Welcome to The Fantasy Fix daily fantasy hockey strategy. Below you will find rankings and projections for tonight’s NHL action. Building a winning lineup isn’t easy, so we’ll do our best to guide you in the right direction and help you win some serious cash. With that, let’s take a look at some matchups you should be targeting tonight.

As always, make sure to check out LeftWingLock for goalie confirmations.

All shot attempt numbers discussed are at even strength and score-adjusted unless otherwise noted.

Teams To Target

[cointent_lockedcontent article_labels=”hockey”]

Chicago Blackhawks @ Carolina Hurricanes

The Hawks aren’t exactly a great team on the road, but the Hurricanes aren’t a very good team, period. Vegas has Chicago as a -136 favourite to win this game, but with the way Corey Crawford has been playing since the beginning of the season, the Hurricanes have no chance in this one.

Chicago’s second line of Artemi Panarin, Artem Anisimov and Patrick Kane is the line to stack tonight. Assuming Carolina matches their top line with Chicago’s top line, Kane and company will have a ton of room to do as they wish. Kane’s salary is going to be hard to swallow, but pairing him with Anisimov should help soften the blow. Both play on the top power play unit with Duncan Keith and Brent Seabrook, so if you want to pair one of those defensemen with Kane/Anisimov, go for it.

As mentioned earlier, Crawford is having himself a stellar season. It almost impossible to fit Crawford and Kane into a lineup, but if you decided to not pay up for the winger, Crawford is the way to go. The Hurricanes love to take shots, but those shots haven’t translated into a ton of goals. Carolina is ranked 26^th in Sh% at home (6.26%) and is averaging 1.85 GF/60. The math here is simple: start Crawford and get rewarded.

Columbus Blue Jackets @ Montreal Canadiens

My Montreal Canadiens have been a disaster since the beginning of December when Carey Price went down with a lower-body injury. Tonight they take on the Columbus Blue Jackets, the same team that beat them yesterday 5-2. For Montreal, it was another disappointing performance. They managed to score two goals, but one came on a five-on-three power play and the other from center ice. To make matters even worse, the Habs are ranked last in Sh% at home (5.15%) and 28^th in GF/60 (1.67). Even as a Habs fan, I can’t deny the stats: Columbus is the team to go with tonight.

Let’s start with Columbus’ second line. Cam Atkinson, Boone Jenner and Brandon Dubinsky completely dominated Montreal’s top line, especially Atkinson. The kid picked up his first career NHL hat trick, and I wouldn’t be surprised if he does it again against Ben Scrivens, who’s likely to get the start. Both Jenner and Atkinson play on the second power play unit along with Ryan Murray and Seth Jones, so if you want to stack both wingers with Jones and/or Murray, that perfectly fine.

Considering how bad Montreal is at scoring goals, Anton Forsberg becomes an option tonight if you really want to live life on the edge. It’s never a good idea to play bad goaltenders, but the Habs just can’t score goals. Playing him in cash games is a huge risk, but it wouldn’t be a terrible idea to give him a go in a GPP lineup.

Winnipeg Jets vs. Arizona Coyotes

Note: this is only a good matchup for the Jets if Anders Lindback gets the start.

The Jets are an average hockey team when it comes to scoring goals at home, but if Anders Lindback gets the start, that changes everything. Let’s face it, the Coyotes are in a playoff spot because of how good Louis Domingue has been since Mike Smith went down with an upper-body injury. If you watched last night’s game between the Coyotes and Wild, Minnesota pretty much dominated Arizona for a full sixty minutes. If it weren’t for Domingue, that game would have been over after one period. Lindback is a borderline NHL goalie, so the Jets should have no reason not to score three or more goals.

The Jets have done some line shuffling, which for once makes me very happy. Mark Scheifele moves up to the top line with Nikolaj Ehlers and Blake Wheeler, while Bryan Little moves down to the second line with Andrew Ladd and Drew Stafford. Scheifele and Ehlers instantly becomes the best value stack of the night. Ladd/Little isn’t a terrible stack to consider, but they don’t offer the same value as Scheifele/Ehlers. If you do decide to go with my first recommendation, Tobias Enstrom joins them on the second power play unit and is dirt cheap on both FD and DK.

As far as goaltending is concerned, Connor Hellebuyck is likely to get the start, but tonight might not be a great night to go with him. Arizona had six shots midway through the second period last night against the Wild, and tonight will have to deal with a Winnipeg team that is ranked second in GA/60 at home (1.55). Unless you’re banking on Hellibuyck picking up a shutout, the value here just isn’t enough for me to take the risk.

San Jose Sharks vs. Colorado Avalanche

Colorado is one of the worst puck-possession teams in the league, but they’ve had success recently thanks to some strong goaltending form Semyon Varlamov. With Varlamov unavailable for tonight’s game, Calvin Pickard is confirmed to get the start. Pickard hasn’t been terrible this season, but he’s no Varlamov. The Sharks are the ultimate love-hate relationship team to play in DFS, but tonight, we stack them.

When it comes to stacking the Sharks, start with Brent Burns and work your way around him. The bearded defenseman is a monster on the ice, and against a below-average team like Colorado, he could easily finish with two points and seven shots on goal.

Offensively, Joe Thornton and Joe Pavelski are always two very good plays. DK still has Pavelski listed at C, but with the abundance of great wingers to choose from tonight, it’s perfectly fine to use both C spots to roster them. Thornton’s price tag has moved up a bit over the last few games, but he’s still a great value on both sites. If you want to go with a full power play stack, Patrick Marleau is the other player I would stack with them. Not only is his price tag reasonable on DK, but he’s also listed as a LW.

Player Rankings

Ranking are price sensitive

Players marked with an * are listed at different positions on FanDuel or DraftKings

Forwards

1. Mark Scheifele—Winnipeg Jets—DK:$5000, FD:$5500
2. David Desharnais—Montreal Canadiens—DK:$3800, FD:$4800 (better value on DK)
3. Artem Anisimov—Chicago Blackhawks—DK:$4800, FD:$4900
4. Ryan Johansen—Nashville Predators—DK:$5900, FD:$7300 (better value on DK)
5. Mika Zibanejad—Ottawa Senators—DK:$4400, FD:$5500 (better value on DK)
6. Jonathan Toews—Chicago Blackhawks—DK:$6300, FD:$8300 (better value on DK)
7. Bryan Little—Winnipeg Jets—DK:$5600, FD:$5700

Wingers

1. Nikolaj Ehlers (RW)—Winnipeg Jets—DK:$3800, FD:$4200 (better value on FD)
2. Cam Atkinson (RW)—Columbus Blue Jackets—DK:$4500, FD:$4700 (better value on FD)
3. Boone Jenner (LW)*–Columbus Blue Jackets—DK:$4800, FD:$5700 (better value on DK)
4. Patrick Kane (RW)—Chicago Blackhawks—DK:$8900, FD:$9000
5. Mike Hoffman (LW)—Ottawa Senators—DK:$5800, FD:$6000
6. Mike Cammalleri (LW)—New Jersey Devils—DK:$5200, FD:$7700 (better value on DK)
7. Blake Wheeler (RW)—Winnipeg Jets—DK:$6800, FD:$6300 (better value on FD)
8. Brendan Gallagher (RW)—Montreal Canadiens—DK:$6200, FD:$5100 (better value on FD)

Defenseman

1. Seth Jones—Columbus blue Jackets—DK:$4600, FD:$4600
2. Tobias Enstrom—Winnipeg Jets—DK:$3000, FD:$3000
3. Aaron Ekblad—Florida Panthers—DK:$5000, FD:$5100
4. Brent Burns—San Jose Sharks—DK:$8300, FD:$7000
5. Rasmus Ristolainen—Buffalo Sabres—DK:$5900, FD:$4500 (better value on FD)
6. Duncan Keith—Chicago Blackhawks—DK:$6000, FD:$5700
7. Dustin Byfuglien—Winnipeg Jets—DK:$6400, FD:$6300
8. Erik Karlsson—Ottawa Senators—DK:$7400, FD:$6700 (better value on FD)

Goalie

1. Corey Crawford—Chicago Blackhawks—DK:$8400, FD:$10,400 (better value on DK)
2. Ryan Miller—Vancouver Canucks—DK:$7000, FD:$8100
3. Roberto Luongo—Florida Panthers—DK:$8100, FD:$9300
4. Anton Forsberg—Columbus Blue Jackets—DK:$6400, FD:$ 6400(GPP only)

[/cointent_lockedcontent]