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.

Hope you enjoyed the break. New year, same me. Excited to be getting newsletters back out on the regular. If you've looked ahead, we've got solid slates the rest of the week. Today, we get a 6 game slate. In terms of size, these are my favorite. It's enough that there are usually plenty of good spots without being overwhelming.

With that said, let's dive in to today's slate. 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.

Heads up - at the time of this writing, a few goalies have NOT been confirmed. Keep an eye on chat for updates throughout the day.

✅ Mike Smith vs 🅿️ Jimmy Howard

✅ Matt Murray vs ✅ Henrik Lundqvist

🅿️ Jacob Markstrom vs ✅ Marcus Hogberg

✅ Mackenzie Blackwood vs ✅ Ben Bishop

✅ Mikko Koskinen vs 🅿️ Adin Hill

🅿️ Martin Jones vs ✅ Philipp Grubauer

Minimal injury news for tonight. So far, Bryan Rust (PIT) is a game time decision for tonight.

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:

Mackenzie Blackwood (@ DAL) (DK: $7.1K, FD: $7.4K)

This is not going to age well I'm sure. I've said this all before: "good numbers over the past month," "Dallas has one line and a bunch of dudes," and "he's cheap!" Let's put it this way - he ranks the highest for me on this slate. I'll definitely have lots of him, but he's going to pop up in a lot of optimizer lineups. There's definitely upside with him and I'm going to keep plugging him in lineups until he breaks.

Matt Murray, PIT (@ NYR) (DK: $8K, FD: $8.8K)

Murray has been outstanding over the last month. He's got a 1.40 GAA and a .959 save percentage with a 5-0 record over the last month. My favorite if you're spending up today.

Henrik Lundqvist, NYR (vs PIT) (DK: $7.4K, FD: $7.7K)

Lundqvist has been great his last couple of times out, which is probably why he ranks high for me tonight. It's a risky move, playing a goaltender against the Penguins. It's one of those things that can pay off really well if the Rangers can pull off the win. What could go wrong?

#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):

Nathan MacKinnon: COL - C (DK: $8K, FD: $8.6K)

Martin Jones is expected to start for SJ tonight, which means I'll homer out and go heavy on Colorado tonight. I don't think Jones is very good. On the season, he has a .898 save percentage. That's not ideal against a Colorado team that is averaging 32.9 shots a game over the last 10 games.

Johnny Gaudreau: CGY - W (DK: $7.6K, FD: $8.4K)

Lots I like about Gaudreau tonight. He's been averaging 6 shot attempts (2.2 high danger) and 4.4 shots on net over his last 5 games and faces a Detroit team that is giving up 3.63 goals over their last 10 games.

Erik Karlsson: SJ - D (DK: $5.8K, FD: $7.4K)

Karlsson is a bit of a bargain on DraftKings tonight. He gets a decent matchup against an Avs team that is giving up 3.48 goals a game over their last 10 games and Karlsson is averaging 10.7 shot attempts and 3.7 shots on net 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.

Derek Stepan: ARI C (DK: $4.2K, FD: $5.2K)

So if you're going to play MacKinnon, you're going to need to offset his cost with someone relatively cheap. Stepan isn't a bad play at his price since he plays on the top line and top power play unit for Arizona and has been averaging 4.4 shot attempts (1.6 high danger) and 2.8 shots on net over his last 5 games.

Brady Tkachuk: OTT - W (DK: $5.1K, FD: $4.5K)

Tkachuk has been averaging 6.2 shot attempts (1.6 high danger) with 3.4 shots on net over his last 5 games.

Oliver Ekman-Larsson: ARI - D (DK: $4.4K, FD: $4.8K)

I love playing OEL whenever he dips south of $4.5K on DK. He shoots the puck a fair amount (5.4 shot attempts and 2.2 shots on net a game over his last 5 games) and he's been averaging over 25 minutes a game. If you're looking for a late night hammer with some upside, this is your guy.

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.

Pavel Zacha: NJ - C (DK: $2.9K, FD: $3.6K)

Miles Wood: NJ - W (DK: $3.3K, FD: $3.3K)

Jakob Chychrun: ARI - D (DK: $3.9K, 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 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):

COL: Jost-Mackinnon-Rantanen (DK: $18K, FD: $20.3K)

EDM: Draisaitl-McDavid-Kassian (DK: $16.6K, FD: $19.3K)

Favorite stacks:

CGY: Gaudreau-Monahan-Lindholm (DK: $21.3K FD: $21.6K)

PIT: Guentzel-Crosby-Aston-Reese (DK: $16.7K FD: $19.5K)

Biscuit stacks (high risk, high upside):

ARI: Panik-Stepan-Keller (DK: $12.3K FD: $14.8K)

NYR: Kreider-Zibanejad-Fast (DK: $13.5K FD: $16.7K)

Keep in mind, these are my favorites. You should all do your own research and you might 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.