Back to a two-game slate tonight, which is still enough to risk another wager on individual outcomes. For Sunday's column, I was right that the Rangers and Mike Smith would shine, but my Florida Panthers' stack sunk my DraftKings bet before either of the other two games even started. I guess I'm grateful to bet small.   

Tonight, I'll again offer an option to stack, an individual player to focus upon, and a goaltender, with maybe some scientific reasoning. (Come on, anyone who watched had to realize that the TBL/FLA series wasn't the regular season, and Andrei Vasilevskiy dominates series-clinching games like none other. Still, three Panther goals in four games was nobody's prediction).   

STACK: EDMONTON OILERS. The Oilers have been the better team line-by-line for this series. After falling behind by 6-2 in Game 1, Connor McDavid ($9800) and Leon Draisaitl  ($7500) have dominated. Evander Kane has been streaky, so I'm ditching him for the more-affordable Zach Hyman ($4500).   

VALUE PICK: Carolina is 0-4 so far this post-season on the road, and I see a Herculean effort tonight to change that dynamic. This series has been low scoring, so more of my higher bets are on Edmonton. My picks here are Vincent Trocheck ($3700), Nino Niederreiter ($3100), who's pushed up to PP-1, and Anthony DeAngelo ($5400).

GOALKEEPER:  Well, at least we're not seeing the GK injuries (yet) in these matchups, and here's hoping it doesn't become any more of a trend. I had to hedge my bets some, but it's not hard to choose Igor Shesterkin ($7900) when he's cheaper than Antti Raanta for this night.

FILLING THE ROSTER:  Calgary's Tyler Toffoli ($3600) and Rasmus Andersson ($4200), playing this game for another "over."

To have both series on the brink after this evening seems unlikely on its face after five Game 7's in the opening round, but it's been one of those "unlikely" years. So….   

Good luck, and enjoy the suspense of the playoffs, betting or not.