton and Toronto.

• 24 teams (12 per conference) will participate

• The top four teams in each conference will play in a separate round robin series to determine seeding for the first round

• The remaining 8 teams from each conference will play in a best-of-five series qualifying round. The winners of the qualifying round will advance to play one of the round robin teams in the first round of the Stanley Cup playoffs

From a DFS perspective, we can expect 5 games a day for at least the first 5 days of August.

However, start times will be staggered. For example, the first game will start at noon Eastern time on Saturday but the last game won't start until 10:30 PM. This means that you'll probably want to check in before each game starts to make sure that your goalie is still starting and there are no last-minute scratches in the lineup.

All that said, I'll be honest with you. I don't know how this is going to go or what to expect. Normally, I'm too deep into MLB DFS that I don't play NHL DFS. I can't really tell you what works best, but I can tell you that I'm going to approach games with the same approach that I take with NHL in the regular season. This means my lineups will usually consist of the following:

• 4-3, 3-3, or 3-3-2 Stacks. For example 4-3 would mean 4 players from one team (same line or power play line) and 3 players from another team.

Any questions for today? Let me know in LineStar Chat

LETSSSSSSSSGOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!

Tonight's Targets

Goaltender

FYI - At the time of this writing, no goalies have been confirmed. Please double-check to confirm during warm-ups (30 minutes prior to game time) that your goalie is starting.

My Favorite: Connor Hellebuyck - WPG (DK: $7500, FD: $8300)

I also like Hellebuyck because he had a solid .922 Save% and 2.41 GAA over the regular season, but I'll be perfectly honest, during the regular season, I don't intentionally correlate goaltender with my stacks, but in the playoffs, I want to. In other words, if I'm stacking Winnipeg, I want Hellebuyck as my goalie.

Centers

My Favorite: Mika Zibanejad - NYR (DK: $7900, FD: $8400)

Mika is expensive, but I think he's worth the price. He has a high shot volume as he was averaging 4.6 shots a game in his last 5 games before the season was suspended. He's also facing a Carolina team that is averaging 39.5 fantasy points allowed (46.1 fantasy points on FD) to the opposing first line.

Winger

My Favorite: Ryan Nugent-Hopkins - EDM (DK: $6800, FD: $7000)

Edmonton as a hub city and Edmonton in the playoffs (even without fans in the arena) means that I want a piece of the Oilers each time they play. For me, the key is getting exposure to McDavid. I'm going to stack McDavid's line, and I'm going to focus on players that play alongside him as much as possible. That's where RNH comes in. Outside of McD, he's not very exciting, but slotted on the top line and top powerplay unit with him makes him a lot more appealing.

Defensemen

My Favorite: Ryan Pulock - NYR (DK: $5300, FD: $5200)

I feel like I say this in every newsletter, but I really like to fill my defensemen spots with players that take a bunch of shots, block shots, get 23+ minutes of ice time, and get time on one of the power play units. Pulock checks those boxes for me, and I think he may go overlooked being on the third line.

If you take anything away from this, keep in mind that hockey is a high-variance sport. The top ranked player in each category could be a great play or be a dud tonight. Going all in on any player probably isn't a great move.

With DFS, I try to think of these things:

• Who makes the most sense to play?

• Where is the field leaning?

• Who has been the most consistent?

• Who has the most upside?

• Who will benefit me most if others are wrong?

Bottom of the Barrel

Some people call these "value" plays or "salary savers." I hate both terms. These are players that I like that fit at the lowest salary tier. It could be they're playing on one of the top forward lines or it could be that they've been playing well, but these are my cheap calls for a skater to pick up a goal or assist.

Nick Suzuki: MON - C (DK: $3700, FD: $4400)

Alex Nylander: CHI - W (DK: $2800, FD: $3900)

Justin Schultz: PIT - D (DK: $3800, FD: $4300)

Line Stacks

Line stacking is a common strategy in GPP. You’ll see a lot of winning lineups where players are stacked from the same forward lines or power play lines. DraftKings allows a maximum of 6 skaters from the same team (with skaters from at least 3 teams) and FanDuel allows a maximum of 4 skaters from one team. In tournaments, you'll often see 3-3 stacks (meaning 3 players from one team and 3 from another team), 4-3, and 3-3-2 stacks.

Looking at stacks for Saturday, here are my three favorites

Keep in mind, these are my favorites. These lines may change so keep an eye out for news during the day and during pre-game warmups. 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 to–day! Tag me in the LineStar Chat @ZeroInDenver if you have any questions or feedback. Follow me on Twitter @ZeroInDenver.

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