Since i place my wagers early in the day i usually look at coaches paterns on when they play their backup or pick up information by reading local newspapers. For example, dallas is on a 3 game on 4 nights, back to back thur-fry, logic would be to play backup smith on thursday on the road and come back with turco at home vs columbus. am suprised though that anaheim went back to Bryzgalov tonight in LA.
Dan is talking about starting lineups. If your capping depends on a certain lineup, you need to check 20-30 minutes before gametime in bases. To see if any key players are sitting out that 3rd game of a 3 game series. Or something along those lines.
I look at the hometown newspapers first but there are a few sites that do it for you, some are better than others. Try leftwinglock.com and/or hockeyinformer.com.