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.

Here's a peek at my personal rankings for tonight. None of these should really be a surprise, but you'll notice that Boston has 3 players in the top 10 and all are on PP1 tonight. It's actually an interesting stack since you get exposure to both top even strength lines as well as the top powerplay unit.

None of the players in the top ten should come as a surprise, and I wouldn't try to talk you off of any of them. Just keep this in mind. No one is a lock. There's an 11-game slate tonight and I wouldn't worry about ownership - at all. Just make the best lineup(s) you can.

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.

Slate News

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.

🅿️ Curtis McElhinney vs 🅿️ Robin Lehner

✅ Roberto Luongo vs ✅ Matt Murray

✅ Keith Kinkaid vs ✅ Carter Hutton

🅿️ Alex Stalock vs ✅ Tuukka Rask

✅ Sergei Bobrovsky vs ✅ Andrei Vasilevskiy

🅿️ Carter Hart vs ✅ Phoenix Copley

🅿️ Antti Niemi vs ✅ Jimmy Howard

🅿️ Philipp Grubauer vs ✅ Connor Hellebuyck

✅ Ben Bishop vs 🅿️ Jake Allen

✅ Alexandar Georgiev vs 🅿️ Marc-Andre Fleury

🅿️ Mikko Koskinen vs 🅿️ Aaron Dell

In injury news:

Reilly Smith (VGK) is out. Shea Weber (MON) is probable for tonight. Sam Reinhart (BUF) is GTD tonight. Jack Eichel (BUF) is out. Nicklas Backstrom (WAS) is GTD tonight.

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:

Robin Lehner (vs CAR) (DK: $8.1K, FD: $8.3K)

Lehner has been outstanding over the past month (1.33 GAA and a .949 Save%) and faces a Carolina team that takes a lot of shots. I find this a bit risky and I wouldn't hate you for stacking Carolina, but he's one of my favorites tonight.

Pheonix Copley, WAS (vs PHI) (DK: $8.2K, FD: $7.9K)

Copley has been really good over the past month with a 1.75 GAA and a .944 Save%. He's undefeated over that period and faces a Flyers team that is averaging 1.88 goals a game over their last 10 games.

Jimmy Howard, DET (vs MON) (DK: $7.6K, FD: $7.5K)

Hard not to like Howard tonight, especially at the price. Montreal played last night and got shut out and have been averaging 2.29 goals a game over their last ten. It's a decent matchup for Howard, who has a 2.67 GAA and .911 Save% over the last month.

#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):

Tyler Seguin: DAL - C (DK: $7.2K, FD: $7.8K)

Not sure who is starting in net for St. Louis tonight, but I like the Stars a lot tonight. Seguin has been averaging 6.4 shot attempts (2.4 high danger) with 4.6 shots on net over his last 5 games.

Jeff Skinner: BUF- W (DK: $6.6K, FD: $7.1K)

Eichel is out and Reinhart is GTD, but I think Skinner is still worth a look. He's averaging 7.8 shot attempts (1.6 high danger) and 4 shots on net over his last 5 games.

Kris Letang: PIT - D (DK: $6.2K, FD: $7.1K)

If you want to pretend that Karlsson and Burns aren't on the slate, Letang becomes your best option. Florida has been averaging 3.15 goals allowed a game over their last 10 games. My only real issue with Letang tonight is he isn't shooting the puck as much as some other options. But I do like that he's averaging over 25 minutes a game and gets top powerplay unit minutes.

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.

Nico Hischier: NJ C (DK: $5.1K, FD: $5.8K)

Hischier has been averaging only 3.8 shot attempts with 3.2 shots on net, but 1.8 of those have been high danger shot attempts.

Max Pacioretty: VGK - W (DK: $5.3K, FD: $6.1K)

With Reilly Smith out, Pacioretty moves to the top line for Vegas. Pacioretty has been averaging 7.5 shot attempts (2 high danger) with 6 shots on net a game over his last 5 games.

Miro Heiskanen: DAL - D (DK: $4.4K, FD: $4.6K)

Originally was on Pietrangelo, but compare his numbers to Heiskanen's, and you'll see why I like Heiskanen better today.

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.

David Backes: BOS - C (DK: $3.2K, FD: $4.1K)

Tomas Nosek: VGK - W (DK: $3K, FD: $3.2K)

Nick Leddy: NYI - D (DK: $3.5K, FD: $4.3K)

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: $20.7K, FD: $23.1K)

BOS: Marchand-Bergeron-Pastrnak (DK: $22.6K, FD: $24.7K)

Favorite stacks:

EDM: Draisaitl-McDavid-Kassian (DK: $17.4K FD: $19.9K)

DAL: Benn-Seguin-Radulov (DK: $20.5K FD: $21.7K)

Biscuit stacks (high risk, high upside):

SJ: Kane-Hertl-Donskoi (DK: $15.2K FD: $17K)

NYI: Beauvillier-Barzal-Bailey (DK: $15.6K FD: $17.4K)

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.