Good day, all! This is an NHL 2024 slate if I've ever seen one. The Islanders are again in a great spot to carry high roster numbers (and score two goals), San Jose is on the road, Colorado is at home, and we have another Jets game that I couldn't tell heads or tails what to do with. These things happen when on Tuesdays and Thursday's almost every NHL team is in action.

Slate Preview

Anaheim vs Toronto

The Ducks played last night. Nobody had a good time. Still, I go through every game on a given slate and while this is 100% a Toronto game for me, we at least have to talk about Anaheim. While I can't say I love the matchup here, the Ducks do have a couple things going for them for DFS. They're going to run a top line that's fully correlated, and while the pricing might be competitive to other lines I'd have interest in, Frank Vatrano ($6,100), Troy Terry ($5,800), and Ryan Strome ($4,800), will skate together at all strengths. The Ducks also will have Lukas Dostal in net tonight who has won a couple games for them this season when the Ducks weren't in great matchups. Outside of all that…I mean, I do like their new road uniforms with the orange helmets? This is coming from someone who doesn't really care for the sweater conversation as much, I'm just here for DFS.

Now onto Toronto…this is a home matchup against a Ducks team that played last night and got smashed by the Ottawa Senators. Toronto at even strength the past month has been pretty non-eventful with the lowest goals for, but in that time the second highest high danger shooting percentage. Something's got to give, and I'll roll the dice that it's tonight against Anaheim. Auston Matthews ($9,600), Mitch Marner ($7,400) and Matthew Knies ($4,600) are fully correlated like the Ducks' top line tonight. If you like this line and this spot, play them and I wouldn't leave anyone off the stack. Toronto has been running a power play with no defensemen so there's no reason to look for the blue line here; my interest would be this top line, or really any stack and include Matthews. For some reason, in my head I remember someone on 590 saying that on weekdays when it's an out of conference game at Scotiabank, the vibe is usually a little weird and those are the games that Toronto struggles with. I have no clue if that's true or not and might just be one of the weird things my memory has kept. This is all coming from a person who listens to nothing but hockey shows all which is probably slowly deteriorating my mind. I haven't built my lineup(s) yet but in single entry they're right up there for me and in anything larger than that I will at least get to some Maple Leafs here.  

Nashville vs Dallas

Okay we have to talk about each side here…so let's start with Nashville. I don't know where to go here…I mean, I found out yesterday that my 9-5 is sending me there in April? Is that helpful for DFS tonight? I always will say that going with Roman Josi (he's day-to-day so double-check availability) on the blueline is fine, I'll never say anything against it. The top six did look good last time out to Calgary, or maybe it was just a matter of this group finally getting on the scoresheet together even if it did lead to a loss. I can't say I'll be hopping on the Preds hype train here tonight, but we at least have to talk about each side of a game I'm looking at.

For the home Dallas Stars, here's the thing…yes. If you want to go to the top line here that's fully correlated with Jason Robertson ($5,600), Wyatt Johnston ($5,500), and Roope Hintz ($5,400), that's a fine play. Even taking pieces of the Dallas second line is also a decent play here tonight on home ice in a good matchup. If there's reason to give me pause here, it's that just eye test, Dallas last week looked like a team that needed some time off here…which is perfect in this situation because this club hasn't played since Sunday. If I go some sort of Dallas/Toronto mix and I'm out of cash tonight, hey we tried. It's a very large slate so there's going to be a lot of ways to get into the money, but I just feel like tonight there's a couple nice directions to go with.
 
Boston vs Seattle

So my DK has this game and the three other late games only available in the Late tournaments…I do like that pool as it's fun if you really like a line to throw them in the featured lobby as well as late. I'm probably not getting my center from the Boston side tonight, just throwing that out there. I do have interest though in a David Pastrnak one-off at $8,800…everything else…pass.

Let's talk about Seattle though. I said on Tuesday that I liked the way that Seattle had played on their road trip, and they looked good in their first home game back vs Florida. Even though Seattle lost in a shootout, I played them in my lineup, and they got me there which is the first time I think I've ever said that about Seattle. The issue with the Kraken has always been ice time, and line correlation, but tonight we might be able to get them in a power play stack. Over the entire season, nobody has been shown the gate to the penalty box more than the Bruins and if a power play stack for Seattle gets me exposure across three lines, plus a group on the man advantage that might get its fair share of chances tonight then I'm interested here. I don't so much take into account that the Bruins got trucked in their last game out vs Winnipeg, but it is something that I at least had circled for another reason to get on Seattle here tonight. If this is the only time all season that I can stack them on the PP I might just have to do it to get unique, they might not be a top priority play here, but one that I would absolutely have in consideration.  

Defensemen

The top of my mountain for defensemen tonight is Moritz Seider at $6K, even with the larger slate, I do that this is one where you don't have to spend up on the blue line here. Plus, typically I don't allocate most my salary to defensemen on large slates, that's more for five or six gamers for me. Alex Pietrangelo caught my eye at $4,900 and is someone I'm looking at maybe getting to. Kris Letang vs the Habs may be a go for me at $4,500. Thomas Harley at $4K with anything Dallas is great as well. If you're looking to punt there, Ivan Provorov down at $3,300 might me a solid play if he stands in front of enough pucks here tonight, and Nick Seeler at $3,100 as a one-off defenseman is good with me.   

Goalies

I might take a stab here at Filip Gustavsson at $7,800…maybe…time will tell. If it's Adin Hill in net for Vegas at $7,600 I can see myself going in that direction on the road, I don't mind the matchup there for a goalie in the mid-ranges. For cheap I do have Lukas Dostal written down at $6,900 but believe me, there's a long way to go from written down to in my lineup.  

Good luck tonight everybody!  

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