Written by LineStar Daily Fantasy Life Coach @ZeroInDenver.

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Welcome to the NHL Hat Trick.

It's a shorter slate today, and I've been thinking of something over the last couple of weeks. Do full line stacks work in NHL DFS anymore? Here's part of what got me to this:

In the 4 goals that Florida scored in the 3rd period last night, not one was a full line goal where the goal and both assists were picked up by Barkov, Huberdeau, and Dadonov. Altogether, Barkov was decent, Huberdeau was great, and Dadonov kept you from having nice things.

I don't think this is an outlier either. On 3 of the 4 goals, a defensemen was involved through a goal or assist. So I'm starting to think that it may be better for our lineups to include a defensemen in stacks, and it might be optimal to limit stacks to no more than 3 players. I've done some 4 and 5-man stacks this season, but they haven't done well. In MLB, if a team scores 6 or more runs, it's expected that several players are going to score a lot of fantasy points, but in NHL, the majority of the fantasy points can come from 2-3 players.

One way that we can apply this in the LineStar app is to make sure we have defensemen allowed in stacks:

It's something that I'm continuing to test, but what do y'all think? Hit me up in LineStar 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

Ben Bishop - DAL (DK: $7300, FD: $8700)

Bishop has been standing on his head lately, and I love his price on DraftKings tonight. "What's supposed to happen usually don't" but hard to not play a guy with a 1.88 GAA and .936 Save% over the past month.

Centers

Claude Giroux -PHI (DK: $5700, FD: $7400)

His price is terrible on FanDuel, but I think he's a decent bargain on DraftKings. He's even cheap enough on DraftKings that you could probably fit Matthews with him and still have a viable lineup tonight.

Wingers

Alexander Radulov - DAL (DK: $6500, FD: $6800)

I'm really hanging this on how bad Calgary has been at times this year and how many fantasy points they've given up to the opposing second line. I think skating with Perry and Dickinson causes him to go overlooked as well tonight. Not sneaky, but a calculated risk.

Defensemen

John Carlson - WAS (DK: $7700, FD: $7200)

I know Carlson is the most expensive, but I've been having trouble pivoting off of him. I don't love Gio or Rielly's matchups tonight, SPOILER: I like Theodore in the next section, and honestly, can you really go Provorov over Carlson with a straight face?

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.

Jack Hughes: NJD - C (DK: $4.4K, FD: $5.1K)

Derick Brassard: NYI - W (DK: $3.9K, FD: $4.9K)

Shea Theodore: VGK - D (DK: $4.2K, 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. 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.

Looking at stacks for tonight, here are LineStar's 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.

Keep in mind, these are my favorites. These lines may change so keep an eye out for news during the day and during pre-game warmups. 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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