Good day DFS squad! Did I play a single-entry lineup last night? Yes. Did I get into the cash? No…I left out the Blackhawks and opted to play a broken Florida powerplay stack instead. It's okay Colorado, sometimes you run into elite offenses like Frank Nazar (rookie) and Colton Dach (also rookie, have some stock). Tonight is a new night though!

I scrolled up and down this slate when I randomly woke up this morning at 4 AM Central and wanted to provide you guys a spot tonight that might be a sneaky good play here…we might have to wait until Saturday's DFS article, it's likely going to be chalkfest here today but sometimes you just have to be one with the chalk.

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New Jersey versus NY Rangers

I cannot get the image of the Devils win against the Rangers before Christmas out of my mind with this one. I know it's past performance and that game was in New Jersey, but the spot is too good for me not to want to have a piece of here tonight. If we look at the Devils by on-ice expected goals for per 60, N.J. has five players in the top 10. Need more reason to be on the Devils here? They'll be going up against Jonathan Quick in net and he has been third-worst by GSAA and GSAx over the past month. I think there's part of a lot of hockey fans outside of New York that wants Quick to make a positive impact for this Rangers team but so far, it's been the opposite of that, and I might be taking advantage of it here tonight. Now, if there's one thing the Rangers do well it's kill a penalty as over the full season they rank towards the middle, but in the past 10 games they've done well in that department. With that, I don't think you need to full on power play stack New Jersey here tonight if you're going to be playing them, but I do think you could have a broken stack of say Jack Hughes ($8,700), Jesper Bratt ($6,800) and Nico Hischier ($6,600) here. If you want to add a piece from the blue line, expensive or not, that's fine and then going to goaltender is also in play here in all tournaments. I haven't built my lineup yet, but my guess here is if I like the way everything looks with the salary in place that I might be on the Devils here tonight.

If you're looking to zag here and get on the Rangers, there's really only one spot I'd want to be on here and that's the top line. Artemi Panarin is still very cheap from what we're used to seeing from him at ($7,300) and Vincent Trocheck is at a good price coming off two goals and an assist on Tuesday at a cool $5,400. If you want to full stack and add Alexis Lafreniere at $4,400, I don't mind it as in my mind, if New York is going to stay in this game, then I'd have a hard time seeing it happen without the top line being heavily involved. I'm going to advise here to probably stay off the blue line as they've been killers in DFS this season. I'm not totally against the Rangers, really, I'm not, this just might be more of a New Jersey game for me.   

Edmonton versus Pittsburgh

The Oilers have won their last four, Pittsburgh has lost their last four. Something has to give but if I'm guessing, I'd say that Edmonton keeps their winning streak alive here. I know a couple of those Penguins loses have been in OT, but I don't see this club stopping McDavid and Co. tonight and if my guy Tristian Jarry is in net then I may need to call DK and ask for a loan to get more salary to play even more Edmonton. I know you can't do that, but you guys get the idea, and how high I am and have been on going against Tristian Jarry (four goals on 28 shots, book it).  

The question is how you want to build your Oilers stack. Playing double-center Connor McDavid $9,800 and Leon Draisaitl ($8,500) is going to be a popular play here so maybe you can mix and match here and add say Viktor Arvidsson at $3,500, or Vasily Podkolzin at $2,700. Just spit-balling here but there are ways to stack the Oilers without totally breaking the bank. Keeping in mind though, I'd have a hard time leaving either McDavid or Draisaitl off your lineup tonight. In my single entry, they're maybe second or third in line here tonight, so much so that I may go three max tonight as I type this out. Okay, okay, you guys twisted my arm, three max it is.

For the Penguins, as I almost write "Pirates" on accident, it's top six or bust if I'm rostering them. Maybe this is a sign though as on my Apple Music shuffle, Mac Miller just started playing…am I on the Pens tonight now? In DFS, sometimes you have to get unique and if you full stack the Pens top line, that is also fully correlated, you come out to $21,400 in all. That may be just a tad too rich for my blood tonight as I can see a couple of these games on this slate getting titled here with the scoring, so I'd need a lot from this Pittsburgh top line to get there for me. I don't hate the spot here as maybe something has to give for this Pens team, but just eye test of how the Oilers skated circles around Boston the other night, I worry that they do the same against the Penguins.  
 
NY Islanders versus Vegas

For the first time since the season began, the Islanders are not in a good spot. I'm not crazy, they should be better than they are…right? Last place? Really? It's cool, there's going to be the usual high roster numbers on Mathew Barzal ($5,100 and believe it or not never scored 30 goals in a season), but if I'm going anywhere I'll want say maybe a two-man of Anders Lee ($5,500) and Bo Horvat ($5,100) as they've been the two most productive forwards over the last 10 games with a combined 10 goals and six assists. I might have interest in net, but don't think that I'll be on the forwards tonight.

Let's talk some Vegas now. They're at home versus a historically bad penalty kill…what am I missing? If you want to build two forward with one defense as a three-man, you can go ahead and plug in Jack Eichel ($9,200), Mark Stone ($7,400) and Shea Theodore ($5,900) and build around that. If you want to make this a four-man stack in a 4/3/1 I'd look to add maybe Tomas Hertl at $5,100 or William Karlsson at $5K. Even dropping down to the bottom lines for depth to pair if you're playing expensive Edmonton is fine with me. This Vegas club is 9-1-0 in their last ten, I really do feel that this is an excellent spot for them tonight.

Defensemen

Zach Werenski is $20K now. Okay maybe not, but he is now up to $8,800. I like him on any slate, but I just don't think I'll be reaching up that high to play a defenseman tonight when there are cheaper options out there. Towards the top some defensemen I like tonight are Evan Bouchard at $6,800 to pair with Edmonton, Rasmus Dahlin at $6,700, Noah Dobson if he promises us, he'll shoot a lot tonight at $6K, and Dougie Hamilton who WILL shoot a lot for us tonight at $5,800. Moving down, Darnell Nurse is fine at $4,700 and Noah Hanifin has played some real good hockey in the past five games, so I don't mind adding him into your mix at $4,500. Jackson LaCombe for Anaheim at $4,300 is a nice pivot here and I also like Thomas Harley but only if he scores again tonight while the announcer calls him Thomas Harley-Davidson like last game. This is non-negotiable. For cheaper defensemen I like Matt Grzelcyk at $3,500 and Dmitry Orlov at $3,100 as both make great cheaper options tonight.

Goalies

In net, last time Dallas was on the slate I played Jake Oettinger who I think got me 4 DK points sinking a perfectly good Toronto stack…but again, don't mind going back if I'm spending up going into Philadelphia at $8,100. Elvis Merzlikins was $6,900 on Tuesday and now back up to $7,800…just wanted to point that out. Filip Gustavsson is a 'maybe' for me going up against Colorado at $7,300 but if he's slated to start in net for the Wild, I don't mind the play. If you're not playing Vegas, then you could look to Ilya Sorokin at $7K, if New York is going to win or stay in that game I'd imagine it's because he closes the door on Vegas on the road. I'll give a shout too if Lukas Dostal is in net for the Ducks up against the Blues, he's at a good price at $6,900.

Also, wanted to give a quick shout as well to all our readers in the Los Angeles area. Hope all are staying safe out there, keeping you all in my thoughts.

Good luck tonight everybody!  

For continued fantasy news and notes, follow me on Twitter @ndySanz.