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.

Two days of NHL this week and then it's the All-Star break. RIP. So let's get going and start with my top ranked skaters on the slate:

Again, Calgary stands out. Now, most of you know me as a purely GPP player. I went underweight on Calgary last Friday and it hurt me in the end. I ended up breaking even, but it was a -$200 swing over the last 5 minutes of that game.

Would I change anything? Probably not. I think in DFS you have to determine where the general population is going and decide to either ride with it (and differentiate elsewhere), go a slightly different direction (the second or third line from Calgary for example), or completely go against the grain and risk it for the biscuit and stack Chicago or Detroit (but maybe throw in D from Calgary).

Next, here's how the slate looks from a high-level. Here are team numbers over the past 10 games.

If you're new, let's do a quick rundown of what each of the columns represents:

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.

Slate News

Abot half the goalies have been confirmed so far, so keep an eye on the updates page for player confirmations and changes.

🅿️ Aaron Dell vs 🅿️ Braden Holtby

✅ Darcy Kuemper vs ✅ Craig Anderson

🅿️ Robin Lehner vs ✅ Cam Ward

🅿️ Petr Mrazek vs ✅ David Rittich

✅ Jimmy Howard vs ✅ Mikko Koskinen

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:

Robin Lehner (@ CHI) (DK: $8.3K, FD: $8.7K)

Lehner is kind of a no-brainer for me at this point. If he's starting (he's not yet confirmed), I'm playing him. He's continued to play well (as have the Islanders) and he has an outstanding 1.27 GAA and .950 Save% over the past month.

David Rittich, CGY (vs CAR) (DK: $8.2K, FD: $8.2K)

I never feel good about playing BIG SAVE DAVE. His numbers aren't great, with a 2.89 GAA and a .905 Save% over the past month. However, he has a 7-0 record over the past month because Calgary keeps scoring goals. With that said, he's going to give up some goals. You just have to hope that Calgary scores more than he lets in.

Craig Anderson, OTT (vs ARI) (DK: $7.9K, FD: $7.5K)

Anderson had a decent return back to the ice over the weekend. Like Rittich, I've come to expect Anderson to let a few in, as his GAA generally hovers around the 3 mark. However, he'll get 30 or more saves most nights too. So if he can pick up a win, it's an acceptable performance.

#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):

Sebastian Aho: CAR- C (DK: $7K, FD: $7K)

If you've played Aho much lately, he's probably a harder sell for you. He's done really well, or really mediocre (in fantasy terms at least). His numbers are still favorable with a 61 CF% and 5 shot attempts (1.4 high danger) with 3.2 shots on net.

Alex Ovechkin: WAS - W (DK: $7.8K, FD: $8.4K)

Ovechkin is also probably a hard sell at his price. He's still taking shots (5.8 shot attempts and 1.2 high danger shot attempts), but he's only hitting the net 2.8 times a game over his last 5 games. However, he gets a good matchup against a struggling SJ team that is giving up 4.2 goals a game over their last 5 games.

Thomas Chabot: OTT - D (DK: $6.1K, FD: $5.5K)

You saw my rankings above, so if you're looking outside of that (Burns/Giordano) I like Chabot a lot. He takes a bunch of shots (3.2 over his last 5) and blocks shots as well (2 over his last 5) and gets time on the top powerplay unit.

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: $4.6K, FD: $5.2K)

I like Stepan most nights. He skates on the top line and second powerplay unit for Arizona. He's been averaging 4.4 shot attempts and 3.2 shots on net over the last 5 games.

Nino Niederreiter: CAR - W (DK: $4.6K, FD: $4.7K)

New team, new Nino. In his last 5 games, Nino is averaging 5.5 shot attempts (2.3 high danger) and 3.3 shots on net and slides into the top line and top powerplay unit for Carolina.

Oliver Ekman-Larsson: ARI - D (DK: $5K, FD: $5K)

I keep saying this, but I want these boxes checked when picking a defenseman:

• Over 23 minutes of ice time. (OEL is averaging over 24)

• Lots of shot attempts (OEL is averaging 6 shot attempts and 3 shots on net)

• Powerplay minutes (OEL is on the top powerplay unit for ARI)

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.

Lucas Wallmark: CAR - C (DK: $3.4K, FD: $3.5K)

James Neal: CGY - W (DK: $3.3K, FD: $4.4K)

Brenden Dillon: SJ - D (DK: $2.6K, 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.

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):

CGY: Gaudreau-Monahan-Lindholm (DK: $21.8K, FD: $24.1K)

SJ: Kane-Hertl-Donskoi (DK: $16.5K, FD: $18.1K)

Favorite stacks:

EDM: Nugent-Hopkins-McDavid-Yamamoto (DK: $16.8K FD: $17.9K)

OTT: Dzingel-Duchene-Ryan (DK: $16.7K FD: $19K)

Biscuit stacks (high risk, high upside):

WAS: Ovechkin-Backstrom-Oshie (DK: $18.7K, FD: $20.5K)

DET: Bertuzzi-Larkin-Nyquist (DK: $17.3K FD: $17.4K)

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.