I hate to admit it but the NHL schedule the past few weeks has really been a turn off for me. It started with the Covid postponements and holiday break but even now we have been in a rut of alternating between a day with only one or two games followed by eight or more followed again by just one or two.

One of my favorite aspects of NHL DFS under normal conditions is that no matter how bad you might do one night, you can quickly move on as there's always another slate tomorrow to dive into. This daily routine of playing DFS also helps me keep tabs on lines, power play units, and just hot/cold streaks for both players and teams. However, when you get into a situation like we have been lately with some teams being completely shut down and a few days each week with barely any games at all, I find it harder to stay in the flow of things.

I'm beginning to sound like a broken record but with how crazy everything is now with players testing positive and games being postponed, it is extremely important you don't just build a lineup Saturday morning and forget it. I typically write this article about 20 hours in advance of puck drop and while normally that is fine, in this day and age much can change. So be sure to double check your team(s) before lock for any late breaking news.

With all that said, that is just the climate of things right now and given the Covid cases it is probably something that I/we will just have to get used to. Despite having just two games on the schedule for Friday and Sunday, we are fortunate to at least have a robust Saturday with 10 games on the slate at the time of this writing. So let's get into it, all prices are from DraftKings but plays can be applied to any site.

Primary Stacks

Nashville – The Predators are quietly one of the hottest teams in the league with wins in 10 of their last 12 games, a streak they should be able to extend with a matchup against the lowly Coyotes. Karel Vejmelka, who I'd expect to see in net here, has been a bright spot for Arizona at times but even still he's allowed four, five, and seven goals in three of his last four starts. The Coyotes just allow a lot of scoring chances which Nashville will look to take advantage of. I'm looking at the top line for the Predators of Filip Forsberg ($6,700), Matt Duchene ($5,800), and Mikael Granlund ($5,200) here. Roman Josi ($7,400) is another solid option, but his price tag makes it tough to fit. You'll likely have to leave off one of the three to if adding in Josi. For a mini value stack, consider Yakov Trenin ($2,500) and Tanner Jeannot ($3,100) who have racked up 18 goals between the two of them and should get some looks while the Coyotes likely try to slow down the top line.

San Jose – The Flyers were a team struggling plenty enough to begin with but are now also dealing with a Covid outbreak as well. In their last game on Thursday, the team was without Sean Couturier, Claude Giroux, Ivan Provorov, and Travis Sanheim among others. Unsurprisingly they lost that game 6-2, which is their fourth loss in a row, a streak that has seen them allow 19 goals. The Sharks are down a few guys as well but Timo Meier ($8,100) is having a great season with 36 points in 30 games while averaging north of four shots per game. He is the majority of the Sharks offense right now so playing him as a one off or stacking him is a good way to get exposure to this good spot. If stacking, pair him with one or both of Tomas Hertl ($6,500) and Brent Burns ($6,200). You can extend the stack to Jonathan Dahlen ($3,500) as well as he joins Meier at both even strength and the power play.

New Jersey – It's been rough sledding for Joonas Korpisalo this season, as he's either lost or allowed at least four goals in eight of his nine starts on the year. The Devils have won one four of five and Jack Hughes ($6,600) has been scorching hot during that stretch with 12 points in those five games. The former top overall pick has averaged over 24 DraftKings in that span and can be stacked fairly cheap. Jesper Bratt comes in at $6,100 and Tomas Tatar ($3,400) is very affordable. Damon Severson ($5,100) is worth consideration as well while stepping up to the top power play in the absence of Dougie Hamilton.

Secondary Stacks

Los Angeles – The Red Wings have some pretty drastic home/road splits. On home ice they're 12-5-2 while allowing only 2.68 goals per game. However on the road, they're just 4-10-1 and that goals allowed number climbs all the way up to 4.20. With a matchup away from Detroit tonight, I'm looking at the Kings. LA had Martin Frk ($3,200) on the top line and power play with Anze Kopitar ($6,400) and Adrian Kempe ($4,800) Thursday, so if that's the case again, you're getting a very affordable top line stack that's fully correlated.

Washington – The Wild pulled off an impressive win at Boston on Thursday, but their star forward Kirill Kaprizov suffered an injury in that one and isn't expected to play Saturday. As a result, outside of their top line, the Wild will be putting out a team littered with players you probably haven't heard of. Not an idea situation with Alexander Ovechkin ($9,400) coming to town. I'm betting on Ovi finding the back of the net in this one and will be playing him as a one off or stacking him with the likes of Evgeny Kuznetsov ($6,800) and John Carlson ($7,100) if I can afford it.

Florida – The Hurricanes and their league-best 69 goals allowed are not a team I typically want to stack against, however we're catching them on a back-to-back here against a Florida team that can score goals as well as anyone, as their league leading 132 illustrates. We don't get the even strength/power play correlation we like to see with lines with the Panthers so when playing Aleksander Barkov ($7,000) you can mix and match the likes of Carter Verhaeghe ($4,100) and Maxim Mamin ($2,500) for 5v5 or Jonathan Huberdeau ($7,200), and Patric Hornqvist ($3,000) for the power play. Aaron Ekblad ($6,900) is a great option for either stack.

Value Stacks

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

Trenin and Jeannot – See Nashville paragraph

Chandler Stephenson ($4,600), Mark Stone ($5,700), Evgenii Dadonov ($3,300)

Lars Eller ($3,800), Conor Sheary ($4,000), Tom Wilson ($5,100)

Cheap Power Play 1 Plugs

C – Johan Larsson ($2,700), Dylan Strome ($3,000), Ryan Johansen ($4,300)

W – Nathan Bastian ($2,500), Hornqvist ($3,000), Frk ($3,200), Oliver Bjorkstrand ($4,900)

D – Matt Grzelcyk ($3,400), Alex Goligoski ($3,400), Adam Boqvist ($3,700)

Goalie Picks

Jonathan Quick ($8,300)

Mackenzie Blackwood ($7,500)

Linus Ullmark ($7,200)

Sergei Bobrovsky ($7,400)

Marc-Andre Fleury ($7,000) (Revenge Game!)

Go check out our DraftKings DFS Player Evaluator over in the Frozen Tools to get another persepctive on some plays for tonight's slate.

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!