Good morning everyone and welcome to volume 9 of the Top Shelf Knucklepuck Stacks! We have a cash-playable 9-game slate on this glorious and sunny Saturday although I do wish the weather were a bit crisper here this weekend. While we have had success in cash games through the first two and a half weeks of the season, please continue to play lighter than you want to or typically would play. We are almost at a point where I’ll tell you to play your normal volume. Once again, it is still very early in the season and some teams are playing their second game today. If you skipped my article from Friday, October 5, 2018 or simply glazed over my sage advice on how to balance your DFS budget early in the NHL, please go back and read or revisit the piece. Let’s continue our Tuesday streak!
Top Stacks
The Florida Panthers are skating for the second game in a row and are coming of a high-scoring win over the defending Stanley Cup Champions last night. The team buried five goals in regulation on just 30 shots, including two tallies of the power play variety. After disappointing us earlier this week, Vincent Trocheck registered three points last night and leads the top stack this evening against a winless Detroit Red Wings team. You will want exposure to the team’s top six forwards in cash games and tournaments as they are capable of putting up five to six goals. The top line features Evgenii Dadonov – Aleksander Barkov – Nick Bjugstad and the second line consists of Jonathan Huberdeau – Vincent Trocheck – Colton Sceviour (who was a wonderful value play that came through yesterday). On DK, where you can stack more skaters, you should do a full PP stack of Dadonov – Barkov – Trocheck – Keith Yandle – Mike Hoffman.
The next highest rated stack according to my Nils Model is the Columbus Blue Jackets top line of Artemi Panarin – Pierre-Luc Dubois – Cam Atkinson. Panarin has tallied nine points through six games and Atkinson is on a point-per-game average to start the season and they will get to shoot on a Chicago Blackhawks team at home that is allowing 34 shots against per season and is allowing the third most goals against (4.17 GA/GP).
Other Notable Stacks
The top two lines in San Jose are in play on home ice against an Islanders team that is allowing over 32 shots against per game: Evander Kane – Joe Pavelski – Kevin Labanc and Tomas Hertl – Logan Couture – Timo Meier.
If you are playing the early slate, your target should be the Winnipeg Jets top line and top power play: Kyle Connor – Mark Scheifele – Blake Wheeler.
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There were some questions in the Slack chat over the past few days about how to find the lines that I list as my top stacks on the Top Shelf Knucklepuck Cheat Sheet. Head over to either DailyFaceoff.com or LeftWingLock.com to see which skaters are on each of a team’s lines and then build your line stacks. For example, if you see that my top stack of the day is “PIT PP1 / 1”, look at one of the two sites listed above and you will see that the top power play unit of the Pittsburgh Penguins consists of Patric Hornqvist – Evgeni Malkin – Sidney Crosby – Kris Letang – Phil Kessel. The team’s top line features Jake Guentzel – Sidney Crosby – Patric Hornqvist. I decided to leave off the players’ names from the line stacks because of the fact that they may change before the game or after the team’s morning skate (if applicable). Both sites I mentioned are updated regularly and typically accurate. If you’re ever lost, just ask questions in our Slack chat.
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Feel free to comment here or post a screenshot or photo on Instagram and remember to tag me @NotTonyM. I am always open to feedback and critique. Just remember, I respond to respect and love in whatever the message is that you want to share. Good luck!
