DFS Saturday: Going Against the Grain
Stephen Dotzel
2022-06-11
In Thursday's article, we pieced together a lineup that I entered in the $15 DraftKings Showdown contest that paid $20,000 to 1st place. Thanks to a Brandon Hagel empty net goal and a postgame scoring adjustment that changed Tampa Bay's second goal from Mikhail Sergachev to Ondrej Palat, I was able to come away with a $20 profit with that lineup. Just a hair shy of the $20,000 we were hoping for. No worries though, DraftKings is running the same contest for tonight, so we've got another chance at that 20K!
The main point of Thursday's article was talking about reverse engineering your showdown lineup based on the outcome you expected. If you missed it, you can read that article here. We'll stick to that thought process once again.
With the Lightning riding a three-game winning streak in the series and returning to home ice where they are 2-0 this round, they are firmly entrenched as the Vegas favorite. Despite this, since I like going against the grain and because I selfishly want to see a Game 7, I'm going with a Rangers stack in the hopes this series goes the distance with something like a 4-1 Rangers win.
The goalies have been front and center this entire series and I'm hoping Igor Shesterkin has another stellar performance lined up. I'm going to roll with him in my Captain spot as I expect the Lightning to get plenty of shots on goal at home. Hopefully Shesterkin stops most if not all and can rack up a big score. That's something that likely happens if the score is in fact close to 4-1.
As far as skaters, if the Rangers are going to win this game their big guns are going to have to step up, which is something they've been doing with their backs against the wall in previous series. I'm looking at Mika Zibanejad, Chris Kreider, and Artemi Panarin. Those three are pricey so to provide some value I'm adding in K'Andre Miller in the hopes he can kick in as assist and maybe hit the three blocked shot bonus.
That leaves one spot in my lineup, which has to be a Lightning player, so I'm going to stick with Brandon Hagel as he's been kind to us of late with a goal and ten shots over the last three games. It helps he's priced well below anyone else in Tampa's top six.
That's a wrap, so best of luck with your lineups! If you follow me on Twitter @SteveDotzel you can subscribe to my "DFS-NHL" list which is comprised of several team beat writers tweeting the most recent news in real-time. You can also reach out to me personally and I'll do my best to answer any questions I can. Hope to see you on top of the leaderboards!