Good day, all, and welcome to the biggest chalk night of the season! Colorado, Edmonton, Winnipeg. and Minnesota are all in great spots, and I would go so far as to say that Tampa is as well. The only thing that we're missing is Toronto on this slate to really round this out. If you want to play Colorado at home against Pittsburgh, I am never going to say that's a bad idea, and same goes for Edmonton at home against the Ducks. Both are great plays and all, but I'm going to be highlighting a couple spots that may go a bit overlooked, in hopes to lap the field if any of them go off tonight.

Slate Preview

Columbus Blue Jackets

Anyone remember that crazy COVID series between Columbus and Tampa Bay that had the 5OT game? That has zero to do with tonight's slate, but I can't look at these two clubs going up against each other without thinking of that series, and another one as well. It's a "what if" in hockey that I've never seen mentioned, but in 2019 these two clubs faced off against each other in the first round of playoffs, where Columbus swept Tampa Bay. This was that Jackets club with Artemi Panarin, that'll jog everyone's memory a bit! I wonder if Tampa wins that series, how far do they go? Keep in mind, this was the same Tampa team that won the next two Stanley Cups in a row…do they win three in a row if they don't get swept by the Jackets? Oh sorry, you came here for DFS content! Anyways, let's talk Jackets tonight. The Columbus top line of Kirill Marchenko ($5,600), Adam Fantilli ($5,800) and Dmitri Voronkov ($5,400), are going to be fully correlated going up against a Tampa team that played last night. Another great what if in hockey history, what if last night the Bolts kept Brandon Hagel and Victor Hedman on the top power play unit as Florida took 14 minutes of penalties? I like this Columbus top line here as a pivot from the expensive chalk and this is also keeping in mind that with lines of 200 minutes of play, this Columbus top line has the highest goals per 60 minutes in the league. I know that is with Sean Monahan at the center spot, but that stat to me still doesn't take away just how good the wings have played together and how successful Zach Werenski has been at moving the puck up to the forwards on this line. In my single entry, I'm zeroing in on playing some Jackets tonight.

Buffalo Sabres

Anyone else have a random Buffalo versus Montreal game on a Monday night in March being one of the most entertaining games in a while? I have trouble stacking Buffalo but going up against a Sharks team that played last night and will be on the road, is a spot that I want to attack. It's funny, the Sharks get a lot of praise with Macklin Celebrini and rightfully so, he impacts that game positively almost every night, but let's not forget that this club has just 16 wins in regulation. Why wouldn't we attack them here? If I'm playing Buffalo, it's some sort of broken power play stack as I'm not sure that I 100% sure that these lines are going to stick together at either strength. If you want to two-man JJ Peterka ($6,400) and Tage Thompson ($7,800), I think that's fine or if you want to add another wing to your stack to get above the field, that plays as well. I can't say that in single-entry I will have the Sabres as an anchor to my lineup and in multi-entry I also wouldn't be plugging full lines into a lineup, but I do at least want some exposure here. I've seen enough "bad" teams go head-to-head over the past week where the game ends and it's 6-5 and not 2-1. Just thinking back to Saturday night watching Hawks/Ducks. A game that should have been played at 10:30 a.m. on a Wednesday so that we wouldn't have to watch.  

Dallas Stars

With all the lopsided matchups on the board tonight, I can see New Jersey versus Dallas going overlooked and if that's the case, then I'm interested in playing some Dallas in this matchup. In DFS, I like to look at the power play numbers, but the even strength ones can be just as important which is where Dallas fits into tonight's mix as this club at even strength has been excellent in not allowing many chances or goals at 5v5 in the last month. If I can get a low scoring side of things from New Jersey, then that puts me onto Dallas to where I can either play the top line or even drop down to lines two or three, depending on how the rest of my build goes. If you have a filler line or two that you like tonight, then going right up to the top and playing Jason Robertson ($7,300) and Roope Hintz ($6K) is a fine play. In the event that you need to save salary, then I don't mind dropping down and going to Mikael Granlund at $4,800 or Jamie Benn at ($4,300). I like this Dallas club tonight as one that I can move in and out of my build as need-be to help create my lineup, in a matchup that I can see a lot of folks glossing over on a top-heavy slate.

Defensemen

Zach Werenski top of the boa- oh…oh wait, the mighty have fallen, Cale Makar ($8K) is the top of the defensemen pyramid tonight with Zach Werenski down at $7K. I like either defenseman of course, but only if your salary allows you to roster either one. Thomas Harley is good to roster in any Dallas stack at $6,100 and wouldn't be surprised if his prices remain around that dollar amount going forward. I don't mind Devon Toews at $5,200, but just be leery that odds are he is going to be popular as the folks out there stacking Colorado one may try and add him to the mix instead of Makar to save salary. Brady Skjei ($5,100) could play big minutes tonight for Nashville with Roman Josi out, but you have to leverage the minutes with playing for Nashville. Luke Hughes for the Devils may be up there in minutes again at $4,100 and Shayne Gostisbehere at $3,900 is at a good price for someone that's as active as he is on both ends of the ice.  

Goalies

Now onto our goalies…anyone else want to play Jonas Johansson at a cool $8,500? Didn't think so. My ceiling would probably be either Carolina goaltender at $8,100 but would feel much more confident if I could get Frederik Andersen at that price as he did make some impressive stops in his last game out against Edmonton. Connor Hellebuyck is down at below $8K…I'll just leave that little price point there for a goaltender with more wins this season than 28 NHL clubs. I don't mind Dustin Wolf at $7,600 going up against Philly and going down the list a tad bit, I could see in multi-entry getting to Alex Lyon at $7,300.

Good luck tonight everybody!  

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