Written by LineStar Fantasy Life Coach @ZeroInDenver.

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Welcome to the NHL Hat Trick.

With the condensed season, we're getting some really good sized slates. In years past, this might be a 3-game slate, but we get a solid 8 games tonight. There's going to be some "obvious" (or "chalky") plays, but unless you get a stud that gets 3 goals and a couple of assists, I think there's a lot of viable combinations for tonight. In other words, I don't think that I think it makes sense to fade a stack like Toronto or Winnipeg tonight. So let's jump into tonight!

LETSSSSSSSSSSGOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!

Tonight's Slate

Teams that stand out to me for tonight: Montreal, Philly, Minnesota, Winnipeg, Edmonton.

Goaltender Rankings

As always - double-check that your goalie is starting before the game starts.

My Favorite:

Jacob Markstrom - CGY (DK: $8100, FD: $8000) *CONFIRMED STARTER*

So far, Vancouver has been taking a lot of shots, but they're only averaging 2.33 goals so far this season. Until they figure things out, I'm going to continue to pick goalies they face.

My Favorite

Mark Scheifele - WPG (DK: $6300, FD: $7500)

Scheifele is a great value on DraftKings today. Winnipeg has a great matchup tonight too. Toronto is allowing 3.67 goals a game so far this season, so I'm going to continue to pick stacks and players facing Toronto for my lineups.

Winger Rankings

My Favorite:

Conor Garland - ARI (DK: $5800, FD: $4500)

I wouldn't fault you for spending up for Pacioretty or Tkachuk, but I think you get solid value for Garland as a one-off, especially on FanDuel today.

Defensemen Rankings

My Favorite

Matt Dumba - MIN (DK: $4900, FD: $4400)

I'm going to have all 5 in my player pool tonight, but I think Dumba is the best option at his price on both sites. He plays a ton of minutes 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", but 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 power play unit. 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.

Nolan Patrick: PHI - C (DK: $3.7K, FD: $4.3K)

Jesse Puljujarvi: EDM - W (DK: $3.2K, FD: $3.5K)

Alexander Romanov: MON - D (DK: $4K, FD: $3.9K)

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.

Here are my ranked stacks for tonight:

Favorite Stacks Tonight:

Top-Projected Owned Stacks:

Again - I don't think you need to fade any of these stacks. If you're playing GPP, you could pretty comfortably stack one of these top-owned stacks with a biscuit stack and get a fairly unique lineup.

Risk-It-For-The-Biscuit Stacks:

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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