Below I’ve got a discussion of the best matchups and potential stacks of the day followed by cash game rankings for 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 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. ‘zTOTAL’ is the player’s projection z-score combined with his matchup z-score. And then ‘zDIFF’ is zTOTAL 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

The best matchup of the day belongs to Columbus against Minnesota. BUT Minnesota may be a different matchup with Devan Dubnyk in net. The main reason Minnesota has been such a good fantasy matchup previously is goaltending. They’re slightly below average in terms of Corsi events against, but only one other team has a worse save percentage over the last 45 days. In two games with Minnesota, Dubnyk has stopped 43 of 44 shots. That plus the fact that Columbus has just been an average offensive team over the last 45 days makes me less excited about a Blue Jackets stack.

That said, the other team with a great matchup today is Carolina against Toronto, but no team has scored fewer goals than Carolina in the last month and a half. I’m going to go with Columbus of those two teams and then with stacks from better offensive teams in tougher matchups. If you like Columbus, go with Ryan Johansen ($7,400, C), Nick Foligno ($5,000, W), Brandon Dubinsky ($4,500, C), Scott Hartnell ($4,900, W) and James Wisniewski ($4,400, D). For a cash game mini-stack I probably slightly prefer the Johansen/Foligno pair.

The next best matchups belong to Los Angeles and Calgary who play each other. Calgary hasn’t quite been one of the worst offensive teams of the last 45 days but they’re close, and Los Angeles hasn’t quite been one of the best offensive teams of the last 45 days but they’re close. So I’m going with Los Angeles as my second big stack of the day. I like the whole first line of Anze Kopitar ($6,500, C), Jeff Carter ($4,900, C) and Marian Gaborik ($5,700, W), the second line pair of Jarret Stoll ($2,500, C) and Justin Williams ($5,100, W) and defenseman Alec Martinez ($4,500, D). For cash games I like Carter the most, so I’d probably pair him with Kopitar. But I find it hard not to use the whole line.

And I’m also interested in St. Louis today because no team has been better offensively over the last month and a half. They’re facing Colorado who is a horrendous possession team with great goaltending. The Avs have allowed the third most Corsi events against over the last 45 days, but they also have the third best save percentage in that time frame. I wouldn’t invest too heavily because of Varlamov, but there’s just no other option I can really get behind. So from St. Louis I like David Backes ($7,700, C) and T.J. Oshie ($5,600, W), Jori Lehtera ($3,700) and Jaden Schwartz ($5,600) and defenseman Kevin Shattenkirk ($6,000). I don’t think I’d use Blues in cash games.

If you like Calgary or Carolina (although I doubt you do), feel free to use them. I also thought about using San Jose, but the matchup is just average, they’re just average, and they’ve let me down too many times that I find them hard to trust outside of a great matchup.

Price-Adjusted Cash Game Rankings

Center

1. Brandon Dubinsky – $4,500 – Columbus Blue Jackets
2. Eric Staal – $5,600 – Carolina Hurricanes
3. Jeff Carter – $4,900 – Los Angeles Kings
4. Ryan Johansen – $7,400 – Columbus Blue Jackets
5. Joe Pavelski – $5,700 – San Jose Sharks
6. Tyler Bozak – $4,400 – Toronto Maple Leafs

Winger

1. Nick Foligno – $5,000 – Columbus Blue Jackets
2. Jiri Tlusty – $4,000 – Carolina Hurricanes
3. Scott Hartnell – $4,900 – Columbus Blue Jackets
4. Jiri Hudler – $4,400 – Calgary Flames
5. Radim Vrbata – $5,200 – Vancouver Canucks
6. Marian Gaborik – $5,700 – Los Angeles Kings
7. Jaden Schwartz – $5,600 – St. Louis Blues
8. Patrick Marleau – $5,500 – San Jose Sharks

Defense

1. Kris Russell – $3,900 – Calgary Flames
2. James Wisniewski – $4,400 – Columbus Blue Jackets
3. Andrej Sekera – $3,300 – Carolina Hurricanes
4. Brent Burns – $5,600 – San Jose Sharks
5. Alec Martinez – $4,500 – Los Angeles Kings

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. Jonathan Bernier – $7,100 – Toronto Maple Leafs
2. Eddie Lack* – $6,500 – Vancouver Canucks
3. Brian Elliott – $8,700 – St. Louis Blues
4. Alex Stalock* – $6,800 – San Jose Sharks (probable)

Research Chart

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