Written by LineStar Fantasy Wizard @ZeroInDenver.

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Welcome to the NHL Hat Trick.

Before we jump to tonight's slate, I want to think about the two winning lineups from last night's 3-game slate.

Actually, 3 people tied last night in the Twine contest on DraftKings. Here's I_Slewfoot_U's lineup. You'll see he ran a Vancouver 5-man stack with a 2-man Buffalo stack and the Armia one-off.

On FanDuel, buffaloalan8 won the Breakaway with a 4-3 stack of Buffalo and Vancouver with a Joel Armia one-off. He did have correlation with his goalie, as Markstrom was popular last night. Keep in mind too, he couldn't run a 5-man stack because FanDuel limits 4 skaters from the same team.

What's interesting to me is the 5-man stack on DK. Now I ran pretty much 5-2 and 5-3 stacks in MLB and I'm kind of wondering if I could get similar upside doing that in NHL. It's something I'm going to be backtesting for both larger main slates and small slates like we had last night. I think the upside is definitely there. Especially when you have a team that scores 5 or more goals and the scoring is spread out. Let me know if you have any experience trying this in chat or have any thoughts.

Tonight's Targets

I'm really digging tonight's slate. We're also getting more data each night as teams are getting more games into the season. Here's a high level look of team numbers for tonight:

First - a lot of this data might be foreign to most of you, so let me break it down:

• Columns W and L: Wins and Losses

• Columns CF%, CF60, CA60: This is Corsi For %, Corsi For/60 minutes, Corsi Allowed/60 minutes: Corsi is shot attempts that the team has taken and allowed. "Shot attempts" include shots that are blocked or miss the net. CF% is the ratio of shot attempts made to shot attempts allowed. Elite teams and lines will have a CF% of 60% or greater.

• Columns HDCF60, HDCA60: This is High Danger Corsi For/60 minutes and High Danger Corsi Allowed/60 minutes. "High Danger" means shot attempts in the area closest to and in front of the goalie.

• Columns SF60, SA60: This is Shots For/60 minutes and Shots Allowed/60 minutes. These are actual shots that hit the goal (or went in).

• SOT: Shots on target. This is the percentage of shots attempted that end up being a shot on goal.

• Sh%: The percentage of shots on goal that are goals.

• Columns GF60, GA60: These are goals for and goals allowed per 60 minutes. This is an average of the goals scored or allowed over the last 10 games (in this case 1-3 games).

I'm overgeneralizing, but I want teams that aren't afraid to shoot the puck. More shot attempts the better. Then I narrow it down more based on teams that are hitting the net and getting goals. Again, really high level stuff. Don't go all in based on one or even a few numbers, but I think it's more useful than just going off of implied goals.

Now let's dig into this slate.

Favorite Goaltender

Marc-Andre Fleury - VGK (DK: $8800, FD: $8200)

There are a lot of goalies with tough matchups tonight so I'm going to spend a little more and go the safer route with Fleury. Arizona is winless this season, and I'm going to chase the win equity with Fleury, as Vegas should pick up another W tonight.

Favorite Center

Max Domi -MON (DK: $6100, FD: $6700)

There are a lot of top-tier centers on the slate tonight, but I don't think you need to spend up. If you're playing Fleury, you might not be able to. Domi has been shooting the puck a lot and is in a good spot against Detroit tonight.

Favorite Winger

Anthony Mantha - DET (DK: $6200, FD: $6700)

Believe it or not, Mantha ranks highest out of all wingers on my model for tonight. He's been averaging 9.3 shot attempts per game and 5.7 shots on net so far this season. Those are great numbers for someone who's also on the ice for over 20 minutes a game.

Favorite Defensemen

Thomas Chabot - OTT (DK: $4900, FD: $5400)

You get a lot out of a D at this price. He's averaging over 27 minutes of ice time, over 3 shots a game, almost 2 blocks a game, and gets top powerplay unit minutes.

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 for tonight 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.

Andrew Copp: WPG - C (DK: $3.4K, FD: $3.4K)

Nikita Gusev: NJ - W (DK: $4.2K, FD: $4.3K)

Erik Johnson: COL - D (DK: $3.8K, FD: $4.3K)

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.

Here are some of my favorite stacks for tonight:

RISK IT FOR THE BISCUIT STACK

This is my low ownership, high risk, and high upside stack. Pittsburgh isn't off to a great start at 1-2 and they've been giving up 3 goals a game so far, which is why I like Anaheim. Anaheim is off to a surprising 3-0 start and I think goes overlooked against Pittsburgh tonight.

Keep in mind, these are my favorites. 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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