Below I’ve got a discussion of the best matchups and potential stacks of the day followed by cash game and GPP 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

The best matchup of the day easily belongs to Detroit hosting Arizona. Only Buffalo has given up more Corsi events against per 60 minutes recently, and the Coyotes aren’t getting goaltending as good as the Sabres randomly are from Anders Lindback. As of this writing, it doesn’t appear Pavel Datsyuk will be back in the lineup for this one, so the line centered Henrik Zetterberg ($6,500, C) is the best option. Of his two wingers, I much prefer to air him with Justin Abdelkader ($4,400, W) because Erik Cole ($4,200, W) didn’t see much power play time in their last game.

This is far and away the best matchup of the night, so I presume Red Wings will see high ownership percentages with the Zetterberg line being the most highly owned. But the second line pair of Riley Sheahan ($3,600, C) and Tomas Tatar ($4,600, W) might not be as highly owned. I still prefer Zetterbeg/Abdelkader in cash, but Sheahan/Tatar are an option in GPP. On the blue line, Niklas Kronwall ($3,900, D) is a nice value and can be used with Zetterberg and Abdelkader in any game type.

After Detroit, the quality of matchups really drops off the table. By my little matchup stat I use, Arizona is the second best fantasy matchup for opposing skaters. The next best matchup in play today is the ninth best matchup, Columbus. After that? The 15th best matchup, St. Louis, and that’s only because Jake Allen is in net over Brian Elliott. So yeah, tonight may not be a night for goal scoring.

The teams facing Columbus and St. Louis are Anaheim and Pittsburgh, respectively. Those are the next two teams I’d target.

For the (Mighty) Ducks, the Ryan Getzlaf ($7,500, C) and Corey Perry ($8,500, W) pairing is obviously your best bet to score and score a lot. The problem is that worst human on the face of the planet Perry has been hot recently, so his price tag is pretty high. I think they’re a good bet to fill up the stat sheet, so I’d like to use them in cash games if I can make it fit. But it may be to tough to do. If you use a pair like Sheahan/Tatar in a GPP, you can probably fit Getzlaf/Perry in there. If you like the matchup a lot but can’t get Getzlaf/Perry in a cash game lineup, the other option is the second line pair of Ryan Kesler ($5,400, C) and Kyle Palmieri ($3,800, W), but I don’t totally trust them and don’t know that they have the upside to be worth it in GPP. On the blue line, Francois Beauchemin ($4,000, D) is the guy to own.

For the Pens, it doesn’t appear Evgeni Malkin or Patric Hornqvist will return to the lineup tonight, so I can only go with the top line. Brandon Sutter ($3,700, C) and Blake Comeau ($3,900, W) are somewhat tempting on the second line, but they’re just not quite productive enough for me to trust, and they aren’t extreme values or anything. For that reason I’ll be going with Sidney Crosby ($9,000, C) and Chris Kunitz, ($4,400, W). You could also go with David Perron ($4,400, W) instead of Kunitz or use all three together. On the blue line, both Kris Letang ($6,100, D) and Paul Martin ($2,700, D) are in play as they saw top power play minutes last game. Letang is preferable, but Martin is an option if you need salary relief.

Finally, the Islanders and the Canucks are the other two teams to grab my interest as they’re both above average offenses playing at home against teams playing for the second night in a row. The Isles will host the Wild and the Canucks will host Winnipeg. Winnipeg is definitely the better possession team and likely to give up fewer shot attempts, but Minnesota has the edge in goaltending presuming Devan Dubnyk is in net for the second night in a row. If Dubnyk were to sit, the Isles would definitely be the better play of these two teams. Dubnyk has made 32 straight starts (longest streak since 2012), so maybe he’ll get a rest but it’s doubtful. That said, I still prefer the Isles to the Canucks because they’re a more productive team and I like their salaries a bit better.

This will be no surprise but the Isles line I like the most is the top line centered by John Tavares ($8,600, C). In cash games I think I’d prefer to pair him with his left-winger, Josh Bailey ($3,900, W), because Bailey plays on a different power play unit and would give you exposure to both units. In GPP, I would prefer to pair Tavares with his right-winger, Kyle Okposo ($5,700, W), who joins Tavares on the power play. I like Johnny Boychuk ($5,000, D) with Tavares/Bailey in cash games.

In a GPP I could also get on board with using third line wingers Anders Lee ($4,400, C) and Ryan Strome ($4,300, C), who are both classified as centers for some reason. They don’t play on the power play together, but they do have good price tags relative to their production, and they can give you a little salary relief to be able to afford some of the expensive lines I like. Boychuk can also be used with this duo. When building my lineups, I wasn’t able to get this pair in because they’re both listed at C. But if you can make it work, feel free.

Player Rankings

Mini-Stacks (cash games)

1. Sidney Crosby/Chris Kunitz – Pittsburgh Penguins
2. Henrik Zetterberg/Justin Abdelkader – Detroit Red Wings
3. John Tavares/Josh Bailey – New York Islanders
4. Ryan Getzlaf/Corey Perry – Anaheim (Mighty) Ducks
5. Riley Sheahan/Tomas Tatar – Detroit Red Wings
6. Ryan Kesler/Kyle Palmieri – Anaheim (Mighty) Ducks

Mini-Stacks (GPP)

1. Sidney Crosby/Chris Kunitz – Pittsburgh Penguins
2. Henrik Zetterberg/Justin Abdelkader – Detroit Red Wings
3. Ryan Getzlaf/Corey Perry – Anaheim (Mighty) Ducks
4. John Tavares/Kyle Okposo – New York Islanders
5. Riley Sheahan/Tomas Tatar – Detroit Red Wings
6. Ryan Kesler/Kyle Palmieri – Anaheim (Mighty) Ducks
7. Anze Kopitar/Marian Gaborik – Los Angeles Kings

Defense

1. Kris Letang – $6,100 – Pittsburgh Penguins
2. Paul Martin – $2,700 – Pittsburgh Penguins
3. Niklas Kronwall – $3,900 – Detroit Red Wings
4. Johnny Boychuk – $5,000 – New York Islanders
5. Alexander Edler – $5,200 – Vancouver Canucks
6. Francois Beauchemin – $4,000 – Anaheim (Mighty) Ducks

Goalies

1. Jimmy Howard – $7,600 – Detroit Red Wings
2. Carey Price – $9,600 – Montreal Canadiens
3. Devan Dubnyk – $8,600 – Minnesota Wild
4. Eddie Lack – $7,400 – Vancouver Canucks

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.

Research Chart

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