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.

Back to another week of grinding NHL DFS. The big news this morning is Filip Forsberg is on the ice practicing this morning. He's listed as "probable" to play tonight, which means Forsberg Tuesdays will be a thing again.

For tonight though, we get a 5-game slate. A little disappointed in the contest selection on both sites, but it is what it is.

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.

I write this pretty early (in other words, before morning slate for most teams) but trying to bring you up to speed with anything you might have missed or could impact your lineups tonight.

Heads up - at the time of this writing, a few goalies have NOT been confirmed.

✅ Jordan Binnington vs ✅ Carter Hart

🅿️ Pekka Rinne vs ✅ Michael Hutchinson

✅ Devan Dubnyk vs ✅ Carey Price

🅿️ David Rittich vs ✅ Collin Delia

🅿️ Jonathan Quick vs 🅿️ Martin Jones

No injury news to report - other than Filip Forsberg is probable tonight for Nashville

Keep an eye on chat for updates throughout the day.

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:

Carey Price (vs MIN) (DK: $7.9K, FD: $8.7K)

Let's get this out of the way. I don't like the goalies on the slate tonight. Price is my favorite. He's been decent over the past month with a 2.10 GAA and a .923 Save%. I have this game projected as the lowest scoring on the slate as well.

Carter Hart, PHI (vs STL) (DK: $7.2K, FD: $7.3K)

This is totally a "what's supposed to happen usually don't" play. The Flyers have been pretty terrible over their last 10 games, having allowed 3.16 during that time. Outside of a few bad starts, Hart hasn't been that terrible - 2.50 GAA and a .901 Save% over the last month. I've paid more for worse.

Collin Delia, CHI (vs CGY) (DK: $7K, FD: $8K)

Call this another "what's supposed to happen" type play. Calgary is going to be popular, and for good reason. However, Delia has been playing well too. He's got a 2.00 GAA and .952 Save% over the last month. Same with Hart, I've paid more for worse goaltenders before.

#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):

John Tavares: TOR - C (DK: $7.9K, FD: $8.1K)

Tavares has been averaging 7.8 shot attempts (3.4 high danger) with 4.4 shots on net over his last 5 games.

Johnny Gaudreau: CGY - W (DK: $7.7K, FD: $8.8K)

Gaudreau has been playing really well over his last 5 games. He's averaging 1 goal and 1.2 assists a game on 7.2 shot attempts (2 high danger) and 4 shots on net over his last 5 games.

Brent Burns: SJS - D (DK: $6.4K, FD: $7.6K)

Brent Burns is my top-rated D for tonight. He is averaging 10 shot attempts with 5.2 shots on net a game in over 27 minutes a game over his past 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.

Dylan Strome: CHI C (DK: $4.7K, FD: $4.9K)

Strome has been playing well in Chicago since traded from Arizona. He's averaging 4.4 shot attempts (1.8 high danger) and 2.6 shot attempts a game over his last 5 games and gets time on the top powerplay unit for Chicago.

Jaden Schwartz: STL - W (DK: $5.1K, FD: $5.2K)

I know I like Carter Hart tonight, but I have some interest in St. Louis tonight. Schwartz is averaging 8.6 shot attempts (2.2 high danger) with 4.6 shots on net over his last 5 games.

Alex Pietrangelo: STL - D (DK: $5.1K, FD: $5.2K)

Second to Brent Burns on the slate in terms of shot attempts over his last 5 (7.3) and is averaging 3.5 shots on net in over 23 minutes of ice time 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.

Joe Thornton: SJ - C (DK: $3.1K, FD: $5.2K)

Lukas Radil: SJ - W (DK: $2.9K, FD: $3.3K)

Travis Sanheim: PHI - D (DK: $3.5K, 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):

TOR: Brown-Tavares-Marner (DK: $17.9K, FD: $19.9K)

CGY: Gaudreau-Monahan-Lindholm (DK: $21.7K, FD: $23.7K)

Favorite stacks:

SJ: Kane-Hertl-Donskoi (DK: $15.2K FD: $17.1K)

CHI: Anisimov-Strome-Kane (DK: $16.4K FD: $17.7K)

Biscuit stacks (high risk, high upside):

CHI: Saad-Toews-Kahun (DK: $12.8K FD: $15.1K)

MON: Drouin-Domi-Armia (DK: $14.4K FD: $14.6K)

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.