DFS Saturday: Showdown Time

Stephen Dotzel

2022-05-28

Sad times for NHL DFS as in all likelihood the days of multiple games on a single slate are over. I'd expect the two Conference Final series to alternate days, giving us one game per night. With that said, if you still want your fantasy fix there is a game available on most of the major sites. On DraftKings it's called "Showdown", on FanDuel it is called "Single Game", and on Yahoo it is just the only game type available. Be sure to thoroughly read the rules and scoring for the particular site you're playing on as all three sites have some differences.

For the purpose of this article, I will be sticking with DraftKings "Showdown". It's a fairly simple conversion if you're already familiar with the classic scoring as it's mostly the same. The main difference is in the roster construction. Classic contests have nine spots – Two centers, three wingers, two defenseman, a goalie, and a flex. Showdown, however, only has six spots – a captain and five additional flex players. All six spots can be any position including goalie.

Your captain in showdown will score points on a 1.5x multiplier and the remaining five players will score points the same as they normally would. For example, if a player scores a goal and he is in one of your five flex spots, it will be worth the standard 10 DraftKings points. But if he is in your captain slot, it will be worth 15 points. The catch is, your captain also costs you 1.5x in salary compared to the other five spots.

From there, the objective is to obviously pick a lineup of six players that will outscore everyone else's lineup of six players. Personally, I find showdowns more difficult than the classic format, mainly because with the smaller roster the margin of error is super thin. But it's pretty simple to play and with only one game it makes for a great viewing experience as you can watch the game and follow your lineup at the same time.

With contests at several entry fee levels, give it a try Saturday in something small to get your feet wet.

Captain Considerations

In low-scoring games, a goalie or sometimes two are nearly a must. Typically a goalie who records a shutout or is on the winning side of a 2-1, 3-1 type game makes for a great captain. With that being the case, consider Igor Shesterkin ($16,200) tonight who is obviously one of the top goalies on the league and we've yet to see Carolina win a road game during this season's playoffs.

Flex Considerations

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Once you have your captain, you need to fill out your roster. And keep in mind per the rules you need at least one player from each team. If Igor is my captain and I'm expecting a Rangers win I'll likely want to have a Ranger stack in here somewhere. I'll look at the top line for New York who had some success in the previous two home games, so that's Mika Zibanejad ($10,000), Chris Kreider ($8,800), and Frank Vatrano ($6,200).

From there we've got two lineup spots left and not too much salary left. Plus one of those players has to be from Carolina. Consider a mid-level defenseman from the Rangers to complete your stack, in the hopes maybe they can kick in an assist on a goal somewhere. Another option would be a third liner such as Alexis Lafreniere ($4,400). A cheap Hurricane player to use could be someone like Martin Necas ($4,200) who is a safe bet to rack up a few shots on goal.

Be sure to double check your lineups before lock for any last-minute scratches or goalie changes. 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!

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UPCOMING GAMES

Oct 07 - 17:10 FLA vs CHI
Oct 07 - 20:10 NYR vs PIT
Oct 07 - 22:10 L.A vs COL

Starting Goalies

Top Skater Views

  Players Team
GABRIEL VILARDI WPG
YEGOR CHINAKHOV CBJ
JOE VELENO MTL
KIRILL MARCHENKO CBJ
DYLAN HOLLOWAY STL

Top Goalie Profile Views

  Players Team
ANTHONY STOLARZ TOR
PHILIPP GRUBAUER SEA
JOEL HOFER STL
ILYA SOROKIN NYI
ANDREI VASILEVSKIY T.B

LINE COMBOS

  Frequency DAL Players
23.2 TYLER SEGUIN MASON MARCHMENT MATT DUCHENE
14.3 MIKKO RANTANEN ROOPE HINTZ MIKAEL GRANLUND
13.1 JASON ROBERTSON MIKKO RANTANEN WYATT JOHNSTON

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