Back in the first week of September, I put out some outrageous too-early predictions for the NHL season, team results. I had five new teams making the top-16, and thus into the playoffs come April, these being (alphabetically) Detroit, New York Islanders, Vancouver, Vegas, and Winnipeg.  Ok it's now the eve of USA Thanksgiving, and four of those sit in playoff positions, with my apologies for the Canucks' awful start. Sure, the Red Wings are still a long shot, and I missed on Boston and New Jersey, but there were plenty of prognosticators who've done worse. The last-to-first St. Louis Blues have proved that exceptions do happen, so hope is not lost for nearly every team – even the Kraken (10-5-3 thus far). 

DFS remains my secondary focus this week, as taking a moment to be thankful for friends, family, and even fantasy hockey opponents (!) can take center stage. My Canadian friends did this a month ago… USA seems a bit behind. 

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Today, I'm targeting the Vegas top line to make a few bucks – Jack Eichel (DraftKings $8300), Mark Stone ($5600), and Chandler Stephenson ($5200) have clearly clicked, and should put up points against defensively-challenged Ottawa. I'm not going with Logan Thompson, however – instead betting on sparkling play from Connor Hellebuyck ($7300) against the OFFENSIVELY – challenged Minnesota Wild. I've added Winnipeg's Josh Morrissey ($5200) and Pierre-Luc Dubois ($5100) for a secondary stack, then filled my lineup from the Metro, with Mathew Barzal ($4900), Rickard Rakell ($4500), and Jacob Slavin ($3700). There are 15 games tonight, so another shot to replace my VGK stack might have been Jason Robertson ($7900) and Joe Pavelski ($5100) at home against the Blackhawks, then Vincent Trocheck ($5800) vs Anaheim, you choose.

For those south of Canada, have a great holiday! 

@dochockey