Written by LineStar Fantasy Life Coach @ZeroInDenver. Got NHL DFS questions or want to see something covered in this newsletter? Hit me up in LineStar Chat.

Welcome back to the NHL Hat Trick.

Here's another look at my top 10 ranked players on the slate. This is my own sauce, but based on recent performance and matchup.

Here's where it gets interesting, 3 Sharks in the top 10. However, Vegas is only allowing 1.89 goals a game over their last 10 games. Perfect shot for tournaments. It goes back to the best thing I learned in DFS: "What's supposed to happen usually don't."

With that said, let's dive in to today's slate. There are only three games on the slate, but I'm going to stick with the standard format. First, let's look at team numbers over the last 10 games from a high level:

If you're new, let's do a quick rundown of what each of the columns represents (remember these are numbers over the past 10 games):

W = wins, L = losses (excluding OT losses), CF% = Corsi (shot attempts) For %, CF60 = Corsi for per 60 minutes, CA60 = Corsi allowed per 60 minutes, HDCF60 = High danger Corsi for per 60 minutes, HDCA60 = High danger Corsi allowed per 60 minutes, SF60 = shots for on net per 60 minutes, SA60 = shots on net allowed per 60 minutes, SV% = save percentage, SOT = shots on target (percentage of shots taken that hit the goal or go in), Sh% = shooting percentage (% of shots that become goals), SCF60 = scoring chances for per 60 minutes, SCA60 = scoring chances allowed per 60 minutes, PDO = Called SPSV% by the NHL, is the sum of a team's shooting percentage and its save percentage, GF60 = goals for per 60 minutes, GA60 = goals allowed per 60 minutes, Avg = Projected goals (my projections) for the team, xTotal = projected over/under

Of course, if you have any additional thoughts or questions, be sure to hit me up in chat.

Slate News

I write this pretty early (in other words, before morning slate for most teams) but trying to bring you up to speed with anything you might have missed or could impact your lineups tonight.

As expected, most of the west coast games don't have goalies confirmed yet. Same goes for teams that played last night. Keep an eye on the updates page for player confirmations and changes.

✅ Braden Holtby vs ✅ Jaroslav Halak

✅ Robin Lehner vs ✅ Henrik Lundqvist

✅ Anton Khudobin vs ✅ Carter Hart

🅿️ Pekka Rinne vs ✅ Joonas Korpisalo

✅ Michael Hutchinson vs ✅ Keith Kinkaid

🅿️ Petr Mrazek vs ✅ Andrei Vasilevskiy

✅ Connor Hellebuyck vs 🅿️ Devan Dubnyk

🅿️ Antti Niemi vs ✅ Jordan Binnington

🅿️ Roberto Luongo vs 🅿️ Mikko Koskinen

🅿️ Martin Jones vs 🅿️ Marc-Andre Fleury

🅿️ Darcy Kuemper vs 🅿️ Jacob Markstrom

🅿️ Anders Nilsson vs 🅿️ Jonathan Quick

Not a lot in the way of injury news this morning. However, it's been reported on Twitter that Sergei Bobrovsky “Failed to Meet Expectations,” will miss Thursday’s Game against Nashville. Korpisalo gets the start tonight.

Keep an eye on chat for updates throughout the day.

Now, lets look at my favorites on the slate:

Goaltending

This is your starting point when playing cash games. You want a goalie that has a solid chance to get a win, but will also face a decent number of shots. North of 30 shots on net is ideal. Here are my three favorites that check those boxes tonight:

Robin Lehner (@ NYR) (DK: $8.1K, FD: $8.3K)

Loved Lehner a few days ago, but Greiss started instead. Still love Lehner today. Like I said last time out, he's been great over the past month with a 1.38 GAA and a .948 Save% and faces a Rangers team that is only scoring 2.18 goals a game over their last 10 games.

Anton Khudobin, DAL (@PHI) (DK: $7.8K, FD: $7.8K)

Khudobin has been really solid his last couple of times in the crease and I'm willing to chance it against a horrible Philly team tonight. Over the last month, Khudobin has a 1.50 GAA and .944 Save% and faces a Flyers team that is averaging only 1.98 goals a game over their last 10 games.

Carey Price, MON (@ STL ) (DK: $8K, FD: $7.8K)

Price played well but had a bad break last time out against Minnesota. He's played well over the past month as well, with a 2.00 GAA and .926 Save% and gets a decent matchup tonight against a struggling Blues team that is averaging 2.5 goals a game over their last 10 games.

#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):

Matthew Barzal: NYI - C (DK: $6.9K, FD: $6.7K)

Barzal faces a Rangers team that is allowing 3.77 goals a game over their last 10 games. Meanwhile, Barzal is averaging 5 shot attempts (1.6 high danger) with 3.6 shots on net over his last 5 games.

Brock Boeser: VAN - W (DK: $6.1K, FD: $6.4K)

Boeser has an insane 9.2 shot attempts (1.8 high danger) with 4.8 shots on net over his last 5 games and gets a decent matchup against a Yotes team that is expected to start Kuemper in net tonight.

Victor Hedman: TB - D (DK: $6.1K, FD: $6.5K)

Favorite D that isn't named Burns or Karlsson tonight. Tampa gets a good matchup against a Carolina team that is averaging 2.80 goals allowed over the last 10 games while Hedman is averaging 5 shots attempts with 1.8 shots on net and 2.4 blocks in over 22 minutes a game over his last 5 games.

Value Twigs 💲

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.

Sean Couturier: PHI - C (DK: $5.5K, FD: $5.7K)

I mentioned before that I like Khudobin, but Couturier is interesting to me tonight because he's averaging a 59 CF% with 5.4 shot attempts (1.6 high danger) and 3.6 shots on net over his last 5 games.

Jake DeBrusk: BOS - W (DK: $4.5K, FD: $5.3K)

He's less of a secret now, but still my favorite winger on the slate. Averaging 5 shot attempts (1.8 high danger) with 3.4 shots on net over his last 5 games and gets time on the top powerplay unit for Boston.

Shea Theodore: VGK - D (DK: $4.1K, FD: $4.3K)

I'll be honest - Theodore doesn't rank as highly in the mid-salary tier compared to Ekholm, Doughty, Morrissey, or Pietrangelo, but I think he gets a bit better matchup at a discounted price. Plus, he still shoots the puck a bit, as he's averaging 6 shot attempts and 3 shots on net over his last 5 games.

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 tonight.

Greg McKegg: CAR - C (DK: $2.8K, FD: $3.2K)

Conor Garland: ARI - W (DK: $3.5K, FD: $3.4K)

Cody Ceci: OTT - D (DK: $3.5K, FD: $3.4K)

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.

I'm going to list two of the the highest-projected owned stacks, two of my favorite stacks, and two "biscuit" (high risk, high reward) stacks:

High-Ownership (Based on LineStar Ownership Projections):

TB: Johnson-Point-Kucherov (DK: $21.4K, FD: $23.3K)

BOS: Marchand-Bergeron-Pastrnak (DK: $22.6K, FD: $25.1K)

Favorite stacks:

CLS: Panarin-Dubois-Atkinson (DK: $19.8K FD: $20.9K)

DAL: Benn-Seguin-Radulov (DK: $20.8K FD: $21.7K)

Biscuit stacks (high risk, high upside):

SJ: Kane-Hertl-Donskoi (DK: $15.5K FD: $17.3K)

NYI: Lee-Nelson-Eberle (DK: $15.2K FD: $17.5K)

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.