3 Daily Fantasy NHL Stacks for Monday 5/17/21

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.

The playoffs are here, and we've got three games on Monday. Let's see which stacks are the best on this playoff slate.

Colorado Avalanche

The Colorado Avalanche were a great team all season long and snapped up the President's Trophy as the league's best regular season team. This gives them a few advantages on their quest for the Stanley Cup. They'll have home-ice advantage throughout the playoffs, which will especially come in handy in the second round. They'll also get a weaker opponent in the first round -- one that they can do a lot of damage against.

The Avalanche will welcome back Nathan MacKinnon ($8,800), as he sat out a few games down the stretch. He finished fourth in points per game and third in shots on goal in the NHL.

He's joined by his normal linemates, Mikko Rantanen ($8,300) and Gabriel Landeskog ($6,300). Rantanen finished the season with the league's fifth-most goals. Landeskog continues to be a decent value as his salary hasn't risen to the level of his linemates. He had 52 points in 54 regular season games and finished with 37 shots on goal in his last 10, so he's definitely a good player to stack in this line.

Cale Makar ($6,000) was the only defenseman in the league to finish with more than a point per game, so he's a perfect piece from the blueline to add to this stack.

Colorado gets a good matchup against the St. Louis Blues in round one. St. Louis has allowed the most goals of any team in the playoffs. The Avs were able to take five of the eight meetings in the regular season, and their big players performed well in those games. All four members of the stack scored more than a point per game against the Blues in the regular season, so they could feast in this matchup.

The Avalanche have the highest implied team total on the slate and are the priority stack on the night.

Carolina Hurricanes

The Carolina Hurricanes managed to grab first place in the Central Division. It was critical that they did that to avoid the other two strong divisional contenders in the first round. They played the same brand of hockey that we've come to expect from them, as they were third in shot attempts per 60 minutes, according to Natural Stat Trick. They have a lot of firepower throughout the lineup, so they are definitely a team we can stack tonight.

The team's top center, Sebastian Aho ($7,800), has seen different linemates at many points throughout the season. It didn't hurt him too much, though, as he led the team with 57 points.

Teuvo Teravainen ($6,000) has six points in eight games since rejoining the lineup. Nino Niederreiter ($4,900) was second on the team in goals and played four minutes fewer per game than the leader Aho. Teravainen and Niederreiter will link up on the second power play.

Aho plays on the first power play with no one from his even strength line, but he can be played with Dougie Hamilton ($6,600). Hamilton led all defensemen in shots on goal with 180, making him one of the most fantasy-friendly blueliners in the league.

Carolina will face the Nashville Predators in a series that greatly favors them. The Hurricanes won six times in eight chances against the Predators, with one of the losses being the last game of the regular season in which Carolina rested players.

The real advantage for Carolina here will be on special teams. The Hurricanes' power play finished as the second-best unit in the league, and the Predators had the third-worst penalty kill. This makes a Jordan Staal ($4,700) and Andrei Svechnikov ($6,600) stack viable, as they will play together at even strength and on the power play.

Carolina has certainly shown themselves to be a good offensive team and has about as good of a matchup as you can get in the playoffs, so they are a fine stack on this slate.

Boston Bruins

We've got the first Game 2 of the playoffs after the Boston Bruins lost the series opener in overtime on Saturday. It was a close game considering the final score and also the underlying numbers in the game. The Bruins lost the shot attempt battle 66-63 but were able to create 11 high danger chances and allow just 5. They'll need to bounce back tonight to avoid going down 2-0, and they'll have a good chance of doing that.

The Bruins' top six forwards were able to play well in the first game. David Pastrnak ($7,600) showed signs of life after going through a bit of a slump, as he had an assist with six shots on goal. His linemates Brad Marchand ($8,400) and Patrice Bergeron ($7,800) weren't able to get on the scoresheet, but they did have good possession numbers, so they should be able to get opportunities in this matchup.

The second line of Taylor Hall ($6,700), David Krejci ($6,000), and Craig Smith ($4,600) had a similar story to that of the first, as they also were able to control play but didn't score.

These two lines are fully correlated on the power play, which makes them really intriguing tonight. On these small playoff slates, getting a goal with two assists from a three-man stack goes a long way to helping your lineups in tournaments. Both Bruins lines are certainly capable of doing that.

Boston is facing the Washington Capitals and are -130 favorites to even the series tonight. Another wrinkle for this stack is the goaltender they are facing. Craig Anderson came off the bench and won on Saturday, but it's hard to believe the 39-year-old goalie can keep it up. He has posted a negative goals saved above average for three straight seasons.

If the Bruins are able to generate quality scoring chances, one of these lines could break the slate and be what you need to take down a tournament.

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.