3 Daily Fantasy NHL Stacks for 1/28/21

In daily fantasy hockey, stacking is a key strategy in tournaments. We want to correlate our lineups with up to four players to maximize our upside, as if one player on a line is scoring goals, it's likely that his linemates are getting assists as well. Ideally, we'll want players that will get a lot of ice time together on an even strength line and a power play line. Two good resources for line combinations are LeftWingLock.com and DailyFaceoff.com, so be sure to check those sites for up to date line information.

There is 14 games on Thursday night, and 10 are repeat games of what we saw on Tuesday. Let’s look at some of the best stacks, and try to take advantage of mistakes our opponents may make when building lineups today.

[Editor's note: The St. Louis Blues and Vegas Golden Knights game has been postponed.]

Philadelphia Flyers

The Philadelphia Flyers were a bit frustrated after a 6-1 loss on Saturday. Luckily, they got to play the New Jersey Devils on Tuesday and took care of business with a 5-3 win. They'll face the Devils again tonight and should be able to do something similar. They put up a staggering 5.53 expected goals in the previous game, according to Natural Stat Trick. James van Riemsdyk ($5,500) scored two power-play goals in that game and had seven shots on goal. He and linemates Jakub Voracek ($6,600) and Kevin Hayes ($6,000) are each averaging a point per game or better this season. They also play together on the power play, so that makes for great correlation.

The Flyers are -164 favorites and have an implied team total of more than three goals. That's partially because the Devils have been horrible defensively. They've allowed the second most shots per 60 minutes and second most expected goals per 60 minutes in the NHL. A slight change Philly made to the power play was having Ivan Provorov ($5,300) play on this unit, and he picked up a goal and two assists in the last game. The Devils have also been bad on the penalty kill, killing off just 65% percent of their penalties. That's the second worst in the league so far.

This line won't break the bank too much and has high upside with the full power-play correlation. With no true superstar in the stack, it could go overlooked on this gigantic slate.

Vancouver Canucks

The Vancouver Canucks' first line finally got out of its slump on Wednesday night. They combined for three goals, if you include the one on the power play. Team star Elias Pettersson ($6,400) had a goal and an assist for his first multi-point game of the season. J.T. Miller ($6,700) scored his first two goals of the year and added an assist. These two were top-25 scorers last season, so we would expect them to perform better than they have to start this campaign. Brock Boeser ($6,500) didn't pick up a point but has been off to a decent start with four goals on the season. Quinn Hughes ($5,500) added two points to take him up to nine this season, the most among defensemen in the league.

The Canucks will face the same team on Thursday as they did on Wednesday. They beat the Ottawa Senators 5-1 last night and 7-1 on Monday. The Senators looked competent to start the season but have fallen back to what we thought they would be. These two games against Vancouver have inflated their goals against average to 4.57, the worst in the NHL. They are also in the bottom five in terms of expected goals against and shot attempt rate. This gives the Canucks the second highest implied team total tonight.

If you buy into Vancouver being back to about what they were last season, this is a great spot to stack up their first line, which is fully correlated on the power play.

Colorado Avalanche

On Tuesday, the Colorado Avalanche went off for seven goals in a winning effort. That's the kind of thing we can expect from an offense that is this explosive, as it was the second time this season they've scored at least seven. The unfortunate thing for fantasy managers was that the points didn't come from just the first line, which most people were probably rostering if they had exposure to Colorado. Nathan MacKinnon ($8,500) had just one assist but added six shots on goal. Mikko Rantanen ($7,900) had a goal on four shots. Both of these guys are in the top 25 in points, along with defenseman Cale Makar ($6,000), who has the second most points for blueliners. Gabriel Landeskog ($6,500) hasn't been as good as his teammates but is fairly affordable and still has upside as someone playing with all of these players at even strength and on the power play.

Colorado takes on the San Jose Sharks again after their big game on Tuesday. A good reason to target players against the Sharks is the same reason we did last season -- poor goaltending. San Jose had the second worst team save percentage last year and has the third worst to start this season. That has resulted in them allowing the second most goals per game. That doesn't bode well against a team like the Avalanche, who are sixth in goals per game and fourth in expected goals per game.

The Avs' implied goal total is all the way up to 3.87. While the goals and points were spread out on Tuesday, the top line with MacKinnon will have the most upside on a nightly basis, so they're the line you want if you're playing Colorado players.

Nicholas Vazquez is not a FanDuel employee. In addition to providing DFS gameplay advice, Nicholas Vazquez also participates in DFS contests on FanDuel using his personal account, username hbyanksman. While the strategies and player selections recommended in his articles are his/her personal views, he/she may deploy different strategies and player selections when entering contests with his/her personal account. The views expressed in his/her articles are the author’s alone and do not necessarily reflect the views of FanDuel.