Written by LineStar Daily Fantasy Life Coach @ZeroInDenver.

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Welcome to the NHL Hat Trick.

Last day of the month, year, and decade. Hope you had the best DFS year ever and here's to a successful 2020.

Today is also great because we get daytime hockey. However, I'm going to focus on today's 9-game main slate.

Before we dive into that, I want to bring up some numbers from last Friday's 11-game slate. To start it off, let's take a look at what teams scored the most fantasy points (excluding goalies).

What's interesting is the top 5 teams for projected ownership were Toronto, Colorado, Winnipeg, Boston, and Pittsburgh. Only two of those teams made it to the top scoring teams on the slate. To some of you, this might give you reason to fade top projected owned teams. On the other hand, you might feel justified in stacking those teams. I'd say both are right. The key, I think, is to focus on building good lineups. A Toronto stack won't mean much if you fill the rest of your lineup with donuts. Which brings me to this:

This is more inline with what I'd expect to see most nights. Primary scoring coming from the top line with some of the second and third line factoring into the scoring. The fourth line most nights should be nothing more than a handful of points, which is why I typically avoid them altogether.

Next are the top forward lines from fantasy points scored on 12/27 overall. I've included their projection and ownership projection (summed) for reference.

Again, for the most part, the top lines are doing the majority of the scoring. I think this is important if you're stacking full lines. If you're picking and choosing one-offs and pairs, I think players from second and third lines are definitely in play.

Let me know what you think of all this and if you find it useful. Also, any questions on the slate tonight? Hit me up in LineStar Chat

Tonight's Targets

First - a lot of this data might be foreign to most of you, so let me break it down (numbers over the last 10 games):

• W and L: Wins and Losses

• CF%, CF60, CA60: This is Corsi For %, Corsi For/60 minutes, Corsi Allowed/60 minutes

• HDCF60, HDCA60: This is High Danger Corsi For/60 minutes and High Danger Corsi Allowed/60 minutes.

• SF60, SA60: This is Shots For/60 minutes and Shots Allowed/60 minutes.

• SOT: Percentage of shots on target .

• Sh%: The percentage of shots on goal that are goals.

• SCF60, SCA60: Scoring chances for and allowed per 60 minutes

• GF60, GA60: These are goals for and goals allowed per 60 minutes.

• ScoreAgg: Summed numbers of a teams GF60, xGF60 and the opponent's GA60 and xGA60.

I'm overgeneralizing, but I want teams that aren't afraid to shoot the puck. More shot attempts the better. Then I narrow it down more based on teams that are hitting the net and getting goals. Again, really high level stuff. Don't go all in based on one or even a few numbers, but I think it's more useful than just going off of implied goals.

Now let's dig into this slate.

Goaltenders

Robin Lehner - CHI (DK: $7200, FD: $7900)

*At the time of this writing, Lehner is not confirmed.

However, Lehner is one of my favorites on the slate. At his price, I expect he'll be one of my highest exposed goalies. He gets a tough matchup, but he's been playing well over the last month with a 2.78 GAA and a solid .921 Save%.

Centers

Max Domi - MON (DK: $4900, FD: $5900)

I love Domi's price and recent shot volume, which has also been trending up when comparing his last 5 games to his last 20 games.

Wingers

Chris Kreider - NYR (DK: $4700, FD: $6000)

Kreider is almost too cheap to not play tonight and he gets a good matchup against an Edmonton team that is allowing 3.9 goals a game over their last 10 games. Usually this adds up to a DFS bust, but worth taking a chance on tonight.

Defensemen

Dougie Hamilton - CAR (DK: $6700, FD: $6300)

I think there are a lot of solid options in the mid-tier for center and wing tonight which will allow us to spend up at D. In that case, I'm going to play Dougie in as many lineups as I can due to his shot volume and time on ice.

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." I hate both terms. 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.

Erik Haula: CAR - C (DK: $4.5K, FD: $4.7K)

James Neal: EDM - W (DK: $4.4K, FD: $5K)

Jeff Petry: MON - D (DK: $4.3K, FD: $4.8K)

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.

Looking at stacks for tonight, here are LineStar's top projected owned stacks, my top ranked, and the "risk it for the biscuit" stacks (high-upside, low ownership stacks.

Keep in mind, these are my favorites. These lines may change so keep an eye out for news during the day and during pre-game warmups. 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 to–day! Tag me in the LineStar Chat @ZeroInDenver if you have any questions or feedback. Follow me on Twitter @ZeroInDenver.

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