Good morning everyone and welcome to volume 17 of the Top Shelf Knucklepuck Stacks! We have a cash-playable 9-game slate on this beautiful Tuesday in San Diego, California.
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 Tampa Bay Lightning exploded its last game out and you will find heavy ownership, even on this large Thursday slate. Your stack here is the Lightning’s top unit (JT Miller – Steven Stamkos – Nikita Kucherov) as I believe that they will draw the more favorable matchup against a New York Islanders team that is allowing the fifth-most shots against and also has the work puck control number in the league.
While I think you can roster the top unit from the Golden Knights against an Ottawa Senators team that, despite its offensive success the other night, still has bottom three puck control numbers and still allows the most shots against per game, you may want to prioritize the Los Angeles Kings second line that has played far better than the Anze Kopitar line. Your focus here is the Ilya Kovalchuck – Jeff Carter – Tyler Toffoli.
Other Notable Stacks
The Florida Panthers touched down in the United States after playing overseas and have the daunting task of facing the Edmonton Oilers. That overseas flight has a major, negative effect on players bodies so I expect the home team to be sluggish. Take a shot at rostering the Oilers top line that has looked fantastic since pulling Drake Caggiula up to skate with Connor McDavid and Ryan Nugent-Hopkins. However, it looks like Ty Rattie is back on the top line. Keep an eye out on one of the sites I mention below. We may see the tired Panthers be a bit sloppy which may lead to penalties. As such, don’t leave Oscar Klefbom off a power play stack.
My Boston Bruins are at home and will be facing a Vancouver Canucks team that has been hammered by the injury bug. However, they still find a way to score thanks to youngster, Elias Pettersson. The way I see this game playing out, the Patrice Bergeron line (with David Pastrnak and Brad Marchand) will matchup with the Pettersson line so as to shut it down. So, look at Boston’s second line (Jake DeBrusk – David Krejci – Joakim Nordstrom) to be in a better position to move the puck and score.
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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!
