3 Daily Fantasy NHL Stacks for 3/25/21

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.

We've got a big 11-game slate on Thursday night, with a $60k Super Crossbar on FanDuel that gives a big first prize to shoot for. Let's look at some stacks that could help us take home some money in this tournament.

Pittsburgh Penguins

The Pittsburgh Penguins have not been the high flyers that we have come to expect in this era of the franchise. They only rank 12th in the NHL in goals per game. Without Evgeni Malkin, they are lacking the usual firepower throughout the lineup.

The good news is that this makes the offense concentrated to mostly one line. That would be the line with Sidney Crosby ($8,200) on it. Crosby had a goal and an assist to bring him to five points in the last three games. Since Malkin went down, he's been shooting the puck a ton, with 27 shots on goal in the five games without the big Russian. Jake Guentzel ($7,500) has points in four straight games, and will of course play with Crosby at both even strength and on the power play. The third member of the line is Bryan Rust ($5,800), who checks the same boxes as Guentzel, with points in four straight and correlation with Crosby, but he comes in at $1700 less than Guentzel.

The Penguins will face the Buffalo Sabres in the second game of a back-to-back series between the two teams. Pittsburgh dominated in all aspects on Wednesday night, winning 5-2. The underlying numbers showed the same thing, as the Penguins had 68 shot attempts to Buffalo's 39 and created 18 high danger chances, according to Natural Stat Trick.

They'll have a great chance to do it again, as they play the league's worst team for the second night in a row. Buffalo has just been dreadful for the season, and the game on Wednesday brought them to 15 losses in a row. They have now allowed tied for the second-most goals per game with 3.52, and they've allowed over four goals per game during this disastrous stretch.

If reading and thinking about just how bad Buffalo has been makes you want a fourth Pittsburgh piece, consider defenseman Kris Letang ($6,000). Letang had a goal on Wednesday, and he's the power play quarterback for Pittsburgh, so he has a lot of correlation potential with any of the first-line forwards.

The Penguins' implied team total is 3.51 goals tonight, and with the way the Sabres have been melting down of late, it wouldn't surprise many people if they were able to exceed that total in this game.

Toronto Maple Leafs

The schedule over the last week and a half has been light for the Toronto Maple Leafs. They've played just twice since March 14th, which gave them a nice rest that most teams weren't scheduled to have this season.

This certainly gives them a rest advantage over the Ottawa Senators in this game, who will be playing the second night of a back-to-back and their third game in four nights. Despite how bad Buffalo has been, Ottawa still has allowed the most goals per game in the league. Toronto has scored 23 goals in the six meetings with Ottawa this season, and some of their best players that we'll want to stack have done well in particular.

One thing that has happened with the Leafs this season is that it's clear which line is the first line and the best one to stack in daily fantasy. Auston Matthews ($8,300) leads the team with 21 goals, and Mitch Marner ($7,400) leads the team with 40 points. These guys also play over 22 minutes per game, the most for forwards on the team. This is four more minutes per game than John Tavares on the second line, so it's clear that Matthews and Marner are the better stack. Matthews has six goals and 11 points in the six games against Ottawa, while Marner has nine points.

They are now joined by Wayne Simmonds ($3,500) at even strength and on the power play. Simmonds is a great value as a player who will stand in front of the net and receive passes or bang in rebounds, so he's definitely worth playing with this stack.

The Leafs have one of the highest implied goal totals that we've seen all season, currently sitting at 4.03. This makes Morgan Rielly ($5,200) worth throwing into any stack, as he has tied for the fourth-most points on the team and will play on the power play with the first line. At just $5,200, he's a nice value to add in, as he will play the most ice time on the team, and if they go off for a lot of goals, it's likely he will contribute to some of them.

The Leafs are definitely a team you're going to want a piece of tonight, and given the goal total they have, they are actually pretty affordable.

Washington Capitals

The Washington Capitals' winning streak ended in their last game on Saturday, but they have a great chance of getting back in the win column tonight after a short break. They are always a team to consider stacking, as they are fourth in goals per game in the NHL this season.

We have to start the stack with Alex Ovechkin ($8,300), who is on a scoring roll of late. He has six goals in his last six games. When Ovechkin really gets going, he is getting his shot on net all the time, and that has been the case recently, as he has 47 shots on goal in the past 10 games. The Capitals changed their lines around to have Evgeny Kuznetsov ($6,100) now center Ovechkin and T.J. Oshie ($5,700). Kuznetsov was on a six-game point streak of his own before the loss on Saturday, and playing with Ovechkin at even strength will only help him. Oshie also will play on the first power play, which is very important in this matchup.

Washington will play the New Jersey Devils on Thursday night. This has been a good matchup for the Capitals so far this season, as they have won all four meetings and scored 17 goals in those games. The clear advantage Washington has will be on the power play. The Devils have the league's worst penalty kill, with just a 70.8% success rate. With Washington's eighth-ranked power play, they have a chance at scoring multiple goals if given the opportunities on the man advantage. If that's the case, you'll want to play John Carlson ($6,700) on defense, as his main job is to set up Ovechkin on the power play, making the correlation very strong.

The Capitals' implied team total is 3.75, the second highest on tonight's slate. You could get creative with how you stack them, such as playing Nicklas Backstrom ($6,700) and Jakub Vrana ($4,500) with Carlson and Ovechkin. This will give unique exposure to Washington and has upside to get four players who are all on a power play that could go off tonight.

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.