Staying on top of injury and Covid news is a big part of the DFS game, and is something I wanted to touch on briefly after it was pointed out to me last week by a reader, and I'm glad it was, that I had made an incorrect assumption on a player's availability for the Saturday slate.

The player in the example I'm talking about was Sidney Crosby, as Penguins GM Ron Hextall was quoted earlier in the week saying Crosby would be out of Covid protocol on Saturday. I assumed that meant he would be playing on Saturday, but he actually wasn't quite ready to go and ended up making his return on Sunday instead. If you just read my article on Saturday blindly without following up on anything, there's a chance you rostered Crosby and took a goose egg, thus killing any chance you had at winning your DFS tournament. But if you saw the pre-game rushes, you could have easily swapped Crosby to Jeff Carter and been good to go.

I bring this up because first off, this Saturday article is always written in advance of Saturday, so things can change. Secondly, and more importantly, injury and especially Covid news can be unpredictable and sometimes we don't know who exactly is going to be on the ice until pre-game rushes. While this can be frustrating, as long as you're aware of this and are able to take a few minutes to double check your lineups before lock, most of the time you can fix any problems.

Thankfully, Twitter is an amazing tool at our disposal for not just NHL DFS but for all DFS and I highly suggest utilizing it if you don't already. You can't replace its speed of delivering news when you're in a time crunch a few minutes before lock, and being able to get line rushes and injury updates straight from beat writers physically in the arenas themselves. As I mention at the end of every article, I have a Twitter list you can follow or go view at any time from my profile that is filled with 81, and always growing, Twitter accounts that provide relevant information for your NHL DFS lineups. If you don't see what you're looking for in regards to a specific player, the Twitter search bar with tweets sorted by most recent should do the trick.

All said, if you want to give yourself the best chance with your lineups on a daily basis be sure to allocate a small block of time not long before lock, to just make sure there isn't any late news or surprises you missed. Take it from me, there's nothing worse than having a good lineup going only to see you rostered a scratched player or a goalie who didn't actually get the start.

Enough Twitter talk, we've got nine games on the slate so let's take a look at a few spots to target. All prices are from DraftKings but plays can be applied to any site.

Primary Stacks

Chicago – I'm going against the grain here as I expect Edmonton to carry the heaviest ownership on the slate, but Chicago has been playing pretty well as of late and Edmonton is allowing the most shots per game in the entire NHL. A nice thing about Chicago is when they do have big games you can be fairly certain Patrick Kane ($8,100) and Alex Debrincat ($7,000) will be involved, and they've been reunited during the team's current four-game winning streak. Kirby Dach ($5,000) is centering the duo and would be my first option to add to a stack though Jonathan Toews ($4,800) is an option as well, being he is on the power play with them. At defense, Seth Jones is tough to afford at $7,400 but he's been productively offensively with 14 points in 16 games as a Blackhawk. I like plugging in Connor Murphy ($4,300) here instead to help save some salary.

Edmonton – Speaking of Edmonton, I won't go through the whole spiel like normal with these guys but the Oilers at home against Chicago is the clear and obvious place to go for lineups tonight. I think Connor McDavid ($9,600) himself will see close to 40% ownership in tournaments which is a bit high for my liking on a slate this big. And as I've already stated, I like the Chicago side to be contrarian. With that said though, I do think a game stack combining Chicago and Edmonton players together in the same lineup could be a unique way to get Edmonton exposure.

*insert team playing Arizona here* Detroit – How the tables have turned. Over the past few years, it was teams playing Detroit we often wanted to target for our lineups, but the Coyotes have overtaken that role and this time the Red Wings find themselves as the beneficiary. Over the last four games, Dylan Larkin ($7,000) has four goals and two assists and his line mates Lucas Raymond ($5,300) and Tyler Bertuzzi ($6,700) have six points combined as well during that stretch. Bertuzzi comes in on a six-game goalless drought, but given the matchup there's a good chance he can put an end to that tonight. The Larkin-Bertuzzi-Raymond line comes in fully correlated at both even strength and the power play which is something we always like to see.  If looking to save a little salary, you can replace one of this trio with Robby Fabbri ($3,400) in your stack as he also skates on that power play unit.

Boston – There's not many lines that can match the upside found in Edmonton or Toronto, if you're choosing to skip over teams like that, but Boston is certainly one of them. Over the last six games the top line of Patrice Bergeron ($8,200), Brad Marchand ($8,300), and David Pastrnak ($8,900) are red hot having combined for 29 points. That total rises to 38 points when you include Charlie McAvoy ($6,300) as well. The Flyers have been allowing plenty of shots this year, the sixth-most per game to be exact, but have been getting superb goaltending from Carter Hart to mask it. If Hart isn't on top of his game tonight, I think the Bruins can really take advantage and will come in at a fraction of the ownership as some of the other options on this slate.  For some salary relief, you can sprinkle in Nick Foligno ($2,600) who's near minimum price and on the top power play.

Secondary Stacks

Nashville – The Preds were kind to us last Saturday, so we'll go back to the well here in this one. The Canadiens are playing nowhere near the level they were this past summer, and are in the midst of a stretch where they've lost seven of eight having allowed at least three goals in all seven losses. With Jake Allen banged up and Carey Price still not fully back, Cayden Primeau has been getting the nod in net, but in two starts he's allowed eight goals. Nashville has only played one game since last Saturday thanks to their postponement with Ottawa so they should be well rested. Look to Matt Duchene ($6,000), Mikael Granlund ($5,600), and Roman Josi ($7,900) as your main targets with Luke Kunin ($3,400) and Eeli Tolvanen ($3,000) as secondary options.

Vegas – Perhaps no team has been as unfortunate with injuries as the Golden Knights this season, but despite that they are still playing well with nine wins in 12 games. Mark Stone ($5,200) has recently returned to the lineup and is skating on a line with Chandler Stephenson ($4,900) and Evgenii Dadonov ($3,900) and while he's yet to score a goal this season, Stone does have an assist in all three games since coming back from his injury. Dadonov is trying his best to fill the Max Pacioretty role and has fired 17 shots over the last four games, scoring twice, giving him a solid floor given his price tag assuming he keeps shooting. The Blue Jackets have struggled on the road this season having allowed four goals in four of their five games away from Columbus, and three in the other.

Value Stacks

Here a few affordable stacks you can use to round out your lineups:

Pius Suter ($3,300), Filip Zadina ($2,800), Fabbri ($3,400)

Ryan O'Reilly ($5,100), Jordan Kyrou ($5,400), David Perron ($4,900)

Dominik Kubalik ($4,000), Toews ($4,800), Murphy ($4,300)

Cheap Power Play 1 Plugs

C – Jean-Gabriel Pageau ($3,000), Sean Monahan ($2,900), Nick Bonino ($2,800), Derick Brassard ($2,700)

W – Alexander Radulov ($3,600), Joel Farabee ($3,600), Conor Sheary ($3,300), Tolvanen ($3,000), Foligno ($2,600)

D – Rasmus Andersson ($4,500), Jeff Petry ($4,000), Sebastian Aho ($2,600)

Goalie Picks

Juuse Saros ($7,700)

Linus Ullmark ($8,200)

Jack Campbell ($8,300)

Robin Lehner ($8,100)

Mikko Koskinen ($8,400)

Be sure to double check your lineups before lock for any last-minute scratches or goalie changes. If you follow me on Twitter @SteveDotzel you can subscribe to my "DFS-NHL" list which is comprised of several team beat writers tweeting the most recent news in real-time. You can also reach out to me personally and I'll do my best to answer any questions I can. Hope to see you on top of the leaderboards!