Good morning everyone and welcome to volume 51 of the Top Shelf Knucklepuck Stacks! We have a cash-playable 11-game main slate on this cool and rainy Thursday morning in San Diego.
If you are a new subscriber to our NHL Core Plays, please make sure that you are playing all of the lineups that I post on any given day. NHL is such a highly-variant sport and there is truly no telling which lineup will go off. I do have my favorites each day, but even the lineups that I may not think have massive upside sometimes, in fact, have the upside you need to take down a tournament.
Top Stacks
Prior to a loss to the Boston Bruins a few nights ago, the Chicago Blackhawks had won seven games in a row. Tonight, the Hawks host a New Jersey Devils team that has dropped four of its last five and is now allowing the fifth-most goals against per game. Chicago’s top line of Drake Caggiula, Jonathan Toews is in play as is the team’s second line (Dominik Kahun – Alex DeBrincat – Dylan Strome), which has been as hot as the Kane-led line.
The Winnipeg Jets first line (Mark Scheifele – Blake Wheeler – Kyle Connor) has been something special this season. It has been the most consistent trio over the course of 65 contests and it gets to face a dismal Colorado Avalanche squad that has now dropped eight games in a row. The Avs have allowed the sixth-most goals against per game on over 31 shots. Moreover, the visiting Colorado team has given up an atrocious nine power play goals in its last seven matchups.
The San Jose Sharks are cooking along with six consecutive wins and the team has been led by its impressive second line (Evander Kane – Tomas Hertl – Joonas Donskoi). On the surface, the matchup may be a bit difficult as they have to face the defending Stanley Cup Champions, but the Capitals have allowed at least 30 shots against in eight straight contests.
Other Notable Stacks
The stacks I wrote about above are the ones that I project to be highly-owned. When I write “highly-owned”, on a 11-game slate that typically means ownership of about 25% in GPPs. The stacks above also tend to be expensive. So, you will need to use some of the below mentioned stacks as fillers or as one-off individual plays to complement your high-priced stacks.
Other stacks that you should have exposure to tonight are: Lightning 1 (Brayden Point – Nikita Kucherov – Yanni Gourde), Blue Jackets 1 (Pierre-Luc Dubois – Cam Atkinson – Artemi Panarin – Seth Jones), Predators 1 (Ryan Johansen – Viktor Arvidsson – Filip Forsberg – Roman Josi), Leafs 2 (John Tavares – Mitch Marner – Zach Hyman – Morgan Rielly).
* * *
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.
* * *
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!
