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. 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.

Stack Options

Picking a team to stack heavily for GPP lineups is tough today. The obvious choice is Chicago hosting Arizona, but there are a couple of problems with that play. The biggest problem is that because they’re such an obvious play, their ownership percentages could be sky high, especially with it being a fairly small slate tonight. And it’s really not hard at all to fit a couple of forward pairs from their top two lines into a lineup. High price tags won’t scare people off Hawks tonight. The other problem with Chicago is that they played last night. That’s not a huge deal, but it does give you more reason to fade them, aside from just trying to be contrarion.

If you don’t want to avoid them altogether, which I’m not necessarily against nor am I recommending, the way to be contrarion is probably to use a pair of forwards from their third line along with a pair from their top two lines. That means Andrew Shaw ($3,300, C) is a nice GPP play. I think his left winger, Bryan Bickell ($2,500, W) provides value for the minimum price, but Bickell gets no power play time and right winger Teuvo Teravainen ($2,800, W) plays on the second power play unit. Pick one to pair with Shaw. I’d pair them with Jonathan Toews ($5,000, C) and Marian Hossa ($4,500, W). That’s also the pair to use for cash games. On the blue line, feel free to use Duncan Keith ($4,900, D) or Brent Seabrook ($4,000, D) depending on what forwards you’re rostering. Check to see with whom those blue liners play on the power play.

The only other team I could see going team-heavy on a GPP stack with is the Kings at Columbus. I also think San Jose is a great play against Calgary, but I can’t find more than one line of Sharks where I like the value and production potential. For the Kings I really like Anze Kopitar ($5,000, C) and Marian Gaborik ($4,900, W). That’s the cash game play. I also like Jeff Carter ($5,500, C) but don’t totally love his wingers. If I was trying to get a couple of LA forward pairs in a lineup, I’d go ahead and pair Carter with Tyler Toffoli ($4,700, W). If you need to save some money on the blue line, go with Jake Muzzin ($5,000, D), but go Drew Doughty ($6,000, D) if you can afford it.

Again, I also really like the matchup for San Jose, but I only really like the pair of Logan Couture ($7,600, C) and Patrick Marleau ($5,800, W) along with Brent Burns ($5,700, D). Another couple of teams with slightly above average matchups are Calgary and Vancouver. I can’t find a pair of forwards worth it from the Canucks, but from the Flames I like Sean Monahan ($5,000, C) and Johnny Gaudreau ($4,100, W) along with Dennis Wideman ($4,600, D).

Price-Adjusted Cash Game Rankings

Center/Winger Mini-Stacks

1. Jonathan Toews/Marian Hossa – Chicago Blackhawks
2. Anze Kopitar/Marian Gaborik – Los Angeles Kings
3. Sean Monahan/Johnny Gaudreau – Calgary Flames
4. Logan Couture/Patrick Marleau – San Jose Sharks
5. Andrew Shaw/Bryan Bickell – Chicago Blackhawks
6. Jeff Carter/Tyler Toffoli – Los Angeles Kings
7. Mikko Koivu/Jason Pominville – Minnesota Wild

Defense

1. Brent Burns – $5,700 – San Jose Sharks
2. Dennis Wideman – $4,600 – Calgary Flames
3. Brent Seabrook – $4,000 – Chicago Blackhawks
4. Dan Hamhuis – $2,900 – Vancouver Canucks
5. Ryan Suter – $4,400 – Minnesota Wild

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. Antti Raanta* – $8,500 – Chicago Blackhakws
2. Corey Crawford – $8,600 – Chicago Blackhawks
3. Ryan Miller – $8,200 – Vancouver Canucks

Research Chart

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