How fun has this first week of hockey been since the return to action last Saturday? Thanks to the bubble setup we've had games staggered for practically the entire day, every day. I don't know about you, but I had some doubts about the quality of hockey we would see, considering how long of a layoff there was, but that has not been the case. Even the round robin games, outside of a few big names missing in action, have been highly contested. Things should only continue to pick up in intensity as we progress towards the Stanley Cup.

From a fantasy perspective, both DraftKings and FanDuel have been doing multiple slates per day. Usually a main slate consisting of 4-5 games and then another smaller two or three game slate. However, the biggest surprise for me has been the single game contests. On DraftKings this is called "Showdown" and really took off in popularity during the previous NFL season. They have expanded it to NHL this year and have been emphasizing it during the playoffs thus far with a showdown slate for nearly every game of the day. FanDuel has their own version and simply call it "Single Game". Many of these contests are $10 or less to enter, have a reasonably sized field, and feature a four-figure payout to first, which can really give you a bang for your buck. With only three games on tap for Saturday and since it won't be long until this few of games is the norm, I thought giving a crash course in showdown/single game contests could be beneficial.

If you've never played this style of fantasy game before, here are the basics. On DraftKings, the format for showdowns are pretty simple. It is still a still salary cap game but instead of filling out nine positions like a standard contest, you only pick six players. All fantasy scoring is the same as it is in the standard contests. But here is the kicker, each lineup must have one captain. Your captain's salary will cost 1.5x what it normally would, but you also get 1.5x the fantasy points that you normally would. This makes your captain the most important player in your lineup and will likely play a major part in how you finish. Other than that, the only other rule is that you must have at least one player from each team. Whether that is an even 3-3 split, 4-2, or 5-1 – that is up to you.

On FanDuel, the format is very similar, however, you only select five players and goalies are not an option. The captain and 1.5x multiplier on both salary and fantasy points still applies as does the rule of selecting at least one player from each team.

For me, showdown contests on DraftKings have been my most profitable game type throughout the season so I will focus on that site's format. I was lucky enough to win two contests in a four-day span back in October and I've been hooked on showdowns ever since. With it being somewhat new and not having seasons worth of results to go through, my strategy is quite fluid but I will at least outline how I currently go about playing and how I won those contests.

First off, I highly suggest entering at least seven different lineups. Often times I'll enter 14 lineups, doubling the advice I'm about to give, but at a minimum I would enter seven. Typically the main contest is either an $8 or $10 entry fee, so that will require $56-$70 to enter the seven lineups. If this is too much for you to commit to one game, I suggest playing one of the lower buy-in tournaments where you can comfortably afford to enter the multiple lineups. One benefit of showdown is if you are entering multiple lineups the way I suggest, it is very unlikely you are not going to cash at least one of your lineups and recoup part of your entry fees.

As previously mentioned, choosing your captain is the most important part of your lineup being their points will be scored on a 1.5x multiplier. A majority of my success has come with a goalie in the captain spot, so I dedicate four of my seven lineups to goalie captain lineups. Two lineups each for each of the two goalies starting that night. A strong performance from a goalie, such as a 30+ save game, two goals allowed or less, and a win, will be a difficult score for a forward skater to top. It would likely take two goals or three points to do so. That could certainly happen but I find picking which one of the forwards to be more difficult than just taking the goalie.

Once I have a goalie locked in as the captain, I will use four of the remaining five spots on skaters from the team of my goalie captain. I will try and correlate a center and winger or two wingers from the same line in two of those spots, with another winger from a different line in another spot. For whatever reason, could just be the small sample, I have not had much success using a full line in showdowns. That leaves two spots, which will likely be limited by salary so I will look for the best value player left from the team of my goalie, regardless of position, and then the same goes for the sixth and final spot – but from the opposing team. Let's see this in practice using Friday night's Blackhawks – Oilers game.

First off identify the goalies, which here was Corey Crawford and Mikko Koskinen. So I would build two different lineups with each of those as my captain. I'll start with Crawford. Looking for a center-forward combo I could select Jonathan Toews and Dominik Kubalik as they both not only skate on the same line together, but are on the top power-play unit. This creates correlation between the two. Next, looking for a winger from a different line – the obvious choice would be Patrick Kane. That leaves two open spots where I'll roster one more from Chicago and then one from Edmonton. For Chicago, that could be someone like Kirby Dach who figures to be centering Patrick Kane, or Olli Maatta the defenseman who scored in both games two and three. As for Edmonton, I will pick the best player I can with whatever salary I have left.

My second Crawford captained lineup would then be a little different. Maybe I forego Toews in this one and go with a Patrick Kane – Alex DeBrincat stack, adding in Kubalik and Duncan Keith while filling out the final two spots.

I would then repeat this process on the Edmonton side bringing my team total up to four. This setup should give me a chance at a good score if one of the goalies performs well, perhaps getting a shutout or winning a 3-1 type game, and my rostered skaters get in on a few of the goals.

The remaining three lineups I would build with no goalies at all. In these I will typically choose either 3 players from each team, or a 4-2 breakdown. I will make sure my captain will be a player capable of scoring multiple goals. I have not had much success punting the captain spot with a cheap player, so I make sure my captain if not a goalie, is one of the best players on the ice.

So in this game that likely leaves me the likes of Kane, Kubalik, Connor McDavid, Leon Draisaitl, or Ryan Nugent-Hopkins as my captain. After choosing one, I will try and add in one player that is likely to provide assists to my captain and then just take the best available players or players who I expect to take the most shots from there. An example of a lineup here could be something like Captain Kubalik with Toews, Debrincat, Draisaitl, Kailer Yamamoto, and James Neal. This lineup gives me correlation for my captain with his center, along with another scorer from Chicago and then three scorers from Edmonton.

Of course it would be nice to have McDavid or Kane in there somewhere as well, but salary constraints make that impossible. That is why I prefer to enter multiple lineups so that I can spread myself out a little more. In my remaining two lineups I will make sure to include these players somewhere in my combinations.

By doing the seven lineups in the above manner I have now given myself a chance at cashing if either of the goalies perform well, as well as if neither does and the game is higher scoring. This allows me to cover a majority of the likely outcomes of the game and with any luck I will have one lineup in contention for a top finish regardless of how the game breaks.

All of this might be a bit overwhelming at first, but don't be afraid to give these contests a try. There are buy-ins as low as a quarter so you can play for a very small amount of money and get the feel for how the scoring works. Of course, make sure to check out the lineups at the tops of the leaderboards to see how others are constructing theirs. The beauty of showdown is that these contests only require one game being played so they will continue until the Stanley Cup is hoisted. They also make for an added interest when watching a single game.

Give these a shot, and hit me up on Twitter @SteveDotzel and let me know if there any showdown strategies you've had success with. Enjoy the remainder of the playoffs and I hope to see you on the leaderboards!