Good day to all my DFS people! I am fully prepared for anything on this 10-game slate we have ahead of us tonight. If you told me the San Jose Sharks nuked the slate, I'd believe you. You could say that by the end of the night, the Tampa Bay Lightning's top line took care of business on Long Island, also could see that happening. Even if it's a night where if you didn't have Florida/Montreal in a game with 11 goals, I'd say there's a roadmap to that happening. Hockey of course is always random, but on some slates, you just know that we're going to have to buckle up for anything.

Slate Preview

Ottawa Senators

The Senators will be on the road in Buffalo tonight and originally, I looked at this game and passed it by. Yes, Buffalo has taken the most penalties in the last month, but do I really want to play an Ottawa club with broken lines? Answer off the bat was, "no", but then I dove into their Ottawa schedule and remembered something. Last week, the Senators went into a matchup on the road in Detroit and won 4-3, with Detroit being similar to Buffalo in a sense that they take a decent number of penalties and have a pretty sub-par penalty kill. Now, in the matchup I'm referencing, the Sens did not have a power play goal, and that's partially because they themselves couldn't stay out of the box. If tonight we get an Ottawa club that gets chances on the man advantage, then they might just be able to get on the board on the power play which is where they come into play in DFS. I don't want to get into playing line-roulette with the Senators so this would be a game where I would be full on stack the power play. In my single entry, I don't know if I get to Ottawa, but in MME I would want to have a least one stack to where it's Ottawa-heavy in a very good matchup on the road. It's not that I don't want to play the Senators, it's more so that the way I'm looking to build I won't have the space for a full stack on the man advantage for any one team.

Just beware that it appears Brady Tkachuk will be out of the lineup tonight.

Boston Bruins

Okay…hear me out for just one second then I promise you can go back to stacking Florida or Vegas. Are the Bruins a mess? Yes, they've lost eight games in a row and most recently went on a west coast trip to where they lost by four goals or more three times. Here's the zag: the NHL season is long and for DFS we need to have a short memory to move on from slate-to-slate, but we also need to be able to recall back to things that took place earlier in the season. Back in early January, the Bruins lost seven games in a row, which was snapped by an OT win versus Florida. The following game was at home against Tampa Bay, and believe me, everyone in the DFS world was on Tampa Bay that day. What happened then? The Bruins absolutely mopped the floor with the Bolts on the way to a 6-2 win and it was one of those nights where if you had Boston, you were dancing, if not, you were sunk. We're going to get to another pivot in the next game as well, but if you're looking to get very unique then I think Boston fits your build perfect. The top line right now is Morgan Geekie ($4,900), Pavel Zacha ($4,600) and David Pastrnak ($8,400), where you get two out of the three skaters in Geekie and Pastrnak on the top power play, and just looking at this trio, I don't mind the way that it's constructed. If you want to leave off Zacha in your stack, I think that's fine, but someone's got to score in this game and if it's the top line then you might set your lineup on a unique path into the cash. In single-entry, I can't blame you if you decide to stack elsewhere but this game has caught my eye a couple times going through the slate to the point where I must call it out.

Edmonton Oilers

Like Boston, this is another zag play…sort of. Normally, I never stack clubs going into Las Vegas, especially with Adin Hill playing as well as he is. Not only that, but we'll have no Connor McDavid tonight for the Oilers. With all that said, this club still has good even strength numbers which is why I don't mind going up and stacking the top line of Vasily Podkolzin $2,800, Leon Draisaitl ($8,500) and Viktor Arvidsson ($4,400). You get Draisaitl on the top power play, but this is a situation to where I would keep Podkolzin in your stack to both get different in your build along with him being the likely beneficiary of anything that the rest of the top line does at even strength. If you recall back to the middle of the season, this was a line for a half-dozen or so games and they played well at even strength which is what is piquing my interest here for Edmonton. In my single-entry tonight, the Oilers are going to be my ringer. I watched this trio look fine earlier in the season, and if they can get on the board tonight, then it sets up nicely for my stack, along with them being cheap enough as a line to be able to create a fun build. Again, this is a higher risk play, but right when I began breaking down this ten-game slate the Oilers stood out as a team to potentially target to try and stand out on what could be a very wild night of hockey.  

Defensemen

Tippy-top is to nobody's surprise: Zach Werenski at $7,500. Have salary? Play him. We've been over this all before. I do like Jake Sanderson at $6,600 and that's with or without some sort of Senators power play to stack him with. Rasmus Dahlin at $6,400 is a fine play tonight and I also like Moritz Seider right below him at $6,300. This is random, but I feel like we've gotten a discount on Seider at times this season? I can be talked into Jakob Chychrun at $5,800 or his teammate John Carlson at $5,500. Darnell Nurse is again a player I like on this slate at $5,200 and was relieved when he got my lineup two assists on Saturday night. Shakir Mukhamandullin ($4,600) is a solid 'maybe' for me as he's been blocking plenty of shots, so the block bonus is live with him tonight. If you need someone cheap on the blue line, I like both Vladislav Gavrikov and Mikey Anderson at $3,600. For whatever reason, I watched the entire Kings game on Sunday night where they scored what felt like ten goals on the Sharks. Seriously, power play after power play for the Kings, and when that happens, the goals tend to stack.

Goalies

If I'm spending up for goaltending tonight then my go-to is probably Sergei Bobrovsky at $8,200 and just below him, I'm fine with either St. Louis starter at $8,100. If you're not playing Edmonton, then Adin Hill is a great choice at $8K, he has been fantastic in the past month of games played. Darcy Kuemper at $7,800 is interesting to me, but he would probably only fall in my lineup if I were making multiple-entries. Connor Hellebuyck on the other side of that matchup is down at $7,600…again, do with that information what you will. The cheapest goaltender I would go would maybe be Ilya Sorokin at $7,500, but I worry about volume as the Isles do a decent job at limiting chances, and also worry about New York coming out of this matchup with a regulation win.

Good luck tonight everybody!  

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