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.

After a 3-day break, it's good to have the NHL back for tonight. Hopefully you enjoyed the break and spent some time with family and didn't lose too much playing NBA.

Being Thursday and the first night back, we get a huge 13-game slate. I keep reminding you dudes that if you're overwhelmed with a giant slate like this, focus on one of the smaller turbo/express slates. They pay out real money too and can make your decisions easier.

At the same time, don't be afraid to give Tiers or the single-game contests a try. Granted, the payouts aren't great, but you can get yourself a nice dinner by winning one of those contests and they seem to get a lot less attention from the sharpest NHL DFS players. In fact, I did pretty well on NBA Tiers during the break.

I've mentioned this before, but if anyone has any questions or topics you'd like me to cover in the newsletter, I'm happy to. Or if you want to be put on the spot, I'd be happy to review lineups from a previous day. Of course, if you have any additional thoughts or questions, be sure to hit me up in chat.

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

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.

✅ Mackenzie Blackwood vs ✅ Jaroslav Halak

🅿️ Petr Mrazek vs 🅿️ Braden Holtby

🅿️ Jimmy Howard vs ✅ Matt Murray

✅ Joonas Korpisalo vs 🅿️ Henrik Lundqvist

✅ Michal Neuvirth vs ✅ Andrei Vasilevskiy

🅿️ David Rittich vs ✅ Connor Hellebuyck

✅ Anton Khudobin vs 🅿️ Pekka Rinne

✅ Carter Hutton vs ✅ Jake Allen

🅿️ Devan Dubnyk vs ✅ Collin Delia

🅿️ Jacob Markstrom vs ✅ Mikko Koskinen

🅿️ Semyon Varlamov vs 🅿️ Marc-Andre Fleury

🅿️ Darcy Kuemper vs 🅿️ Jonathan Quick

🅿️ John Gibson vs 🅿️ Martin Jones

It's also worth noting that Taylor Hall (NJ) and Charlie McAvoy (BOS) are out tonight.

Jeff Carter (LA) was not on the ice for morning skate.

Viktor Arvidsson and P.K. Subban (NSH) have been activated from IR.

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:

Andrei Vasilevskiy (vs PHI) (DK: $8.4K, FD: $9.1K)

Vasilevskiy has been great since his return from injury. He has a .930 save percentage and 2.75 GAA and is heavily favored tonight against Philly.

Braden Holtby, WAS (vs CAR) (DK: $8.3K, FD: $9K)

I think I mentioned in the chat a while ago that picking the goalie against Carolina has been fairly profitable so far this year. They take a lot of shots, but just haven't been scoring many goals. Meanwhile, Holtby has a respectable .907 save percentage and 2.88 GAA.

Jaroslav Halak, BOS (vs NJD) (DK: $8K, FD: $8.2K)

Continuing the theme of goalies that should pick up a win tonight, I like Halak. Again, Halak has respectable numbers over the past month with a 2.5 GAA and .917 save percentage. Hall is out tonight for NJ as well, which makes me like him that much more.

#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):

Jack Eichel: BUF - C (DK: $7.5K, FD: $8K)

It hasn't exactly worked out the last few times out, but I still love picking players against St Louis when Jake Allen is starting and I love the top line for Buffalo tonight. Eichel's numbers have dipped slightly, but he's still averaging 3.8 shots on net in over 20 minutes of ice time over his last 5 games.

Cam Atkinson: CLS - W (DK: $7.6K, FD: $7.4K)

There's a lot of good options at wing tonight, but Atkinson is my favorite, as he's been averaging 7.4 shot attempts (1.4 high danger) and 4.8 shots on net in over 21 minutes of ice time a game over his last 5 games.

Roman Josi: NSH - D (DK: $5.8K, FD: $6.4K)

P.K. Subban is expected to return to the Nashville lineup tonight, but I still have a lot of interest in Josi. In over 26 minutes a game over his last 5 games, he's averaging 5.2 shot attempts and 3.4 shots on net.

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.

Bo Horvat: VAN C (DK: $5.4K, FD: $5.7K)

A little uneasy about this one, as Koskinen is expected to start for Edmonton tonight, but I like that Horvat has been shooting the puck a lot lately with 5.6 shot attempts (2 high danger) and 4 shots on net a game over his last 5 games.

Dustin Brown: LAK - W (DK: $5.1K, FD: $5.9K)

Brown has been averaging 6.6 shot attempts (2 high danger) and 4.4 shots on net over his last 5 games and faces an Arizona team that is giving up 3.35 goals a game over their last 10 games.

Nate Schmidt: VGK - D (DK: $5K, FD: $4.3K)

A better bargain on FanDuel, Schmidt faces an Avs team that is giving up 4.19 goals a game over their last 10 games. Schmidt has been averaging 24 minutes with 5.4 shot attempts and 3.2 shots on net over his last 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.

Alexander Kerfoot: COL- C (DK: $3.9K, FD: $4.5K)

Ryan Donato: BOS - W (DK: $2.8K, FD: $3.4K)

Jakob Chychrun: ARI - D (DK: $3.7K, 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):

EDM: Chiasson-McDavid-Draisaitl (DK: $17.2K, FD: $21.1K)

CLS: Panarin-Dubois-Atkinson (DK: $20.6K, FD: $20.6K)

Favorite stacks:

BOS: Marchand-Bergeron-Pastrnak (DK: $22.6K FD: $24.5K)

TB: Johnson-Point-Kucherov (DK: $20.5K FD: $22.3K)

Biscuit stacks (high risk, high upside):

LAK: Iafallo-Kopitar-Brown (DK: $15.1K FD: $16.8K)

VGK: Marchessault-Karlsson-Smith (DK: $15.5K FD: $19.2K)

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.