Written by LineStar Fantasy Life Coach @ZeroInDenver

Welcome back to the NHL Hat Trick.

So two lessons to be learned from last night:

1. I live and die by stacking. Sometimes it goes really well, sometimes it doesn't. Last night it didn't.

2. Never talk badly about your boss or co-workers in an Uber.

In case you missed it, a group of Ottawa Senators players were recorded (which was later posted to the Internet) talking badly in regards to leadership. Not a good look for what was already a mess in Ottawa. So that's trap #1. Stack the hell out of NJD1 against an emotionally bankrupt Ottawa team? I'll have some shares for sure, but it feels like a trap.

Let's look at the slate from a high level:

A few thoughts on the slate overall:

Tampa, Montreal, and Carolina all jump out at me. The tough thing with these three is that the top two lines from each of these teams can score. If you're doing multiple lineups, I think you'll want exposure to each.

Vancouver and Detroit looks like it could be the most boring game on the slate, but watch it be the highest scoring.

As far as a game stack goes, let's go for New Jersey and Ottawa. Both teams have been letting in goals and neither has been great with puck possession over the past 10 games.

With all that said, let's dive into the slate:

Goaltending

Playing cash games? Fill in your goalie spot first. Playing tournaments? Fill your skater positions and pick the goaltender with the biggest upside for the least amount of salary. Here are my three favorite goaltenders on the night:

John Gibson, ANH (@ LAK) (DK: $7.9K, FD: $7.5K)

Gibson is one of the most consistent goalies on the slate and even though he's expensive, I'll still have him in plenty of lineups, as he's facing a Kings team that's only scoring 2.1 goals a game over the last 10.

Devan Dubnyk, MIN (@ SJ) (DK: $7.4K, FD: $9K)

This is a DraftKings play, as he's too expensive on FanDuel. He has a tough matchup in San Jose, but has hit his salary-based cash expectation 80% of the time over the past month. I'll risk it at $7400.

Jimmy Howard, DET (vs MON) (DK: $7K FD: $7.7K)

I guess you need to ask yourself, if you're going to punt, who's the best option at the price? I don't care for Bishop against Columbus. Little interest in Koskinen at Tampa. Almost no interest in Fleury against Toronto. So there you go. All that said, Boeser is out for Vancouver tonight and gets a decent home matchup.

#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):

Dylan Larkin: DET - C (DK: $6.8K, FD: $6.6K)

Over his last 5 games, he's averaging 3.4 shots and 1.2 assists a game.

Taylor Hall: NJD - LW (DK: $7.6K, FD: $7.6K)

Averaging 3.4 shots and 1.8 high danger shot attempts a game over the past 10 games.

Cam Atkinson: CLS - RW (DK: $6.1K, FD: $6.6K)

Atkinson hasn't had a goal in a while, but he's still averaging 4.2 shots and 1.6 high danger shot attempts a game while getting around 19 minutes of ice time over his past 10 games.

Dougie Hamilton: CAR - D (DK: $5.6K, FD: $5.5K)

Hamilton has an insane 67 CF% and is averaging 4.4 shots and 1.4 blocks per game over the past 5 games.

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.

Anze Kopitar: LAK - C (DK: $5.4K, FD: $7K)

Too expensive on FanDuel, but is averaging 3.2 shots a game and over 23 minutes over the past 5 games.

Jonathan Drouin: MON - LW (DK: $4.8K, FD: $5.5K)

The Domi line is playing well for Montreal and Drouin had a goal and assist last night.

Justin Williams: CAR - RW (DK: $4.6K, FD: $5K)

Williams is averaging 3.4 shots a game and is slotted on the top powerplay unit for Carolina.

Neal Pionk: NYR - D (DK: $4.9K, FD: $4K)

Averaging a combined 4.8 shots and blocks per game with over 23 minutes of ice time over the past 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.

Joe Thornton: SJ - C (DK: $3.9K, FD: $5.1K) *DraftKings Only*

Zach Hyman: TOR - LW (DK: $3.8K, FD: $4.4K)

Charlie Coyle: MIN - RW (DK: $3.7K, FD: $4.7K)

Andy Welinski: ANH - D (DK: $3K, FD: $3.5K)

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 try something a little bit different with stacks. I'm going to present my personal favorite, as well as a value stack, and one with the best matchup. Here they are for tonight:

CAR: Ferland-Aho-Svechnikov (DK: $17K, FD: $16.1K)

I said I like both of the top 2 lines for Carolina, but here's my favorite. In under 20 minutes of 5v5, this line has a nice 69 CF% with 19 shots and 1 goal.

NJD: Hall-Hischier-Palmieri: (DK: $20.8K, FD: $20.2K)

Biscuit yesterday don't care. Ottawa has been matching their 3rd line to the opposing top line and while this could change, the fact remains that Ottawa gives up more fantasy points to the opposing top line than any other matchup on the slate.

STL: Schwartz-O'Reilly-Tarasenko: (DK: $18.7K, FD: $19.4K)

Carolina hasn't been playing well, having only won 3 of their last 10 games while giving up almost two goals a game. They've also been pretty awful on the penalty kill. The Blues haven't been great, but they've been averaging 3.7 goals a game over the past 5 games and could go overlooked on a slate like tonight's.

Risk-It-For-The-Biscuit Stack 🍪

VAN:  Goldobin-Pettersson-Leipsic: (DK: $13.9K, FD: $13K)

Let's go full biscuit tonight. Like I said earlier, VAN-DET could be the most boring game tonight, or it could end up 6-5. This line doesn't have much time together on 5v5, but Pettersson and Goldobin together have a 55 CF% and 8 goals in 87 minutes together. At their price, I don't need a lot of production out of this line and it will allow me to fit any of the most expensive stacks tonight.

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