Can you believe that by this time next week almost every team will be a third of the way through their season already? Who are your biggest surprises and disappointments thus far? Personally, playing daily fantasy as compared to season-long fantasy, you sometimes lose sight of the big picture stuff, so it's nice to zoom out every once and awhile and look around.

My biggest surprise team wise would have to be the Ducks. I can't say I had much hopes for Anaheim this season but the fact they're currently in a playoff spot and ahead of teams like Vegas and Colorado is just not something I, or anyone, saw coming. Individually, how about Andrew Mangiapane? Having 16 goals, tied for third in the league entering Friday, with barely any top line or power play minutes is truly impressive.

On the disappointing end of the spectrum, it has to be the Islanders who are in the basement of the Eastern Conference despite being my pre-season representative for the Stanley Cup. As for players, Jeff Petry comes to mind. After four consecutive 40 points seasons and no Shea Weber in the mix for Montreal, I thought Petry would have no trouble extending that streak to five seasons. But with just a measly two points in 25 games, that seems unlikely now. There is still plenty of time for teams and players to turn things around but as Yogi Berra once said, "It's getting late early."

Shifting gears back to DFS, we've got a nine-game slate in store for Saturday with a nice mix of high profiles and some under the radar options. All prices are from DraftKings but plays can be applied to any site.

Primary Stacks

Colorado – If you've been stacking against Ottawa lately, you've probably been doing fairly well. Before picking up a 3-2 win on Thursday, they had allowed 27 goals in five games, which is one of the worst stretches we'll see for any team this season. The Avalanche are only getting healthier with the return of Nathan MacKinnon ($8,900) to the lineup who now has had two games to shake the rust off. It's an expensive stack but his line mates of Mikko Rantanen ($8,600) and Gabriel Landeskog ($7,300) are the preferred options. To try and save a little salary, you can leave one off for a defenseman such as Devon Toews ($5,600) or Samuel Girard ($4,200).

Chicago – Most people are going to be on the Rangers side of this game, who are fine plays on their own, but don't sleep on the Blackhawks here. New York has allowed the fifth-most scoring chances in the league this season, but can get by thanks to superb goaltending from Igor Shesterkin and his 2.15 goals against average. However, when they don't have Igor in net to protect them and that goaltender is Alexandar Georgiev instead, that number skyrockets to 4.08 goals allowed. With the Rangers on a back-to-back here and Shesterkin starting on Friday (and getting banged up), it's a good bet the Blackhawks are going to see Georgiev. I'm not crazy about Chicago's current lines and power-play units with Patrick Kane ($7,700) and Alex Debrincat ($5,800) separated at both even strength AND the power play, but we have to play the hand we're dealt. I'm always going to follow Kane so give me him, Jonathan Toews ($4,100), and Brandon Hagel ($3,200) as my primary Chicago stack in this one, but I'll sprinkle in some Kirby Dach ($3,900), Dylan Strome ($2,500), and Debrincat as well because they are just so cheap. 

Carolina – The Sabres continue to hemorrhage goals to opponents and have now allowed seven goals in back-to-back games and at least five goals in six of their last eight games. Things are so bad they just traded for Malcolm Subban and his career sub-.900 save percentage. Regardless of who's in net, the Hurricanes should have no problem busting out of their current offensive skid in this one on home ice. Having lost five of six, there's a good chance there could be some line shuffling here and at Friday's practice the top line was Sebastian Aho ($7,700), Teuvo Teravainen ($5,500) and Nino Niederreiter ($3,000), which is a change from their most previous game. I'd prefer to see Andrei Svechnikov ($7,100) up there but as it stands, I'm still okay rolling with Aho, Teuvo, and Nino for this contest. Carolina's defensive core is thin right now, leaving Jaccob Slavin ($5,100) a cut above the rest of the guys offensively if you want to add him to a few stacks as well.

Secondary Stacks

Washington – Alexander Ovechkin ($9,600) continues to defy Father Time with seven goals and five assists over the Capitals last seven games. No stranger to shooting the puck, his 4.3 shots per game puts him in play for the DraftKings five shot bonus each night, something he's achieved in 46% of his games this season. In games he does, that is 10.5 DraftKings points without even recording a goal or assist, so you can see how when he is scoring the points can quickly pile up. On the road like they are in this one, the Blue Jackets are bottom five in all categories of shots allowed, scoring chances allowed, and goals allowed which should be a great recipe for Ovechkin. Ovi can have such big games on his own I often pass on the price tag that comes with Evgeny Kuznetsov ($7,100) and instead just single or double stack him with John Carlson ($6,700), Aliaksei Protas ($3,600), or Martin Fehervary ($2,700) to help save some salary while still maintaining some correlation.

Nashville – Montreal is another one of those teams we continue to pick on, and tonight is no different. In the five games since Filip Forsberg ($6,600) returned the Predators top line has accounted for eight goals and 11 assists. Granted a large part of that is on the back of Forsberg's four goal game on Tuesday, but that is the upside that exists here. Stack Forsberg with Matt Duchene ($6,100) and Mikael Granlund ($5,100) while leaving the door open for Roman Josi ($7,500) and Ryan Johansen ($4,200) who join him on the power play. Johansen in particular helps level out the high price tags on Forsberg and Josi.

Value Stacks

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

Josh Norris ($4,900), Drake Batherson ($4,500), Brady Tkachuk ($5,100)

Vincent Trocheck ($4,600), Seth Jarvis ($3,700), Martin Necas ($4,400)

Lars Eller ($3,400), Tom Wilson ($4,900), Daniel Sprong ($2,700)

Jeff Carter ($5,800), Kasperi Kapanen ($3,400), Jason Zucker ($3,500)

Cheap Power Play 1 Plugs

C –Jean-Gabriel Pageau ($3,700), Tim Stuetzle ($3,100), Pius Suter ($2,900)

W – Jonathan Drouin ($3,100), Jakub Voracek ($3,000), Nick Foligno ($2,700), Alex Chiasson ($2,500)

D – Adam Boqvist ($2,800), Chris Wideman ($2,500), Erik Gustafsson ($2,500)

Goalie Picks

Juuse Saros ($8,200)

Tristan Jarry ($8,000)

Jack Campbell ($7,800)

Frederik Andersen ($8,500)

Marc-Andre Fleury ($7,300)

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!