Good morning everyone and welcome to volume 13 of the Top Shelf Knucklepuck Stacks! We have a cash-playable 11-game slate on this gorgeous Tuesday in San Diego. 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
On this massive slate, the only game that carries an over/under of 6.5 features the Pittsburgh Penguins skating on home ice against the New York (read: Brooklyn) Islanders. Your focus here should be on the Pens top line (Jake Guentzel – Sidney Crosby – Dominik Simon) and top power play unit (Patric Hornqvist – Evgeni Malkin – Crosby – Kris Letang – Phil Kessel). Of course, whenever you make a choice to target the Pittsburgh offense, you have to then opt between Crosby and Malkin. Tonight, the choice is a bit easier with the knowledge that Crosby has historically torched the Isles.
With a high over/under, in GPPs, you may certainly roster the Islanders second unit of Anthony Beauvillier, Mathew Barzal and Jordan Eberle as this trio should have an easier matchup on the road compared to Brooklyn’s first line. The reason that you should feel confident in GPPs running out an Isles stack is that Pittsburgh is allowing the third-most shots against per game. Moreover, the Pens have bottom seven puck control numbers.
While the Calgary Flames top power play unit (Sean Monahan, Johnny Gaudreau, Matthew Tkachuk, Mark Giordano) is one of my highest-rated stacks on the road, I think the one line that you cannot fade is the white-hot Columbus Blue Jackets top line. The team hosts a Detroit squad that is surrendering the fourth-most goals against on the sixth-most shots against.
Other Notable Stacks
The Arizona Coyotes have been playing solid hockey in front of the strong goaltending they have received. The team is at home is the desert this evening and will host an Ottawa Senators team that is allowing the second most goals against on the second most shots against. Your stack here is the line consisting of Clayton Keller, Alex Galchenyuk and Richard Panik.
Also in play are the Nashville Predators top line, San Jose Sharks second unit and Boston Bruins top line.
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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!
