Written by LineStar Fantasy Life Coach @ZeroInDenver.

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In Case You Missed It...

Welcome to the NHL Hat Trick. I hope NHL DFS has been treating you well.

The NHL announced that the Calgary Flames games will be postponed at least through Thursday, December 16, and tonight's game between the Wild and Hurricanes was postponed less than an hour ago.

I don't expect any more games to be postponed tonight, but it's something to keep an eye on moving forward.

Still, we have TWELVE great games on tap for tonight. LETSSGOOOOOO!!!!!!!

Tonight's Slate

Here are the team numbers for tonight's slate:

I mentioned this in chat, but I often use this to look for mismatches (teams that give up a lot of shots facing teams that take a lot of shots) and spots where both teams have sub 50% CF%. So if you're looking for "sneaky" stacks, that's where I start.

Tonight's Targets

My preference is to correlate goalie with one of my stacks, but my favorite tonight is:

Tristan Jarry - PIT (DK: $8500, FD: $8400)

Spend Up On...

New section...

I want to try something and see if it resonates with you all.

I've been trolled (and rightfully so) sometimes for touting the most expensive player at a position. Let's be honest. You don't need me to tell you to play McDavid, Matthews or MacKinnon any given night. They're the best players in the league and are priced up for a reason.

So let's take a look at who I have ranked as the best studs on the slate and then see who bubbles up below the $7500 salary mark.

My favorite:

Max Pacioretty - VGK (DK: $8100, FD: $10300)

Center

My favorite:

Jamie Benn - DAL (DK: $3600, FD: $5400)

Wing

My favorite:

Nikolaj Ehlers - WPG (DK: $5900, FD: $7400)

Defensemen

My favorite:

Aaron Ekblad - FLA (DK: $7300, FD: $6700)

Spending Down

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 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.

My favorite:

Adrian Kempe- LAK (DK: $3300, FD: $4800)

Today's Parlay

Let me know if you're tailing...

Line Stacks

Before going further, let's make this clear:

You 👏 dont 👏 have 👏 to 👏 stack.

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 favorite stacks (ranked in order of preference) for tonight:

And the RISK IT FOR THE BISCUIT stack... let's go with WPG1

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.

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?

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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