Written by LineStar Fantasy Life Coach @ZeroInDenver.

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Welcome to the NHL Hat Trick.

We had two great games last night that once again proved the budaman DFS gospel of "WHAT'S SUPPOSED TO HAPPEN USUALLY DON'T".

That's RIGHT.

Tonight, we get 5 games, but before we dive in, I want to set expectations on how I will be doing newsletters this season.

Generally, you can expect newsletters Monday through Friday when the main slate is 4 games or larger. I'm also going to try to keep these simple and sweet. I'll give you my top 5 ranked, along with my favorite, at each position. Of course, I'll give my top 5 ranked value plays, along with my favorite and my 3 favorite stacks on the night.

Any questions?

Tonight's Targets

Remember, we're still going off of 2020-2021 regular season data...

Goaltender

**Not all goaltenders have been confirmed as starters at the time of this writing**

"Smart" (Cash) Play:

Connor Hellebuyck - WPG - (DK: $7900, FD: $8400)

Who-I'll-have-an-uncomfortable-amount-of (GPP) Play:

Thatcher Demko - VAN - (DK: $7400, FD: $7000)

Center

My favorite:

Connor McDavid - EDM (DK: $8300, FD: $8800)

Wing

My favorite:

Alex DeBrincat - CHI (DK: $6800, FD: $7300)

Defensemen

My favorite:

Tyson Barrie - EDM (DK: $5900, FD: $5900)

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?

Spending Down

Some people call these "value" plays or "salary savers", but 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.

My favorite:

Daniel Sprong - WAS (DK: $3600, FD: $3600)

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 my favorite stacks (ranked in order of preference) for tonight:

And the RISK IT FOR THE BISCUIT stack... let's go with CHI1. Colorado is without MacKinnon and Colorado's goaltending is a little sus for me this year. Call it the "anti-homer stack".

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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