Below I’ve got a discussion of the best matchups and potential stacks of the day followed by cash game rankings. At the bottom of the post I’ve embedded my research chart for the day. Here is just a snippet of the chart I’ll use to explain what you’re looking at.

First the colors. Blue is amazeballs, green is great, yellow is good, orange is bad, red is awful and deep red is no effing way.

The first column that isn’t self-explanatory is the fifth one, the one that is titled ‘z’ to the right of salary. That is how far above or below average the player’s salary is compared to all other players at his position in action today. Then we have ‘OPPz’ which is how far above or below average the player’s matchup is. Quality of matchup is determined with a mix of Corsi against and save percentage of the team the player will be facing. ‘Pts/Gm’ is a projection derived from numberfire.com’s rest-of-season projections. The ‘z’ next to the projection is how far above or below average the projection is compared to all other players at the position in action today. ‘zDIFF’ is the difference between the projection z-score and the salary z-score. ‘zTOTAL’ is the player’s projection z-score combined with his matchup z-score. And the ‘zDIFF’ is zTOTAL minus the player’s salary z-score. zDIFF is the main thing we’re looking at.

Make sure to check Twitter for any injury news, and check Daily Faceoff for starting goalies.

Stack Options

Anytime Edmonton is playing, whoever they’re facing has the matchup of the day. You might think that distinction would belong to Buffalo, but Edmonton’s goaltending is so bad that they trump the Sabres in the matchup department despite Buffalo allowing a veritable buttload of shot attempts against. Tonight it’s Arizona that gets to play Edmonton. The Coyotes are on the second half of a back-to-back as they’re doing the Western Canada road trip. The back-to-back isn’t ideal, but they can’t be faded today because the matchup is too good.

The obvious choice for an Arizona stack is their first line/top power play unit (PP), which is center Antoine Vermette ($5,000, C) and wingers Mikkel Boedker ($4,400) W and Shane Doan ($4,200, W). Those three lead Arizona forwards in points, and Keith Yandle ($5,500, D) is tied with Vermette for the team lead in points and joins that trio on the power play. That’s a good GPP stack today.

If you want a value stack for Arizona, you could go with Sam Gagner ($3,300, C) and Martin Hanzal ($4,200) who play together on the second line and second PP unit. I’m inclined to just got with the top line here, but Edmonton’s fourth line is by far their worst possession line. They’re sometimes used against an opponent’s second line, which was the case on Sunday when they played Dallas. If you’re making a bunch of lineups, get this pair in a lineup. But if you’re just making one or a few, go with Arizona’s top line.

While Edmonton is the best matchup, Buffalo is still an awesome matchup. Detroit draws the Sabres today, and all four of their centers grade out as great values and roughly equal values as well. But two of those centers play on the first line and top PP unit together, Pavel Datsyuk ($5,400, C) and Henrik Zetterberg ($5,800, C). That’s a nice mini-stack for a cash game or GPP. And two of the top three values at wing today are part of Detroit’s third line, Johan Franzen ($3,700, W) and Gustav Nyquist ($4,300, W). Darren Helm ($3,600, C) centers that third line and plays on the second PP unit with Nyquist and defenseman Jakub Kindl ($2,500, D). That line is a nice stack for a GPP.

I hate to say it, but my Dallas Stars are almost as good of a matchup as Buffalo is. In their last ten games they’ve allowed their opponent to score five goals or more five times. If you’re bad at math, that’s 50% of the time. So yeah, Toronto against the Stars is another team to target today. First line center Tyler Bozak ($4,900) grades out as the third best center value of the day, so he’s a great cash game play. But his wingers are elite players and grade out as above average values in this matchup, so a first line stack is a good GPP play. Stack Bozak with James van Riemsdyk ($6,400, W) and Phil Kessel ($8,300, W). Dion Phaneuf ($4,500, D) makes sense as a D-man to go all in on that stack as he plays on the first PP unit as well.

Toronto’s not a bad matchup themselves for Dallas, but Lindy Ruff is mixing up Dallas’ line combos a ton both game-to-game and even shift-to-shift. The only thing you can really count on is Tyler Seguin ($9,200, C) and Jamie Benn ($7,000, W) playing together. That’s an expensive mini-stack, so you don’t have to force them into a lineup. But if you saved money elsewhere, you could spend your bucks on them. The Arizona top line and Detroit third line previously mentioned aren’t expensive, so if you start a roster with one of those stacks and need to spend somewhere, Dallas is an option. I’d probably prefer that Toronto top line but could see Seguin/Benn as a way to diversify if you’re making several lineups and using Toronto heavily.  I also wouldn’t have an issue throwing Trevor Daley ($4,300, D) in with Seguin/Benn if you go that route.

And then finally if you’re looking for a super cheap mini-stack for a GPP, I could see Travis Zajac ($2,500, C) and Michael Ryder ($3,000, C) doing something in a decent matchup with Carolina. That pair plays on the second line and second PP unit together.

Price-Adjusted Cash Game Rankings

Center

Winger

Defense

Goalie

Goalies with an asterisk next to their name are second on their team’s depth chart, so don’t count on them playing. Any players in bold have been confirmed as the starter for the day. And players with a line through their name will not be starting tonight. Make sure you always check Daily Faceoff for starting goalie updates in case I am unable to update the list throughout the day.