Good day, all! I haven't played DFS since Saturday and to be completely honest I didn't even check on how that lineup did. I mean, I know I missed cash and all, but I do like to go back and see how my lineup did and like to look at the top earners and see how they constructed their lineups. If it was a stack, I was considering I usually end up kicking myself. If it's one-offs and the cheapest goalie on the night, then I question life and its meaning.

First pass through the slate tonight I thought this would be one that I would just play Colorado's top line, crumple this slate up, right to the bin…but then I gave it a couple more flyovers. I now don't just like this slate; I sort of love it. I usually only go over two or three games here along with the defensemen I'm considering and goaltenders, but like this slate so much that I do want to give a shout on a matchup here that I only have interest in one side and that's Detroit vs Boston. I like the Wings power play here tonight as just eye test, they've looked good as of late and if Boston is going to get whistles blown on them often, then I don't hate a Detroit powerplay in 3-max or 20-max. I'll also always give consideration to Vegas at home…because it's Vegas at home.

Slate Preview

San Jose vs Washington

I planned on coming in here and telling you all that a Sharks top line that's fully correlated is a nice play to get different and maybe, just maybe, it was getting in on the bottom floor of a group that hasn't been…we'll go with "Sharksy" lately. They've been alright! Problem is San Jose switched up their lines, so correlation goes right on out the window. I can't say I'm as high on them as I was the other night, but if you want to roster Macklin Celebrini and his Sharks logo player picture ($5,900), I say go for it. San Jose. Buddies. Pals. I wanted to give you guys some shine here too today! If you use optimizers and come up with some Sharks I guess, go for it, but for me in my single entry tonight they're going to be outside looking in now. Maybe something off the blueline but unfortunately the interest is now a little lower than it was coming in.

For the home Caps let's just get one thing right out of the way here. This is the San Jose Sharks on the road, so that immediately catches my eye. Maybe not as much as Hawks on the road (got housed last night vs Toronto), but interest is there. This is also a Sharks team that over the last month has the worst pp%, going up against a Caps team that has the second most goals on the PP within that time. They also have the best GF in the past 30 days and most goals off the rush, and that's over the span of this entire season. My friends, this might be lock and load Caps night. While I'm not sure if I'll be grabbing any of my centers from this game, I do love Connor McMichael ($5,800) and Tom Wilson ($5,600) as a pair here. I haven't built my lineup just yet but if I end up taking two forwards and a defenseman from a club, it might just be the Capitals here in a good spot.  

Columbus vs Calgary

It’s amazing what a couple high scoring games will do for you, as the Jackets are still higher up the rankings at 5v5 offense. I'm going to come right out here and say in single entry they're probably off my board but if I was going to play three lineups then their top line of Sean Monahan ($6,800), Kirill Marchenko ($6,200) and Dmitri Voronkov ($4,100), would get serious consideration. They're priced in sort of a funny spot, so if you wanted to get to the Jackets with a one-off then even dropping down to Kent Johnson ($4,900) is fine. If the Flames go with Dan Vladar in net my interest only goes up. If it's Dustin Wolf, then I hesitate.  

Calgary on the other hand is interesting tonight. Elvis Merzlikins and Danill Tarasov have the 4^th and 5^th worst GSAA over the past 30 days, which makes sense as this is the worst club by goals against on the PK within that time frame. Right now, you can even drop down and play the second line of Yegor Sharangovich ($,400), Mikael Backlund ($4K) and Matt Coronato ($3,400), who are all for time being going to skate together at even strength and on the top power play. These Flames lines have been a bit of a struggle as of late to pin down just who is going to play where so even if you wanted to pick-and-choose players off the top power play, I think that could work. They're cheap enough to where you can fit them with pieces from another stack, and if they get on the score sheet in any way, then you're on an excellent path to cash. For me, I'm really considering them here with another club that we're going to talk about. Like right now we're going to talk about them.   
 
Vancouver vs Minnesota

The best road record right now in the NHL, and it's not really close here, is the Vancouver Canucks at 10-2-0. Not only that, but they always seem to go overlooked. Does playing in the West do that? I get it that going into Minnesota is a buzz saw here, but Elias Petterson ($6,700), Brock Boeser ($5,900) and Jake DeBrusk ($4,600), are all lower in price and fully correlated. I know that Minnesota has two really good defensive lines that they can throw out there at them, but I'm still going to circle them here. We'll get to defensemen at the bottom but pair this group with Quinn Hughes for a 4-3-1 might be a fun stack tonight. If this line gets blanked in Minnesota I'll tip cap, but I don't have to go back too far to remember the Jets going in and scoring four on the road while I stayed away. Vancouver is definitely in the mix for me here tonight.

For Minnesota it always feels like if I'm playing them then I have to get over the field and go full on powerplay stack plus defenseman, goaltender, bottom six, and an outfielder off the Twins. Tonight though, I don't think that's necessary. I know leaving Kirill Kaprizov ($9,500) off anything is tough to do but you can save salary and drop to Matt Boldy ($8,100) and that makes for a fine one-off. Boldy has a higher shot on goal per game at 3.63 to 3.22, which sure might be nitpicking here, but the difference in salary will allow you to do so much with your roster. In single entry, there might be a piece or two here to make a small game stack, and in 3-max and above they have to be considered tonight and going forward as well.

Defensemen

Quinn Hughes at $8K is expensive but they got me; the folks over at DK know that they can raise his price, and I'll still try to fit him into my lineup. Going down a bit, I really like Brandon Montour at $6,800 and John Carlson at $5,900 is good with me. It sounds funny but can't see myself dropping that low on the defensemen chart here tonight as I can get Jared Spurgeon if I want at $4,200 or Kris Letang at $3,800. If you really need a punt here though, Tyler Myers down at $2,900 is a fine play.

Goalies

In net tonight is where I struggle, because I really only like spend-up options here. Yay. Jeremy Swayman at $8,300 if you're not playing the Wings is in consideration, Dustin Wolf at $8K, and if Ilya Sorokin gets the start on the road in Montreal, then he might draw into my lineup at $7,900. If I'm going to a cheaper option maybe either Buffalo goaltender but I'm not sure that I get there in a single entry lineup.   

Good luck tonight everybody!  

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