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.

I mentioned before the ASG that I wanted to try some different things in the newsletter. Mostly, I'm trying to give a little more insight into my process and things that I look at. Take a look at my top ten rankings on the day.

You'll see I have players ranked by my sauce, but included data bars for Projections on tonight and Consistency. Consistency is the rate at which players have hit projections over the past month. It's something I like to keep in mind when building lineups. Of course, nothing is for certain, but it gives a little bit of an idea of how safe a player is.

Let me know what you think. Is this useful? Would you like to see this more?

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

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

✅ Carter Hutton vs ✅ Sergei Bobrovsky

✅ Connor Hellebuyck vs ✅ Jaroslav Halak

✅ Anthony Stolarz vs ✅ Alexandar Georgiev

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:

Connor Hellebuyck, WPG (@ BOS) (DK: $7.6K, FD: $8.5K)

On a small slate, I try not to overthink things. Hellebuyck ranks highest on my model today. Even though he gets a tough matchup in Boston, Winnipeg has been pretty solid over the last 10 games only allowing 2.6 goals a game - second best on the slate.

Sergei Bobrovsky, CLS (vs BUF) (DK: $8.2K, FD: $8.6K)

Bobrovsky ranks second in my model today. His numbers aren't very good over the past month, but on small slates, I usually like to go with talent over numbers. If it burns me, it burns me, but Bobrovsky has the talent to pitch a shutout any given night.

Jaroslav Halak, BOS (vs WPG) (DK: $7.7K, FD: $7.8K)

I'm hoping, and somewhat expecting this to be a low scoring game. Like Bobrovsky, Halak doesn't have great numbers over the past month which is why I'm willing to take a chance on him. I'm hoping that recency bias will scare people off of him. In that case, if he has a big game, it could really pay off if he's low-owned as well.

#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):

Patrice Bergeron: BOS - C (DK: $7.7K, FD: $8.4K)

Bergeron has a solid 62 CF% with 4.8 shot attempts and 2.8 shots on net over his last 5 games.

David Pastrnak: BOS - W (DK: $7.5K, FD: $8.1K)

BOS1 has been such a disappointment, but like an idiot, I'm going to keep rostering them, especially on a small slate like this. Pasta has been averaging a 64 CF% with 5 shot attempts and 3.2 shots on net over the last five games.

Seth Jones: CLS - D (DK: $5.9K, FD: $5.7K)

Last I read, Jones is expected to start tonight. He's been averaging over 22 minutes a game with 4 shot attempts, 2.2 shots on net, and 1.6 blocks in the last 5 games.

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.

Sean Couturier: PHI - C (DK: $5.2K, FD: $6.5K)

Couturier has been averaging over 22 minutes a game with 5.6 shot attempts (1 high danger) and 2.8 shots on net over his last 5 games

James van Riemsdyk: PHI - W (DK: $5K, FD: $6K)

JVR has been averaging 4 shot attempts (2 high danger) and 3 shots on net a game over his last 5 games.

Rasmus Dahlin: BUF - D (DK: $4.8K, FD: $4.8K)

Dahlin has been averaging 23 minutes per game with a solid 59 CF% with 5.4 shot attempts, 3.2 shots on net, and 1.6 blocks a game 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.

Nolan Patrick: PHI - C (DK: $3.9K, FD: $4.8K)

Peter Cehlarik: BOS - W (DK: $3.3K, FD: $3.6K)

Travis Sanheim: PHI - D (DK: $2.9K, 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):

BOS: Marchand-Bergeron-Pastrnak (DK: $21.9K, FD: $24.8K)

CLS: Panarin-Dubois-Atkinson (DK: $20.1K, FD: $21.1K)

Favorite stacks:

BUF: Skinner-Eichel-Reinhart (DK: $198.7K FD: $20.7K)

WPG: Connor-Scheifele-Wheeler (DK: $19.6K FD: $22.1K)

Biscuit stacks (high risk, high upside):

PHI: van Riemsdyk-Giroux-Konecny (DK: $15.5K, FD: $17.7K)

NYR: Kreider-Zibanejad-Howden (DK: $15.5K FD: $16.8K)

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.