This post covers the NHL contests on DraftKings starting at 6:00 P.M. EST.

Below I’ve got a discussion of the best matchups and potential stacks of the day followed by cash game rankings for tonight’s DraftKings contests. 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. Purple/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 in action today. ‘Pts/Gm’ is a projection derived from my own Marcel-like projection system. The ‘z’ next to the projection is how far above or below average the projection is compared to all other players in action today. And then ‘zDIFF’ is the projection z-score minus the player’s salary z-score. The zDIFF column is really what we’re looking at.

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

Teams to Target

Tonight’s slate is kind of tough. After the obvious play of Nashville against Buffalo, there are five other teams worth considering, and it’s a little tough to distinguish them. Those five teams plus Nashville is half the teams in action tonight, so we’ve got to figure out a way to narrow it down.

After Nashville, the two teams that grade out the best in my little matchup calculation are the Penguins and the Islanders. I’d like to say maybe we can fade both a bit since they played yesterday, but the Pens are going to see Al Montoya in net for the Panthers, and the Islanders are putting far, far more pucks towards the opposition’s net than any other team since the calendar changed to 2015. Hard to fade that. But I’m leaning towards fading the Isles just for the sake of being able to narrow things down to the point where I’m not recommending everyone. Because the Isles have been so good the last month or two, their price tags are pretty high and the value isn’t great. And four of the forwards in their top six are classified as centers on DK, which always makes lineup building tough.

After that we’ve got the Lightning, Rangers and Wild. The Lightning have a borderline top five offense, but they may be a team to fade. They’re playing for the second night in a row and for the fifth time in eight days. And they’re in mile high air tonight. Plus, Semyon Varlamov has ruined too many stacks for me. I’d love to pick on the awful possession team that is the Avalance, but Varlamov saves their ass frequently.

So if we kick out the Isles and the Bolts, that leaves us with the team playing Buffalo (Nashville) and three home teams playing teams that played yesterday (Pittsburgh, New York and Minnesota).

With the Preds, you probably have to take advantage of Filip Forsberg‘s third line price ($5,400, W) now that he appears to be back on the second line. From about the halfway mark on of their game against the Islanders on Thursday, Forsberg played with Mike Fisher ($5,300, C) and Craig Smith ($5,800, C). That trio is where I’d go in GPPs, and Fisher/Forsberg is the pair for cash games. As for defensemen, you can pair Roman Josi ($7,100, D) with Fisher/Forsberg, but Josi is not a good value at that price. Only use him if you’re having trouble getting close to the cap. If you’re using the trio in GPPs, I’d prefer to use Seth Jones ($3,900, D) as long he’s still on the right point on the second power play unit.

With the Pens, basically everyone outside of Crosby/Malkin has an attractive price. I seriously couldn’t fault you for going with anyone on their top three lines. But I’m leaning toward the second line. Since the game isn’t in Pittsburgh, the Panthers won’t be able to get the Ekblad/Campbell D pair out there against the Crosby line all the time, but they’ll be on them the majority of the game. For cash games I like the pair of Evgeni Malkin ($8,600, C) and Patrick Hornqvist ($5,500, W). They can be paired with Kris Letang ($6,700, D). For GPPs you could pair Malkin/Hornqvist with their left winger, Blake Comeau ($4,100, W). Or you could stick with Malkin/Hornqvist and pair them with something like Sidney Crosby ($8,900, C), David Perron ($4,400, W) and Paul Martin ($3,100, D) to get exposure to both top line and both power play units.

Picking Rangers is probably the toughest of the four teams I’m looking at today. In terms of value, there’s no obvious line to go with. Mats Zuccarello ($4,600, W) is the closest thing to a good value in the top six, but his line mates, Brassard and Nash, are too pricey for me. I’d also like to avoid Columbus’ second line centered by Brandon Dubinsky, but the Rangers will probably throw both of their top line out against that line at times. So I guess I’d go with the Rangers second line of Derek Stepan ($5,700, C), Martin St. Louis ($5,300, W) and Chris Kreider ($4,600, W).

The more I think about it, the more I’m thinking of just avoiding Rangers altogether. Of the non-Nashville teams I’m considering, the Rangers are the only one facing a decent goaltender. Curtis McElhinney has a .918 save percentage for the Blue Jackets this year. But the Pens will be facing Al Montoya and his sub-.900 save percentage, and the Wild will be facing Kari Lehtonen (who allowed seven goals last night) or Jhonas Enroth (.903 save percentage). If the Jackets end up going with Anton Forsberg over McElhinney, ignore this completely and roll with Rangers. If Forsberg does start, I’d lean towards the Rangers second line like I said. If you throw in Ryan McDonagh ($5,500, D) with them, that will give you good exposure to both power play units, which derivatively gives you exposure to the top line as well.

Unlike the Rangers, Minnesota has value all over the lineup against Dallas. I say this basically every time the Stars are in action, but you want to pick on their second D pair of Trevor Daley and Jyrki Jokipakka. That pair matches up with the opposition’s second line, but it’s hard to tell exactly what the second line is for the Wild right now. Arguably, their three best forwards all played on different lines in their last game. If Minnesota’s lines stay the same, my guess is that Dallas’ top D pair will matchup with the line that has Zach Parise ($8,100, W) on it, centered by Mikael Granlund ($3,800, C). Assuming that’s true, I love the pair of Mikko Koivu ($5,200, C) and Jason Pominville ($5,000, W).

Pominville is the guy whose value I truly like. Whatever center he ends up with, that duo will be the best mini-stack from this game. But really, any of Pominville, Parise and Thomas Vanek ($5,400, W) are good plays if they’re centered by Granlund or Koivu. And on the blue line I quite like Ryan Suter ($4,400, D).

Price-Adjusted Cash Game Rankings

Center/Winger Mini-Stacks

1. Mike Fisher/Filip Forsberg – Nashville Predators
2. Evgeni Malkin/Patric Hornqvist – Pittsburgh Penguins
3. Mikko Koivu/Jason Pominville – Minnesota Wild
4. Sidney Crosby/Chris Kunitz – Pittsburgh Penguins
5. Mike Ribeiro/James Neal – Nashville Predators
6. Tyler Johnson/Nikita Kucherov – Tampa Bay Lightning

Defense

1. Kris Letang – $6,700 – Pittsburgh Penguins
2. Ryan Suter – $4,400 – Minnesota Wild
3. Paul Martin – $3,100 – Pittsburgh Penguins
4. Victor Hedman – $5,100 – Tampa Bay Lightning
5. Ryan McDonagh – $5,500 – New York Rangers

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.

1. Andrei Vasilevskiy* – $7,000 – Tampa Bay Lightning
2. Cam Talbot – $7,500 – New York Rangers
3. Carter Hutton – $7,300 – Nashville Predators
4. Jhonas Enroth – $7,000 – Dallas Stars
5. Semyon Varlamov – $7,800 – Colorado Rockies

Research Chart

You can download the research chart from this Google Sheet page here.