Written by LineStar Fantasy Wizard @ZeroInDenver

Welcome back to the NHL Hat Trick. I took some time off for a wedding and got back a day sooner than expected, so we have an issue for a really good NHL slate tonight.

However, we also have the Mega Millions drawing tonight for $1.6 billion. Sure, winning the lottery is all luck, but here are a few thoughts on strategy for tonight.

For the yellow ball (is this the Mega Ball?), you have to choose a number between 1-25. This is where I play the chalk. Favorite numbers, kids birthdays, age of your dog - it doesn't really matter. I just play the favorites here. I'll also play multiple tickets with the same yellow ball number - just like I play multiple NHL DFS lineups with the same goalie.

For the white balls, this is where it gets tricky and this is where I think a lot of people make mistakes. Keep in mind that on the white balls, you get to pick numbers between 1-70. Playing only birthdays is a fish move since you're not going to venture higher than 31. Can it work? Sure. Anything's possible, but this is where I start to chase favorite players' jersey numbers and adding up the birthdays of kids, parents, grandparents, etc. Now I start to cross over that 31 threshold and dip into lower ownership numbers.

I'll also buy a bunch of tickets off of the optimizer. Well, I let the computer pick my numbers, but you know what I mean. Either way, get your tickets early so you can focus on a great NHL slate for tonight.

Goaltending

My three favorite goaltenders on the night:

John Gibson, ANH (@CHI) (DK: $7.6K, FD: $9K) *DraftKings Preferred*

Wait. Shouldn't I be all over Bobrovsky? Yes, but on DraftKings, Bob is the most expensive goalie at $8,400 and I had trouble building a lineup that I liked that had him. Instead, I like Gibson at an $800 savings on DraftKings, who has been standing on his head with a .949 save percentage and insane 11.18 GSAA this season.

Corey Crawford, CHI (vs ANH) (DK: $8.1K, FD: $7.7K)

I don't have a lot of interest in Anaheim tonight. Silfverberg is out, the great Troy Terry was shipped down to the AHL, and they're left with a bunch of kids that sound like alter egos of superheros (Sam Steel and Ben Street). I've got pretty solid to Crawford in some early builds today and I'm ok with that.

Antti Raanta, ARI (vs CLS) (DK: $6.9K FD: $7.7K)

This could go really bad, but I like Raanta tonight if you want to dip all the way down. Only donkeys like me will have him, but I think he'll see 30-ish shots, let 2-3 in, and have a decent score at a price that will allow you to stack some top lines.

#BiscuitInTheBasketWatchList 🚨

For those of you who aren’t familiar with hockey, “biscuit in the basket” is a term for scoring a goal. Here I’m going to give a center, wing, and defensemen for the top and value pricing tiers that I think has a good chance to score a goal. Remember - I gave some tips last week on numbers that I look for, and these players check most (if not all my boxes):

Mika Zibanejad: NYR- C (DK: $6.2K, FD: $6.4K)

Mika gets overlooked on a slate like this tonight, but he's averaging 4.4 shots a game, slotted in the top powerplay unit, and facing a Florida team that's giving up 3.64 goals a game.

Brendan Gallagher: MON - W (DK: $5.6K, FD: $6.4K)

Gallagher is still averaging 3.2 shots per game and 1.6 high danger shot attempts per game with a nice 69% CF%.

Maxime Lajoie: OTT- D (DK: $5.1K, FD: $4.2K)

A better bargain on FanDuel, but I don't hate his price on DraftKings. 3.2 shots per game with 1.2 blocks per games and over 20 minutes a game with time on the second powerplay unit.

Value Sticks 💲

Similar to the biscuit-in-the-basket watch list, in this section I’ll provide a center, wing, and defensemen who are priced in the value tier. If I can find someone under priced on both sites, I’ll highlight them. But in some cases, it could be site specific.

Ryan Johansen: NSH– C (DK: $5.4K, FD: $6K)

Plays on the top line and top powerplay unit for Nashville and has met or exceeded salary-based cash value 50% of the time this year.

Ryan Dzingel: OTT - W (DK: $4.4K, FD: $4.8K)

Good value for a player that is getting 3.2 shots on net per game.

Neal Pionk: NYR - D (DK: $4.6K, FD: $3.9K)

2.4 blocks per game with 2.4 shots per game and over 20 minutes of ice time.

Bottom of the Barrel

I did this last season, and I’ll do it again this season. These are the players in the bottom of the salary barrel but are in a good spot.

Jason Spezza: DAL - C (DK: $3.9K, FD: $4.8K)

Anthony Duclair: CLS - W (DK: $3.9K, FD: $3.2K)

Aaron Ekblad: FLA - D (DK: $3.5K, FD: $4.7K)

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. Here are some of my favorites today:

NYR: Kreider-Zibanejad-Fast (DK: $15.8K, FD: $16.9K)

Favorite stack of the night. Florida is giving up 3.64 goals a game and has been awful on the penalty kill at 66.7% so far.

CLS: Panarin-Dubois-Atkinson (DK: $19.3K, FD: $20.4K)

One of the best lines on the slate. Always in play and the only really knock against them is they get split up across the powerplay units.

BOS:  Marchand-Bergeron-Pastrnak (DK: $22.2K, FD: $24.0K)

Most fantasy points allowed to a line on the slate. Expensive, but high ceiling.

Risk-It-For-The-Biscuit Stack 🍪

EDM:  Nugent-Hopkins-McDavid-Yamamoto: (DK: $18.4K, FD: $18.9K)

I really like McDavid and RNH tonight as a late night hammer. Murray is expected to start for Pittsburgh and has a 3.65 goals against average and .893 save percentage so far this year. I definitely want some exposure against him.

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