Good morning everyone and welcome to volume 25 of the Top Shelf Knucklepuck Stacks! We have a cash-playable 5-game slate on this beautiful Monday morning here in sunny San Diego, California.
I am writing up an article today as I may not be able to get one posted in time tomorrow for the large slate. I have been writing three articles per week and I want to ensure that I have three this week.
Top Stacks
We have a small, five-game slate today so we might have to get a bit different when constructing our tournament lineups. This is in contrast to the days with larger slates as ownership percentages across all skaters is necessarily lower.
The two top stacks that stand out in screaming fashion just asking to be played are the Washington Capitals top line (Alex Ovechkin – Nicklas Backstrom – Tom Wilson) and the New York Rangers top line (Chris Kreider – Kevin Hayes – Filip Chytil). For the Caps, your offensive targets are easy – Tom Wilson has had incredible production since skating up with Ovechkin. Nicklas Backstrom is also filling in nicely in place of Evgeny Kuznetsov. The Brooklyn Islanders are allowing the sixth-most shots against per game and have bottom-five puck control numbers.
As for the blue shirts, you are going to pick on the Ottawa Senators in Madison Square Garden this evening because you have been targeting them all season. The visiting team is dead last in shots against, goals against and CorsiFor%. Meanwhile, the Rangers first line has looked superb, especially Filip Chytil, who has goals in five of his last seven games.
Rounding out your top three, you can target the Florida Panthers top line with Aleksander Barkov, Evgenii Dadonov and Mike Hoffman. However, if you need salary relief, take a look at the team’s second line at home at 5% owned.
Other Notable Stacks
As for ways to differentiate yourself from the masses in GPPs this evening, take a look at the Detroit Red Wings top even strength unit featuring Justin Abdelkader, Dylan Larkin, and Anthony Mantha. Yes, the Red Wings are at home and are home dogs, but in creating your GPP lineups tonight, you want to roster skaters that have upside. The Columbus Blue Jackets skate into Joe Louis Arena having dropped two of their last three. They have also surrendered an average of 32 shots against in those games and they have allowed four goals in each of those two losses. Larkin has 20 points through 23 games and averages 3.35 shots per contest. The top three have skated well together since Abdelkader has been bumped up to the first unit.
On the other side of the home team in the game in Manhattan, you will be able to roster the road team’s offense at less than 10% tonight. The Senators second even strength unit interests me the most (Brady Tkachuk – Colin White – Mark Stone) as they should have the best line matchup on the road.
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There were some questions in the Slack chat over the first month of the season 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!
