With Game 1 of the Stanley Cup Finals on tap for tonight, the biggest storyline for me is going to be how each team handles all the time off they've had. Vegas comes in having been off for the last four days, however Florida has been idle for a staggering nine days! I am sure the rest is well received physically; however, you have to wonder if there's going to be some rust to shake off to start. In Florida's case, they had been rolling having won 11 of their last 12 games, so a break this long can't be good for maintaining the momentum they had been riding. Taking this into consideration, while I picked Florida to win the series in six games, I am leaning towards Vegas for this one and will build my lineup accordingly.

As has been the case for the past few weeks, we have a one game contest available to play for those of us that still want to keep the fantasy season going. As always, it's important to check the contest rules on the specific fantasy site you play on, as they vary slightly. I will be focusing on DraftKings and if you want a quick rundown of how one game contest scoring works there and some strategy when building lineups, please read one of my previous articles here.

Captain Considerations

As I've continued to say regarding one game contests, you want to build your lineup around a specific outcome on how you think the game will unfold. Having said I like Vegas to win this game in the opening means I am going to lean on Vegas players in my lineup. That starts at captain with Adin Hill ($15,900). Hill has scored 17 or more DraftKings points in seven of the last eight games and that doesn't even factor in the 1.5x multiplier he'd receive if you have him in the captain's spot. If you think Florida might come out a little sluggish coming off the long layoff like I do, going Hill here makes a lot of sense.

Flex Considerations

William Karlsson ($7,000) scored twice in the Golden Knights clinching game against the Stars which brings his postseason goal tally to 10, a team high. Despite that output, he is only the sixth-highest priced Vegas skater on DraftKings so we will take that value and slot him in. We'll want some correlation with him, so I like the idea of adding Reilly Smith ($6,600) to the lineup as Smith and Karlsson skate together at both even strength and the power play. We'll add some move value with our next spot with Ivan Barbashev ($4,800). Barbashev is tied for third on the team in points for the postseason with 15 and skates with Karlsson and Smith on the power play.

With Hill, Karlsson, Smith, and Barbashev penciled in, we have two spots remaining in the lineup and with $15,700 in salary we can be quite flexible. I'll use one of these spots on either Jack Eichel ($10,200) or Jonathan Marchessault ($9,000). Eichel leads the team in assists (12) and points (18) during the playoffs meanwhile Marchessault has scored three more goals thus far than Eichel and has taken three more shots as well. For the last spot, we will need a Florida Panther so I'm considering Gustav Forsling ($5,000) and Aaron Ekblad ($5,800). Over the team's last five games Forsling has averaged 9.7 DraftKings points and Ekblad has averaged 7.9.

Be sure to follow me on Twitter @SteveDotzel so you can follow my "DFS-NHL" list which is comprised of dozens of team accounts and beat writers providing important updates throughout the day. Also, give a look to our tools at DFS Central to see who our formulas are liking for this slate. Best of luck with your lineups!