DelcoDave

"Daily Fantasy Sports Hockey Strategist"

Lincoln, NE • United States •

Stanley Cup Finals Game 5 Draftkings Preview

Stanley Cup Finals Game 5 Draftkings Preview

All right everyone I hope you can forgive my absence for game 4, a very hectic pre-planned family vacation had me very busy. I hope all of you enjoyed the holiday weekend and got to spend time with friends and family. Well the Habs showed up desperate and determined not to let the Lightning celebrate with Lord Stanley’s Cup on their ice and that’s great news for us DFS hockey players and hockey fans alike because now we get at least one more game to enjoy the sport we love and hopefully get paid again before the season is over.

In Game 4 Carey Price ($9,800) finally broke through and had that dominating performance we’ve been waiting for, stopping 32 of 34 shots and coming up huge in the third period and early in overtime, carrying Montreal to victory. Montreal has only been on the brink of elimination 3 times this postseason and all three came against the Toronto Maple Leafs in the opening round of the playoffs. Toronto went up 3-1 after a victory in game 4, Montreal would go on to win the next 3 games and the series with Price stopping 32 out of 35 shots, 41 out of 43 shots and 30 out of 31 shouts respectively. For those keeping track that comes out to a 4-0 record with a .944 save percentage and an even 2.00 GAA in elimination games, I think it’s a fair observation that Carey Price turns it on when the chips are down. I fully intend to have Price in one of my lineups. One more detail of note for game 5, Tampa Bay is 2-0 at home in series clinching games this postseason and both were shutouts for Andrei Vasilevskiy ($10,800), something has to give tonight.

With the series heading back to Tampa Bay for game 5 the Bolts get the last change again and will be able to dictate the matchups tonight. Nikita Kucherov ($10,400) and Brayden Point ($10,000) each have their only multi point games this series playing at home. This series has been mostly closely contested except for the third period of game 1 when Point and Kucherov exploded and both finished with 3 points. Their underlying stats are still strong too, Kucherov leads the team in shot attempts with 107 and Point is fourth with 82, they’re also first and second in combined high and medium danger shot attempts Kucherov has 37 and Point 35. Building your game 5 lineup around a Kucherov/Point stack will be expensive but these guys are difficult to keep of the scoresheet for very long and game 5 might be the game when they go off again and help the Bolts take home the cup.

A unique build for this game could be stacking Kucherov or Point with Vasilevskiy while leaving the other one out of the lineup. It would still be an expensive start to the roster but with multiple affordable and cheap options on the Montreal side of the lineup it’s certainly possible to pull off. Also with Killorn day to day Anthony Cirelli ($5,400) is still a solid option at a very reasonable price. For the Habs Tyler Toffoli ($8,800) and Brendan Gallagher ($7,600) have burnt us recently but they both still have sound shooting stats, Gallagher has 95 shot attempts and Toffoli has 20 combined high and medium danger scoring chances. I believe the game goes one of two ways, either Tampa blows Montreal out of the water and puts an exclamation point on their back to back cup victories or the Canadiens grind out a tight slow scoring affair and send the series back to Canada. My lineups are going to reflect those two potential game scripts.

If I’m going with a Tampa Bay blowout then I’m building my lineup around 2 of Kucherov, Point and Vasilevskiy and rounding it out with cheap options such as Tyler Johnson, Cirelli, Phillip Danault ($5,600) and Cory Perry ($5,200), those are guys that still log plenty of ice time and will have ample opportunities to contribute without costing you very much against the salary cap. For my lineup designed around a Montreal victory I’m going to put both goalies in my lineup and mid tier Tampa guys like Steven Stamkos ($8,400) and Ondrej Palat ($7,800) then build a balanced Canadien side of the roster with their depth guys such as Ben Chiarot ($5,800) and Artturi Lehkonen ($4,200).

As always with showdown lineups our captain selection is pivotal, we are focused on two types of game scripts, the first being Tampa Bay winning big, if we build our lineups around that type of game We should captain one of Tampa’s big three, Vasilevskiy, Kucherov or Point. That decision will be expensive with all three of them coming in over 15k for the captain salary, Vasilevskiy is the most pricey with a $16,200 salary hit. If we go with our second game script of Montreal winning a close, low scoring game Price is our obvious choice, he comes with a $14,700 price tag making him more affordable than the Lightning’s options allowing us a little more cap relief to fill out our roster. As has been all series this game will most likely be decided by the play of the goalies, Price is unbeaten this season when facing elimination and Vasilevskiy has 3 shutouts when having the opportunity to close an opponent out, should be another great chapter in what has been an amazing postseason so far.