Detroit Red Wings Vs. Tampa Bay Lightning

 

The NHL has gifted us with only one game today, so let’s take a moment to break it down and build our winning Showdown lineup!

Both teams played each other yesterday, and it was rather uneventful. Detroit ended up winning the game 1-0 in a shootout, thanks to goals from Vrana, Zadina Filppula and Gagner. I don’t think we see another low scoring game today, but who should we be targeting?

Let’s start with the Red Wings. Their hottest player is Jakub Vrana, so he is going to be in my captain spot. He has seven goals in the last ten games and continues to produce at an elite level. He’s going to be a chalk play at that spot, but he’s affordable and the only player we can really trust.

Let’s flip over to the Tampa Bay Lightning, specifically their top power play unit. I’m looking for value here, so I’ll start with Alex Barre-Boulet. He’s skating on the top unit and on the top line, and is very affordable on both sites. 

At this point, we need some bargain option, so I’ll go back to Detroit and look for more power play correlation. Filip Zadina and Sam Gagner are two players that come to mind. They all play together on the top power play unit, but play separately across three lines. If you want some correlation five-on-five, Michael Rasmussen skates on the top line with Vrana, but not on the top power play unit. I would swap Gagner for him and take the additional $200 savings on DK.

Now that we have our value players, let’s go back to Tampa and target some talent. Brayden Point and Ondrej Palat are who I’m looking to play, mainly because they skate with Barre-Boulet five-on-five and on the top power play unit. It’s a risk to limit our exposure to the top line, but we are betting on the power play scoring some goals. We also haven’t targeted any defenceman,and that is by design. 

If you swapped out the top line for the second line, you would have a ton of salary left over to spend. You could upgrade Gagner for Victor Hedman, but again, we don’t have much exposure to the top power play, and that’s what we want to target here. 

I’ve also left both goalies out of my lineup. I know it was a low-scoring game, but John Cooper didn’t commit to Vasilevskiy playing today, and there’s no way we are trusting Curtis McElhinney. On the other side, Jonathan Bernier could get the start today, but is it wise to stack Tampa and start the opposing goalie? I don’t think so, hence why we are just going to leave goalies out of it. 

In the end, Showdown slates are 90% luck, 10% skill. We’ve covered the skill part, now let’s see if lady luck is with us this afternoon.