I would like to begin this week's article by wishing a happy Thanksgiving to everyone reading whether you celebrated yesterday or back in October. The holiday has shifted the schedule around a bit as usually Thursdays are heavy days and Fridays are light, but with all teams having Thursday off we ended up with 13 games on Friday instead. That in turn has led to a bit of a smaller slate on Saturday than we've seen the past couple weeks with just eight games. However, eight games is plenty and falls right in the sweet spot of slate size, in my humble opinion.

To me, the real story of the slate is the back to backs. Of the 16 teams in play on Saturday's slate, ten of them will be on a back-to-back, which is something you just don't see very often. And with nearly all teams having been in action on Wednesday as well, we're seeing several three games in four-day stretches for teams with a holiday sandwiched in the middle. Since this article is published Saturday morning, you'll really want to make sure to double check your lineups Saturday for any injuries that could have popped up from Friday's games as well as your starting goalies as it's likely we'll see plenty of backups.

With the holiday fresh in our minds, let's try and build a lineup tonight we can really be thankful for. Here are the spots I'm looking to target on this eight-game slate. All prices are from DraftKings but plays can be applied to any site.

Primary Stacks

Los Angeles – This is just a brutal stretch for Ottawa here, as they are one of those teams who will be playing their third game in four days on Saturday. On top of that, the team is just getting over a Covid outbreak and all of these games are part of a west coast road trip. Saturday's game against the Kings is the final one before a few days off and a trip back to Ottawa so there's a chance by this point the Senators minds will already be on the plane ride home. Los Angeles, on the other hand, will be well rested having only played once in the previous six days entering Saturday. On home ice, look at the top line of Anze Kopitar ($7,200), Viktor Arvidsson ($5,600), and Adrian Kempe ($4,100) who are fully correlated on the power play which is always nice to see for stacking purposes. The spot is so good I think the second line of Phillip Danault ($4,200), Alex Iafallo ($5,200), and Dustin Brown ($4,000) is firmly in play as a stack as well.

Detroit – Another mismatch in terms of rest will be Detroit and Buffalo. The Sabres will be in the final leg of that three-games-in-four-days stretch, while Detroit will have played just one game in a week that has required zero travel. Detroit has won four of their last five at home with some impressive wins over St. Louis, Edmonton, and Vegas during that stretch. Regardless of who Buffalo trots out between the pipes in this one, likely Aaron Dell and his .862 save percentage, I think Detroit can take advantage. Look for the first line trio of Dylan Larkin ($6,500), Tyler Bertuzzi ($6,100), and Lucas Raymond ($5,000) as your stacking targets with Robby Fabbri ($3,300) as your go-to salary relief option.

Edmonton – With no Auston Matthews, Nathan MacKinnon, Alexander Ovechkin and David Pastrnak among others on this slate, the duo in Edmonton are truly head and shoulders above the rest of the field on this night in pure scoring upside so you'll likely want a piece of Connor McDavid ($9,600) and Leon Draisaitl ($9,400). Last game they skated together with Zack Kassian ($2,600) and the trio combined for all four Oilers goals so I'd expect this line to stick together for at least one more game. The price tag on Kassian helps to bring down the overall cost of the stack as McDavid and Draisaitl are as high as they've been all season.

Secondary Stacks

St. Louis – Columbus has been vulnerable this season when they're on the road and Elvis Merzlikins isn't in net and both those look to be true on Saturday. Joonas Korpisalo has allowed 29 goals over his last seven starts which isn't ideal. The Blues aren't the easiest team to stack because their lines and power-play units are in constant flux and to make matters worse, David Perron left Friday's game with an injury so we likely won't know the exact lines until right before game time. When this happens, I like to focus on the top power play and build my stack around that. In this case, that puts me on Vladimir Tarasenko ($6,400), Ryan O'Reilly ($4,900), and Torey Krug ($5,600). If Tarasenko and O'Reilly wind up on the same line together that'd be a bonus, otherwise look for someone like Brayden Schenn ($4,100) or Brandon Saad ($3,900) to move up with O'Reilly who then can be included in the stack as well.

*insert team playing Arizona here* Dallas – You know the drill by now with Arizona, though I will say they have been playing better since Scott Wedgewood arrived in town, which is why I've dropped Dallas into the secondary category here. Also working in the Coyotes favor is Dallas will be on a back-to-back, meanwhile, Arizona will not. However even with that advantage, the Coyotes are not a good hockey team and I think Dallas will still be able to pay off. The Roope Hintz ($5,600), Jason Robertson ($4,800), and Joe Pavelski ($4,500) line has been the Stars most consistent all season and is where I'd look here.

Value Stacks

Here a few affordable stacks you can use to round out your lineups:

Mikael Backlund ($3,300), Andrew Mangiapane ($4,600), Blake Coleman ($3,300)

Sidney Crosby ($7,100), Evan Rodrigues ($3,000)

Jamie Benn ($4,000), Denis Gurianov ($3,000), Ryan Suter ($3,300)

Cheap Power Play 1 Plugs:

C – Ryan Johansen ($3,500), Dylan Cozens ($3,100), Sean Monahan ($2,800)

W – Alexander Radulov ($3,200), Jakub Voracek ($3,200), Connor Brown ($2,900), Arthur Kaliyev ($2,500)

D – Rasmus Dahlin ($4,000), Chris Wideman ($3,000), Adam Boqvist ($2,500)

Goalie Picks

Jacob Markstrom ($7,900)

Alex Nedeljkovic/Thomas Greiss ($8,000)

Jonathan Quick ($8,500)

Jake Allen ($7,200)

Braden Holtby ($8,100)

Be sure to double check your lineups before lock for any last-minute scratches or goalie changes. If you follow me on Twitter @SteveDotzel you can subscribe to my "DFS-NHL" list which is comprised of several team beat writers tweeting the most recent news in real-time. You can also reach out to me personally and I'll do my best to answer any questions I can. Hope to see you on top of the leaderboards!