Taking a look at the week ahead in the NHL schedule, and how best to set your lineups

There are no guarantees in fantasy hockey, but a pair of tried and true strategies will always pay off in the long haul:

– Bet on the best combination of talent and opportunity to achieve the desired level of production you are looking for from your roster. Talent means nothing without opportunity, and vice-versa.

– Focus on the process by which you make roster decisions, as opposed to the results they yield. Long-term success is not attainable without the knowledge of why you were successful in the short term.

With that in mind, let's take a look ahead at some teams and players to target or avoid in the coming week or so:

Love 'Em (These squads are the best bet to produce for fantasy owners)

San Jose – There is a wealth of high-end offensive talent on this roster, even if some of the squad's core players are a little long in the tooth and the team lacks the depth to be able excel in all aspects of the game. Patrick Marleau, Logan Couture, Joe Pavelski, Brent Burns and Joe Thornton are all averaging almost a point per game so far on the young season, and Tomas Hertl has the talent to eventually see more action on the power play than he is right now. The Sharks should shine with four games between Nov. 15 and Nov. 20: at the Sergei Bobrovsky-less Columbus Blue Jackets, at Carolina, at Buffalo and home versus Florida. The fantasy-relevant stats will be there for this squad.