3 Daily Fantasy NHL Stacks for 3/10/21

In daily fantasy hockey, stacking is a key strategy in tournaments. We want to correlate our lineups with up to four players to maximize our upside, as if one player on a line is scoring goals, it's likely that his linemates are getting assists as well. Ideally, we'll want players that will get a lot of ice time together on an even strength line and a power play line. Two good resources for line combinations are LeftWingLock.com and DailyFaceoff.com, so be sure to check those sites for up-to-date line information.

We have a unique slate that is not something we see in a normal season. All five games are repeats from Monday night. So let's see what we can take away from those games to use in building lineups tonight.

Edmonton Oilers

The Edmonton Oilers and their first line had a decent game on Monday night against the Ottawa Senators. They had a hand in all three goals in a 3-2 win. It looks like they are going to stick with the same lines, which means Connor McDavid ($8,800) and Leon Draisaitl ($7,900) are going to play on the same even strength line. McDavid had two assists and five shots on goal on Monday, but it could have been an even bigger game. He played over 25 minutes and had five high danger chances, according to Natural Stat Trick. Overall, the Oilers had 4.25 expected goals in the game, so they underperformed a bit. Draisaitl had a goal in the game and is now third in points in the league. Kailer Yamamoto ($4,700) also had a goal and had three high danger chances himself, which should continue as long as he plays with these two world-class players.

Playing the Senators again is obviously a great matchup for the Oilers. Ottawa ranks dead last in goals against per game, allowing 3.86 per contest. They have a poor penalty kill that is successful just 74.7% of the time. That mark would have been close to worst last season, but with power plays being more efficient this season, it's only the ninth-worst. The Oilers' 25.6% power play would have ranked 2nd last season, but this season it only ranks 10th. The point is that this is still an exploitable penalty kill with a good power play in a matchup that would have jumped off the page last year -- it just doesn't stand out as much this season.

The piece you can add to get more power play exposure is Tyson Barrie ($5,200). Barrie has played over 24 minutes and had 14 shots on goal in the past two games. The projections at numberFire have him as the highest-scoring defenseman on the slate, yet his salary is just $5,200. This makes him an obvious value and a great play in Oilers' stacks. Edmonton has the highest implied team total at 3.82, making them the clear best stack of the night.

Colorado Avalanche

The Colorado Avalanche have dealt with some injuries to key players this season, which could be the reason they are down in fourth place in the West. The good news is that they will get back their main guy tonight. Nathan MacKinnon ($8,300) looks like he will return to the lineup tonight. He has the fourth-highest shot attempt rate in the league, but his shooting percentage is just 6.4%. He should experience some positive regression and start putting a few more of his shots in the net. Mikko Rantanen ($8,300) had three points in the three games without MacKinnon, but there's no doubt that he's better suited with MacKinnon's explosive skating creating opportunities for him. The same thing can be said for Gabriel Landeskog ($6,400), who will remain on this line to form the powerful trio we want as the Colorado first line.

Colorado will face the Arizona Coyotes for the fourth time this season. In the two games against Arizona with MacKinnon healthy, Colorado won 3-2 and 6-2. MacKinnon had 10 shots on goal in those two games and should have a better chance of turning those shots into goals. Coyotes goalie Darcy Kuemper got injured on Monday, and now Antti Raanta will be in net. Raanta has a goals saved above average of -0.9 this season, whereas Kuemper was at 3.5. With Arizona being sneaky bad on defense, allowing the second-most expected goals per 60 minutes, a drop off in goaltending could be bad for them but good for Colorado stacks.

With Cale Makar still out, Samuel Girard ($5,300) has stepped up to be pretty effective on the power play. He has seven points in the six games since Makar went down and has played at least 24 minutes in all six of those games. He would fit this stack nicely as he could join the first line for a fully correlated power play unit. Colorado's implied team total is the third-highest on the slate, and it will likely be a lot less popular than Edmonton.

Montreal Canadiens

The Montreal Canadiens got off to a hot start this season, but they were never the juggernaut they appeared to be. After some bad losses to the Senators, they decided to make a move and fire coach Claude Julien. Not much has changed on the ice, as they are still a dominant team at even strength and they struggle to finish chances. One thing that fantasy players hoped would change with the new coach was how the lines were deployed, but it's still much of the same. The ice time is fairly evenly distributed between the top three lines, making it tricky to stack. With a 3.53 implied goal total, we'll want to get a piece of them, so let's look at the best way to do that.

The most impressive forward on Montreal this season has probably been Tyler Toffoli ($6,600). He is tied for second in goals in the league with 15. He has been particularly strong against Wednesday's opponents, the Vancouver Canucks, scoring eight goals and three assists in six games against them. He plays at even strength and on the power play with Josh Anderson ($4,800), who had six shots on goal in Monday's game against Vancouver. This line is centered by Jesperi Kotkaniemi ($3,900), who doesn't play on the power play but is a great value and has assists in consecutive games.

It's a similar situation with the other line, as they have two players on the power play and one who doesn't get any power play time. Those two would be Nick Suzuki ($5,700) and Jonathan Drouin ($4,700). Suzuki and Drouin are third and fourth in points for the Canadiens, respectively, and are very affordable. The other player on this line is Joel Armia ($3,700), and while he doesn't get power play time, he's still a good value as he has nine points in 17 games. The defenseman who plays on the power play with both of these lines is Shea Weber ($5,100), who will look to use his booming shot to score or create rebound opportunities for his forwards.

Montreal should be able to get goals against this Vancouver team that allows the most expected goals per 60 in the league. The trick will be to get the right players, so it's worth taking a shot on both of these lines.

Nicholas Vazquez is not a FanDuel employee. In addition to providing DFS gameplay advice, Nicholas Vazquez also participates in DFS contests on FanDuel using his personal account, username hbyanksman. While the strategies and player selections recommended in his articles are his/her personal views, he/she may deploy different strategies and player selections when entering contests with his/her personal account. The views expressed in his/her articles are the author’s alone and do not necessarily reflect the views of FanDuel.