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.

How'd you guys do? Last night was pretty miserable for me. So bad (I had a ton of exposure to Rangers and Wings) that I stopped watching hockey last night. How bad did I do? Let's take a look:

Out of 150 lineups, I think maybe 20ish cashed. That's certainly not ideal. I generally shoot for at least 40 to cross the pay line and I really need some in the top 50 to make a profit. But that's the DFS life. Try not to make the same mistakes and profit the next time out.

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

Of course, if you have any additional thoughts or questions, be sure to hit me up in chat.

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.

✅ Petr Mrazek vs ✅ Michal Neuvirth

✅ Roberto Luongo vs ✅ Linus Ullmark

🅿️ Mike Smith vs 🅿️ Tuukka Rask

🅿️ Jacob Markstrom vs ✅ Carey Price

🅿️ Collin Delia vs ✅ Robin Lehner

✅ Braden Holtby vs ✅ Jake Allen

🅿️ Andrei Vasilevskiy vs 🅿️ Jonathan Quick

Minimal injury news for tonight. Jack Eichel (BUF) is out tonight and Vladimir Tarasenko (STL) is a GTD.

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 (vs CHI) (DK: $7.9K, FD: $7.5K)

Lehner has been outstanding this year. He has a 2.00 GAA and a .930 Save Percentage this season with a 1.00 GAA and .962 Save Percentage over the past month. The Blackhawks have been playing more aggressive recently, but I'll have plenty of exposure to Lehner tonight.

Braden Holtby, WAS (@ STL) (DK: $8K, FD: $8.8K)

Murray wasn't good against Nashville his last time out, but he's been pretty solid over the past month and this season. Over the past month, he has a 2.63 GAA with a .916 Save Percentage. He gets a decent matchup against a Blues team that should be without Tarasenko tonight. It's been reported that Tarasenko is sick and is a GTD.

Andrei Vasilevskiy, TB (@ LA) (DK: $8.3K, FD: $9.3K)

Not thrilled about Vasilievskiy because he's been letting some goals in lately, but LA is having trouble scoring, as they're averaging 2.36 goals a game over their last 10 games. While I like the win equity with Vasilievskiy, I don't think he has a lot of upside because the Kings are averaging a slate low of 28.1 shots on net a game over their last 10 games.

#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: $6.4K, FD: $6.4K)

One of my favorite players on the slate. Aho has been averaging 21 minutes a game with 5.2 shot attempts (1.6 high danger) with 3.4 shots on net over his last 5 games.

Nikita Kucherov: TB - W (DK: $7.8K, FD: $9.1K)

I really love Kucherov tonight (surprise!) but I don't normally like picking players facing Quick (expected to start). However, the Kings have been allowing a lot of shot attempts (62.3 - second worst on the slate)

Jeff Petry: MON - D (DK: $5.4K, FD: $4.9K)

Looking at top-tier (and I'm using that loosely tonight) defensemen, I keep going back to Petry. I think he flies under the radar with Hedman and Edler (both good options), but I like Petry because he shoots the puck a lot (6 shot attempts with 2.8 shots on net a game) and is good for a block or two a game as well. Plays around 22-23 minutes a night as well (with time on the second power play unit) which checks all my boxes when looking for D.

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.

Phillip Danault: MON C (DK: $4.5K, FD: $5.6K)

I'm never thrilled about Danault, but what jumped out at me for today is that he's averaging 2.4 high danger shot attempts a game over his last 5 games with 3 shots on net.

Jake DeBrusk: BOS - W (DK: $4.3K, FD: $5.1K)

The top line for Boston gets all the attention but I love DeBrusk tonight. He has been shooting the puck a lot (6 shot attempts, 2.7 high danger shot attempts, and 4 shots on net over his last 5 games) and gets time on the top powerplay unit for Boston.

Ryan Pulock: NYI - D (DK: $4.6K, FD: $4.5K)

Pulock has been playing well lately and isn't afraid to shoot the puck or get in the way of a few pucks. Also gets a little over 20 minutes a game and gets time on the second powerplay unit as well.

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.

Jesperi Kotkaniemi: MON- C (DK: $3.3K, FD: $3.9K)

Anthony Beauvillier: NYI - W (DK: $3.8K, FD: $5.1K)

Travis Sanheim: PHI - D (DK: $3K, FD: $3.8K)

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.

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):

TB: Johnson-Point-Kucherov (DK: $20.5K, FD: $23.2K)

BOS: Marchand-Bergeron-Pastrnak (DK: $23.1K, FD: $24.6K)

Favorite stacks:

CGY: Gaudreau-Monahan-Lindholm (DK: $21K FD: $22.4K)

CHI: Anisimov-Strome-Kane (DK: $16.7K FD: $18.2K)

Biscuit stacks (high risk, high upside):

VAN: Leivo-Pettersson-Boeser (DK: $15.6K FD: $16.2K)

NYI: Beauvillier-Barzal-Bailey (DK: $15.1K FD: $17.8K)

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.