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 updated line information.
It's a 10-game slate on Thursday, so let's see the best stacks we can use to attack this slate.
St. Louis Blues
The St. Louis Blues have been on a good run on offense, scoring 14 goals in their past three games. They are now fifth in goals per game (3.51). On Thursday, they get a dream matchup for any team.
The Blues have two good options for line stacks. The first line is centered by Ryan O'Reilly ($5,300). His offensive game hasn't been too good of late, but he has great linemates, so he's still a good play. Brayden Schenn ($6,400) has scored eight goals in his last 10 games. Jordan Kyrou ($7,400) is in the middle of a breakout season, sitting second on the team with 43 points. These guys will all play together on the power-play.
It's rare to have two lines that are both good and fully correlated. The Blues have that with this stellar second line that coach Craig Berube really seems to like. Vladimir Tarasenko ($8,900) took over the team lead in points with three on Tuesday night. Pavel Buchnevich ($7,300) has been a great acquisition and has fit nicely on this line. Robert Thomas ($5,500) is a nice complementary piece to the stack, as he leads the team with 30 assists.
St. Louis will take on the Montreal Canadiens. It's become clear at this point that we should target any team that faces Montreal. They've allowed 45 goals in their last eight games, including seven or more goals three times in that span.
The Blues' implied total is 3.96, which is actually lower than Montreal's clip of 3.98 goals allowed per game. St. Louis is a good offensive team in the best possible matchup, so they are obviously an elite stack tonight.
New York Rangers
The New York Rangers are a team carried by star players. Their underlying numbers aren't too strong, yet they seem to be locked into a playoff spot. For fantasy purposes, those stars are capable of breaking slates in the right matchups.
The first line has two of the star players who help the Rangers win. Mika Zibanejad ($7,700) hasn't gone on a ridiculous goal-scoring stretch this season, but he does have 15 points in his last 10 games. Chris Kreider ($8,600) is tied for the most goals in the league with 33. If you need value, you could go with Alexis Lafrenière ($3,900), who is the third member of this line. He won't play on the top power-play though, which is where the Rangers do most of their damage.
Instead, you could go with Artemi Panarin ($7,900), who leads the team with 52 points. Then you add in Adam Fox ($7,100) on defense for a nice four-man power-play stack. Fox leads all defensemen with 40 assists this season.
The Rangers face the Detroit Red Wings at home. Detroit allowed seven goals on Monday, including three on the power-play. Only Montreal allows more goals per game on the road than Detroit does.
New York has an implied team total of 3.44 goals. If their power-play gets clicking, they are capable of doing a lot of damage.
Edmonton Oilers
The Edmonton Oilers may have turned a corner with new coach Jay Woodcroft. They've won all three games under him and have allowed only three goals total. They still have some of the best offensive players in the world, and that makes them a target on a lot of slates.
Edmonton seems to want to stick with these new lines under their new coach. The first line has Connor McDavid ($10,200) playing with Zach Hyman ($6,400) and Jesse Puljujarvi ($5,000). Even if McDavid hasn't been otherworldly of late, he still has six goals in his last 10 games. Puljujarvi is the most interesting player to stack with him as he is also on the top power-play and is just $5,000. You could add Leon Draisaitl ($9,800) to McDavid and Puljujarvi.
The Oilers are at home against the Anaheim Ducks on Thursday. The Ducks are coming off a 6-2 loss to the Calgary Flames last night. In that game, they allowed a whopping 5.22 expected goals. Overall, they allow the fifth-most expected goals per 60 minutes.
Edmonton has the second-highest implied team total on the slate. They haven't broken a slate in a while, but this spot is set up nicely for them to potentially do that.
Others to Consider: Toronto Maple Leafs, Buffalo Sabres, Columbus Blue Jackets
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.