Written by LineStar Fantasy Wizard @ZeroInDenver.

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Welcome to the NHL Hat Trick.

The NBA opens its season tonight. For those of you that tried out NHL while waiting for the NBA season to start, thank you for giving this a read and I hope we were able to pad your bankroll a bit. Hopefully you'll continue with us, even in low stakes. While there are only 2 games on tap for NBA today, we've got a 10 game NHL slate tonight, and a decent-sized late slate as well. But before we get into tonight's NHL slate, let's look at yesterday.

On DraftKings, 1_800Eddie won the Twine tournament with a 4-3 Columbus-Toronto stack with a Niskanen one-off.

On FanDuel, awesemo won the Breakaway with a 3-3-2 stack of Toronto, St Louis, and Philly.

If you're wondering what led someone to stack the top lines for St Louis and Columbus, I want to show you this. If you sort by "Skaters vs Opp Team (Last 5)" and "FPPG to Line", you'll see that those two lines are at the top and all but one of those players exceeded expectations.

Now, just like everything else in DFS, you can't expect this to work or be on point every night, but I think it's a great tool in the LineStar app that can help determine which lines to stack that night.

What do you think? Anyone else use this sorter? Hit me up in chat.

Tonight's Targets

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 (numbers over the last 10 games):

• W and L: Wins and Losses

• 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.

• 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.

• 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.

• SCF60, SCA60: Scoring chances for and allowed per 60 minutes

• 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.

Goaltenders

Darcy Kuemper - ARI (DK: $7200, FD: $8100)

Kuemper should be the chalk tonight with his price and matchup. The Rangers shoot the puck a lot, which carries a lot of upside (and the 35+ save bonus on DraftKings) for the goaltender facing them. Kuemper is off to a great start this season too with a .949 Save% and 1.6 GAA.

Centers

Bo Horvat - VAN (DK: $5100, FD: $5300)

You know how some women really hate the word "moist"? I really hate the word "sneaky" in DFS. I don't think Horvat is sneaky, but considering the other options on the slate, I think he gets overlooked tonight. His price is right too if you want to spend up in other spots in your lineup as well.

Wingers

Alex Ovechkin -WAS (DK: $7800, FD: $8600)

As you can see by the graph, Ovi shoots the puck consistently more than anyone else. He's been really consistent over the last 5 games too in terms of fantasy production, which is why I have no problem in spending up for him tonight.

Defensemen

Kris Letang - PIT (DK: $6500, FD: $6800)

I mentioned yesterday how I think spending up at D is a viable strategy in NHL DFS. I think if you're going to spend up today, Letang is one of the best options. Pittsburgh gets a great matchup against a Florida team that can't keep the puck out of the net. And in Letang you get a D that sits on the top powerplay unit, sees 25 minutes of ice time and shoots the puck a lot.

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.

Christian Dvorak: ARI - C (DK: $4.6K, FD: $3.7K)

Dominik Kubalik: CHI - W (DK: $4K, FD: $3.8K)

Cody Ceci: TOR - D (DK: $3.6K, FD: $3.7K)

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.

I'm going to do stacks a little differently moving forward. I'm going to provide you with the top projected owned stacks, my favorites, and the "risk it for the biscuit" stacks (high-upside, low ownership stacks. Along with these stacks you can compare their prices, see how LineStar projects them, as well as their combined average fantasy points per game over the last 5 games.

I really like the top projected owned stacks. I'll have plenty of shares of each, though I think the Rangers have the toughest matchup out of the three. Overall, they're probably my favorite stacks on the night.

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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