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

Buffalo is on the road in Ottawa, so the Senators are obviously a play. As always with opponents of the Sabres, the Sens are likely to have high ownership percentages tonight, which makes me less a fan of them in GPPs. And to be a little more contrarion, I’m leaning toward the second line as opposed to the first. Plus, the second line is cheaper and arguably as productive. If I use Sens in a GPP, it will probably be Kyle Turris ($6,000, C) and Mark Stone ($3,900, W). In a cash game I might use that pair along with Erik Karlsson ($8,000, D) to get exposure to both power play units if I can afford the D-man. If you prefer the first line, I’d use Mika Zibanejad ($4,500, C) and Bobby Ryan ($7,800, W) along with Patrick Weircioch ($2,700, D) for exposure to both PP units.

The other top options tonight are Chicago hosting Edmonton and Detroit hosting Calgary (who played last night). The Wings top line is a little pricey for me, so I’ll only be using Pavel Datsyuk ($7,500, C) and Tomas Tatar ($4,700, W) in GPPs, and Marek Zidlicky ($3,400, D) is an option to use with them. The second line provides more value, so they’re an option in cash games in GPPs. That’s Henrik Zetterberg ($5,800, C), Erik Cole ($3,900, W) and Justin Abdelkader ($3,900, W). If you’re using a mini-stack, I prefer Zetterberg/Cole. On the blue line I’d combo them with Zidlicky in cash and with Niklas Kronwall ($4,400, D) in GPP.

With Chicago things are similar to Detroit. The top line is a bit pricey, plus they also have somewhat of a tougher individual matchup. The top D pair for Edmonton, Oscar Klefbom and Justin Schultz, isn’t a great defensive pair, but they are average in terms of possession, which is much better than the rest of the Edmonton D. For that reason I prefer the second line of Antoine Vermette ($3,400, C), Patrick Sharp ($4,900, W) and Brandon Saad ($5,000, W) with Vermette/Sharp as the preferable mini-stack. If you save elsewhere and have money for it, you can also use Jonathan Toews ($8,000, C), Marian Hossa ($6,600, W) and Kris Versteeg ($4,100, W) with Toews/Hossa the preferable mini-stack. On the blue line I like Brent Seabrook ($4,600, D) to pair with Hossa/Toews in GPP or Vermette/Sharp in cash games.

Player Rankings

Center/Winger Mini-Stacks (for cash or GPP)

1. Kyle Turris/Mark Stone – Ottawa Senators
2. Antoine Vermette/Patrick Sharp – Chicago Blackhawks
3. Pavel Datsyuk/Tomas Tatar – Detroit Red Wings
4. Jordan Staal/Eric Staal – Carolina Hurricanes
5. Jonathan Toews/Marian Hossa – Chicago Blackhawks
6. Henrik Zetterberg/Erik Cole – Detroit Red Wings
7. Mika Zibanejad/Bobby Ryan – Ottawa Senators

Trios (for cash games)

1. Kyle Turris/Mark Stone/Milan Michalek – Ottawa Senators
2. Antoine Vermette/Patrick Sharp/Brandon Saad – Chicago Blackhawks
3. Jonathan Toews/Marian Hossa/Kris Versteeg – Chicago Blackhawks
4. Henrik Zetterberg/Erik Cole/Justin Abdelkader – Detroit Red Wings
5. Mike Zibanejad/Bobby Ryan/Mike Hoffman – Ottawa Senators

Defense

1. Patrick Wiercioch – $2,700 – Ottawa Senators
2. Danny DeKeyser – $2,900 – Detroit Red Wings
3. Niklas Kronwall – $4,400 – Detroit Red Wings
4. Brent Seabrook – $4,600 – Chicago Blackhawks
5. Duncan Keith – $5,400 – Chicago Blackhawks
6. Erik Karlsson – $8,000 – Ottawa Senators

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. Cam Ward – $7,100 – Carolina Hurricanes
2. Anton Khudobin* – $6,600 – Carolina Hurricanes
3. Frederik Andersen – $8,200 – Anaheim (Mighty) Ducks
4. Corey Crawford – $8,600 – Chicago Blackhawks

Research Chart

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