Happy Saturday to everyone out there playing DFS today! If you like to stack road favorites, then boy is today's slate for you. Toronto, Dallas, Tampa Bay, New Jersey, Carolina, Washington, Nashville, Florida: all on the road today. I went to see if the team with the best road record is on this slate and they are, as that's the Minnesota Wild…who are at home. Best home record then is also on the board, as that goes to Los Angeles…who are on the road. We're for a wild slate, but let's see if we can't win some money today, follow me because I'm riding hot off Thursday's big in. Five-dollar entry, seven-dollar return.

Slate Preview:

Carolina versus NY Islanders

First off here, Mikko Rantanen and Taylor Hall are not in the player pool on DK for the Canes tonight, I assume when they are it will be like (weirdly enough) the day that Taylor Hall was traded to Arizona. I don't think since then that I've seen one player in more lineups that's name isn't named Connor McDavid. What a trade last night and I think we all know who won the deal. That third-round pick the Hawks got could be anyone! Regardless, Carolina is playing excellent right now and I have a hunch here that Seth Jarvis ($6,200) is going to move up to the top line RW. Jarvis is coming off a big game and could have been even bigger, missed an empty net but it was still a monster DK performance. I might go right back to the Hurricanes here and go with Jarvis, Andrei Svechnikov, ($5,200) and then grab a cheap Hurricanes blueliners to pair with them.

For the home Islanders, they have two things going for them. One is that they have won three games in a row, even with those wins coming against bottom .500 teams. The other is I feel like I've watched this Hurricanes/Islanders matchup 20 times in the last season or so (including playoffs) and it's always a 2-1, 3-2, final score. If that's the case here and it's low scoring, then I'm going to full top line as they will all skate together at even strength and on the power play. Do I want to play the Islanders? Answer here is, no not really…but can I cross off a fully correlated top line on home ice? Again, no I can't. I haven't built my lineup just yet but it's my DFS duty to tell you all for the 50^th time this season that the Islanders are in my mix.

Calgary versus Minnesota

Calgary is in one-off land tonight but believe me, I'll go ahead and take a swing at Yegor Sharangovich at $3,400 or even Blake Coleman at $4,400. It's impossible with this club to figure who's going to be on what power play but if you want to be safe with the lines you can always go up wo Nazem Kadri at $5,500. This Flames club had carried the best road record through half of the season, and I just watched Utah go into Minnesota and shut them out. In no way did I have a Minnesota stack that night. Nope. Definitely not.

For the home Wild, I want to like this club so much more than I currently do and not sure how I want to build with them tonight. I almost can't leave off Kirill Kaprizov at $8,700 but the way that I'm building tonight I don't know if I want to spend up to that amount, even for a one-off. Still, if anyone wants to go ahead and build a power-play stack with them, I'm fine with it and you can be sneaky here and add Joel Eriksson Ek at $4,800 as he took over the top power-play center responsibilities last game. I'm trying to get to a point with the Wild like I was a couple seasons ago where I would stack Ryan Hartman, Kaprizov, and Mats Zuccarello and just go about my day looking for filler stacks to put with them. The spot is fine for Minnesota tonight, but I'm sleeping on Calgary if Dustin Wolf is in net. The Flames have the same number of points as the Blues, who on each hockey show I listen to has people trying to put them in the playoffs. This a matchup where I have interest in both sides and when that happens, it's usually the game I end up watching. Don't let me down, Minnesota!

Washington Capitals versus Vancouver Canucks

So, I'm getting worked in my fantasy matchup right now and to cope I played five lineups the other day. This is how we heal. One the lineups I had built was interesting to me, as I put all of the top four forwards for the Capitals in a stack and then found a cheap filler here and there to put with them. Honestly, I didn't mind the way the lineup looked and going up against this Vancouver team, I can see myself possibly going back to the well here. The salary isn't crazy high either outside of Alex Ovechkin at $8K, as Tom Wilson, Connor McMichael, and Aliaksei Protas are all under $5,500. There was a time where going into Vancouver was close to a stay away for me, but I've watched bits and pieces of this Vancouver club here and there the past couple of weeks and have no issues stacking against them.

For the Canucks, if you guys thought nobody was on them when they were playing well, imagine the roster numbers now. This to me is why I have slight interest. Brock Boeser is down to $5,200, J.T. Miller is at $5K. They're cheap enough to stack with another mid-range line and if they can get on the board tonight you might be able to pass by a good amount of the field. Even with their struggles, Miller and Boeser are on three-game point streaks, and if you're spending up for a d-man today and go with Quinn Hughes at $7,500, I'll never say no to that. The Canucks in no way are at the top of my list of clubs I want to stack, but as an option to get even a little different with a lineup I can't completely turn away from them. Granted, in the end I'll probably pass and be asleep by the time this game is into the third period with the Caps up 3-0 but there's always merit to playing a lineup to get unique.
 
Defensemen:

Hand up here, has anyone actually rostered Zach Werenski at above $8,500? I can't get there, and I like to scroll through leaders of tournaments I'm in once it's all said and done and rarely see his name pop up and it's all price driven. We have a perfectly good Zach Werenski at home, save over two grand and play Quinn Hughes. Dougie Hamilton tonight is fine at $5,700 going up against Montreal and I like both of the Flames top defensemen, but don't I'll get to them. For some reason I always have interest in either MacKenzie Weegar or Rasmus Andersson but end up looking elsewhere. Maybe tonight is the night for double defensemen? Jake Middleton is a solid play at $5,200 but I might save a little bit of money and keep scrolling down to Miro Heiskanen at $5K. Thomas Chabot at $4,700 may play a lot of minutes tonight if Jake Sanderson is out of the lineup and that also goes for Gustav Forsling at $4,200 if Aaron Ekblad is out. For a cheap defenseman tonight, yep, it's old reliable, Jaccob Slavin ($3,500) – come on down!

Goalies:

Well here we are again with the netminders. This week was decent for me when it came to picking who to play in net but tonight, I can see myself spending down a bit to pick who's in net. Either Detroit goaltender at $7,600 is fine and should see plenty of volume going up against Tampa Bay and the same goes for playing either Montreal goaltender at $7,500 at home against New Jersey. If Dustin Wolf is in net for the Flames, you can sign me up for $7,400, but Dan Vladar I will happily pass. Speaking of either-or goaltenders, I'm fine with either Anaheim goaltender going up against the Predators at $7K. I don't want to leave here without recommending at least one spend-up option so let's see what we have…Darcy Kuemper at $8,300, he did just give us a gift of 21.4 DK points against Florida.

Good luck tonight everybody!  

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