With many season-long leagues in the middle of their playoffs, I thought I'd briefly share the "playoffs" I'm participating in over on Underdog Fantasy, which may or may not be available for you to play depending on your location.

This was a "best ball" type format which if you're not familiar, you snake draft a team before the season starts with 11 other people, at which point your work is done. Each week all the players on your roster accrue points and at the end of the week the site automatically selects your highest scoring center, defenseman, and goalie along with your two highest scoring wingers and then one additional utility/flex spot. So all in all, you have six players that count towards your weekly score.

The beauty of this format is you don't have to select starters or bench players; you just automatically get the best performers on your roster. The hard part though, is there are no free agents or ability to adjust your rosters due to injuries or loss of role/playing time. You are stuck with you drafted back in September and are at the mercy of the fantasy gods from that point forward.

After 18 weeks of the regular season, the top three scores from the 470 12-person groups all advance to the playoffs and are placed in new random groups. Playoffs are two-week periods with the top one or two scores advancing per round (varies on round) until the field is down from the 5,640 entries that started to the 47 that now remain for the "Finals". I drafted nine teams for this best ball league before the season and I've been fortunate enough to have one advance to this finals where the top score pays $10,000. Here's the lineup that's got it done for me.

Obviously having Connor McDavid all season has been the key to this lineup and Jason Robertson along with his other Dallas teammates have been a huge help as well. You may remember that in the preseason Robertson had some contract negotiations which that uncertainty led to him falling in some fantasy drafts. Carter Hart has also been a solid performer this season on a team where I was thin at goalie based on preseason expectations. The finals started this past Monday and run through April 2, so I can give update in two weeks on how everything shook out, but as of Friday morning I was in 19^th place out of 47 teams. If you like this format, Underdog is currently doing a similar best ball tournament for the NHL playoffs so be sure to check it out!

And now back to the task at hand of daily fantasy. Nearly every team is in action this Saturday but games are pretty well staggered throughout the day. Per usual, the sites have deemed the games at 7 pm EST or later as the main slate so that will be the focus of this article. All player prices are from DraftKings, but the information and concepts can be applied to any site.

Top-Tier Stack to Pay Up For

I may be biased since I'm pulling for Jake Guentzel ($7,000) this week being he lands on my lineup referenced above; however, the Penguins find themselves fighting for every point down the stretch trying to make the playoffs and really need a win in this one. Sidney Crosby ($7,100) is the obvious running mate to stack with Guentzel and from there I'd look at someone like Bryan Rust ($4,500) who likely joins the duo at even strength or Evgeni Malkin ($6,100) who will be with them on any power plays. Pittsburgh hosts a Washington team tonight who's fallen off of late having lost four of six while allowing at least five goals in all of those losses.

Mid-Tier Stack to Target

If you've played any form of fantasy this season you by now know that a matchup against the Ducks is about as good as it gets. This is a pretty balanced slate in my opinion in terms of matchups so targeting against this Anaheim team seems like a slam dunk. The Blues are no offensive juggernaut but they have averaged just a hair shy of four goals per game over their last eight and given their opponent that number seems likely to be surpassed tonight. The top performers for St. Louis over this stretch have been Jordan Kyrou ($7,300) and Brayden Schenn ($4,200) who have accumulated nine and eight points respectively. That duo share time together at both even strength and the power play. Consider Pavel Buchnevich ($5,700) or Jakub Vrana ($5,100) as a third option for stacks and while neither correlate well with Kyrou or Schenn they have combined for eight goals in the last eight games.

Cheap Stack to Build Around

You can make an argument that the best matchup on the slate actually belongs to the Montreal Canadiens, who catch a Blue Jackets team on a back-to-back tonight. Columbus has either lost or allowed at least five goals in nine straight games. If Montreal is to be successful, it'll likely be thanks to Nick Suzuki ($4,900) who has a team high eight points over the last six games. Look to stack him with Mike Hoffman ($3,300) and Mike Matheson ($5,100) as these pair of Mikes have five goals, four assists, and 35 shots over the same stretch.

Goalies

Between the pipes I'm typically looking to stack my goalie with one of my stacks from that lineup. However, if looking for a standalone option, I'd consider Stuart Skinner ($7,400). The numbers haven't been anything mind blowing for Skinner, but he has got the win in four straight starts and for being the fourth cheapest goalie on the slate, those six DraftKings points for the win can go a long way. The Oilers are playing a tough opponent with Vegas but are on home ice and capable of picking up a win in any matchup.

Be sure to follow me on Twitter @SteveDotzel so you can follow my "DFS-NHL" list which is comprised of dozens of team accounts and beat writers providing important updates throughout the day. Also, give a look to our tools at DFS Central to see who our formulas are liking for this slate. Best of luck with your lineups!