Written by LineStar Daily Fantasy Life Coach @ZeroInDenver.

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Welcome to the NHL Hat Trick.

I'm going to switch things up a little bit. For those of you that know me well, I don't really like picking players out of a pool of roughly 200 players on a slate like this. Also, I'm playing 300+ lineups between FanDuel and DraftKings tonight. I don't typically go much higher than 40% on any player, so keep in mind that I'm not going all in on any player, even if I like the matchup or upside.

That said, I ran a couple early builds on both sites and I want to give some insight into who I have a lot of so far. After all, I don't think it's just about Player A vs Player B. Altogether, I want a viable lineup. Any player isn't worth it to me if I have to stretch my lineup to get there.

What do you guys think? Find this helpful? Join us and help us figure out this slate in LineStar Chat

Tonight's Targets

Here's a high level look of team numbers for tonight.

You'll notice I added a metric at the end called "ScoreAgg." This is the sum of a team's GF60, opposing GA60, and the xGF60 and opposing xGA60 from Natural Stat Trick. I've been testing this out as an indicator on teams to focus on (or avoid). Let me know if you find this helpful.

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: Corsi is shot attempts that the team has taken and allowed. "Shot attempts" include shots that are blocked or miss the net. CF% is the ratio of shot attempts made to shot attempts allowed. Elite teams and lines will have a CF% of 60% or greater.

• HDCF60, HDCA60: This is High Danger Corsi For/60 minutes and High Danger Corsi Allowed/60 minutes. "High Danger" means shot attempts in the area closest to and in front of the goalie.

• SF60, SA60: This is Shots For/60 minutes and Shots Allowed/60 minutes. These are actual shots that hit the goal (or went in).

• SOT: Shots on target. This is the percentage of shots attempted that end up being a shot on goal.

• 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. This is an average of the goals scored or allowed over the last 10 games (in this case 1-3 games).

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

Darcy Kuemper - ARI (DK: $7500, FD: $8600)

Risky, but priced fairly given the risk, recent performance, and upside.

Centers

Nathan MacKinnon - ECOL (DK: $8500, FD: $9200)

Even with his high price, I have a ton of MacKinnon tonight. I will caution you, however, in that I really had to dip down at goalie and at defense in order to fit him in.

Wingers

Steven Stamkos- TBL (DK: $5900, FD: $7700)

This shouldn't be much of a surprise. He's a bargain on DraftKings. (Svechnikov was my highest exposed winger on FanDuel if you're wondering).

Defensemen

Dougie Hamilton - CAR (DK: $7000, FD: $6100)

Weber ranks slightly higher for me today, but I have more lineups with Hamilton on both sites. What might really blow your mind is that I have about 15% of my lineups with BOTH Weber and Hamilton right now.

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.

Alexandre Texier: CLS - C (DK: $3K, FD: $3.5K)

Ryan Dzingel: CAR - W (DK: $3.2K, FD: $4.4K)

Ben Chiarot: MON - D (DK: $4K, FD: $4.1K)

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.

I did something new with the stacks. I'm using a graph to show how the LineStar projections compare between the players on the stacks. For example, if you look at the Edmonton line of Neal, McDavid, and Archibald, you can see at a glance that McDavid is basically projected higher than Neal and Archibald combined. This can be useful if you're looking to stack only two of the three skaters.

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 today! Tag me in the LineStar Chat @ZeroInDenver if you have any questions or feedback. Follow me on Twitter @ZeroInDenver.

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