Good day to all of my DFS people across the globe! Sometimes in DFS, there are slates that you look at for 15 minutes, shrug your shoulders, and just throw in the Colorado top line or the Edmonton top line. Tonight, is not one of those nights. Although, if you want to stack Edmonton, I don't hate the play at all. I really like this slate for a variety of reasons, and I think there are some spots here that are going to go overlooked.

Slate Preview

Columbus Blue Jackets

Coming into the season if you were to tell me that the club I'll make the most money on would be the Jackets I'd have thought you were crazy. I've doubted this club so many times on the year, and each time I have, they've come out and gotten me into cash. Tonight, I'm circling them and its partially matchup driven as Buffalo has been awful at times this season…glad I took them to make playoffs, but the other reason is price. With Sean Monahan and Kirill Marchenko out of the lineup, the top line is going to look like Dmitri Voronkov ($5,400), Adam Fantilli ($5,800) and Kent Johnson at $4,800. Not only is this line going to skate together at all strengths, but the price is low enough to add another line or even, gasp, Zach Werenski who is down at $7,600 tonight. I had to look at that price twice just to make sure I wasn't seeing something different; this was a player that I just wrote about at $9,600. I can't say that I'm going to be pulling a chair up in front of the TV to tune into this matchup, but I do like Columbus given their top line's price.

Boston Bruins

I haven't played the Bruins since before American Thanksgiving, but I have real interest tonight. The matchup itself is fine, but what's drawing me to them is more so how Minnesota has been playing recently, particularly on the penalty kill. Over the past month, the Wild have had the worst PK in the league and its sort of by a runaway here. To go along with that, Filip Gustavsson in that same time frame has the second worst GSAA and xGSA. Granted, he's missed a good chunk of the blueline in front of him at times, but the numbers don't lie. I've been meaning to watch some Boston lately, and if I'm stacking them for the power play, I might just go all out top power play unit and find my fillers across the slate. If you want to leave off Pavel Zacha at center, you can do that but take my advice from someone who gets burned more than ever from leaving off a power play center. At the end of the day, Minnesota is still good at even strength, but this may be a spot to where I can catch this club at a low point on special teams.

New York Islanders

If you've come here for more Islanders chalk talk, then you've come to the right place! Only tonight, I cannot see a world where this team is popular…possibly, time will tell. I'm all over this club right now and may be at times as we go forward. I know what you're asking yourself sitting at your cubicle looking like you're doing work (I am also doing the same), "But why New York? Isn't Mathew Barzal hurt?". Yes, he is, and as crazy as it sounds that's a reason, I'm drawn to them. I watch a lot…and I mean a lot of the Isles and have for the past few seasons now because the Hawks are awful, so in some weird way, that brings me to New York. I promise you all that I'm mentally with it. Well. Within reason anyways. What I do notice though, is that when Barzal is out of the lineup, this team plays well for some reason that I can't explain. Two seasons ago Barzal was in a similar spot, potentially missing a good chunk of the remainder of the regular season and in the games that followed in his absence from the lineup, the Islanders went 6-1-1 on their way to make playoffs. This is also a Vegas team that has lost three games in a row and to be honest looked shaky in the past couple of weeks. I'm not forgetting that I stacked this same Vegas team a month ago at home versus the Islanders, who came in and won 4-0 in a game that felt like it should have been more like 6-0 the way New York played that night. I like the top line of Bo Horvat ($6,200), Anders Lee ($5,100) and Anthony Duclair at $3,800. There's full correlation with this group and if I'm stacking New York, I may look at them in a 4-3-1 and adding in Maxim Typlakov who has been excellent this season as a rookie and at times has skated on the top line with this group. Look, on half these slates the Islanders are popular, tonight is one where they may not be, and you could find yourself moving up in a tournament if this team can put up goals tonight.

Defensemen

Zach Werenski is at the top again and fits perfectly with a Columbus top line stack. Outside of him and Evan Bouchard at the top at $6,200, I like the cheap defensemen tonight. Charlie McAvoy at $4,800 if I decide to go with Boston here and I also like Mattias Ekholm at $4,200. Adam Pelech has led the Isles defensemen in ice time in the last three games and is priced reasonably at $3,800. Matt Grzelcyk is fine down at $3,500 and don't mind Neal Pionk just below him at $3,400.    

Goalies

For my money, Ilya Sorokin is the top for me at $7,900, he's been excellent over the past month and if he's confirmed the starter for New York then I have interest and that's regardless if I roster the Islanders or not. Logan Thompson at $7,800 has been sensational this season and should see volume against the Panthers, like him in this spot quite a bit. Connor Hellebuyck is at home down at $7,600…this is like for those who played MLB back in the day when Carlos Correa was cheap, just play him. You could talk me into either St. Louis goaltender down at $7K but take me out of them just as easily. Volume, good. Playing the Oilers, bad.

Good luck tonight everybody!  

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