Washington Capitals at Columbus Blue Jackets
The Capitals are down 0-2 in this series, a result after the first two which most people didn’t see coming. Yes, the Capitals have their struggles in the playoffs, but this series is now on the edge of being over. The Capitals will have Braden Holtby back in the net after Philipp Grubauer got the first two starts of this series.
Washington’s offense is a bit top heavy when it comes to production, and thus most of the ownership will follow those names. Alex Ovechkin, Evgeny Kuznetsov, Nicklas Backstrom, John Carlson and T.J. Oshie are where most people look for the points. It makes sense since that is the first power-play unit, but this is the playoffs, meaning we could see an unlikely hero put some points on the board. For these one-offs, they are GPP only, and you are betting on their upside rather than their consistency. Jakub Vrana, Lars Eller, Jay Beagle, and Dmitri Orlov. They are all cheap and should come in at lower ownership in tournaments.
For the Blue Jackets, they weren’t known as the most explosive offensive team in the league, but they are getting it done in the playoffs, with nine goals over the first two games. Of those nine goals, they have eight different players who scored. That is really something when it comes to being a real hockey team, but can make things difficult in terms of fantasy, since we don’t know where the production will be coming from. Those eight players are on all four forward lines and both power-plays, so if you are going with a stack, just pick one and ride with it. A solid all-around team, just makes things hard to nail down who will be doing the scoring.
Winnipeg Jets at Minnesota Wild
The Jets hold a 2-1 series lead and despite the last game, have been dominating this series. They have outshot the Wild 115 to 66 over the first three games, and are looking to go up three games to one tonight.
The Jets were, and still are one of the best offensive teams in the league, and have scored nine goals over the first three games. Their scoring is a bit more centralized, with the top two offensive units accounting for a good portion of the production. Look for Mark Scheifele, Kyle Connor, Blake Wheeler, Patrik Laine, Paul Stastny and Dustin Byfuglien to be the main contributors, and solid for cash games. In GPPs, I would take a shot on Bryan Little, Joel Armia, Adam Lowry, Mathieu Perreault, and Joe Morrow. They truly are the better team in this series, and they should be able to come away with the win tonight.
Throughout the regular season, the Wild were known as a middle of the road offensive team, who had a lot of offensive contributors. They had nine players score 10 or more goals and only one defender on that list. That means there are nine forwards who are very capable of scoring, and similar to the Blue Jackets, tough to nail down who will be productive on any given night. I will say that their top two forward lines have been the biggest part of their offense to start the series, but temper your expectations tonight, since they come in with an expected Corsi for of 42, which is lowest on the slate.
Vegas Golden Knights at Los Angeles Kings
I personally don’t know what to make of this series, since it hasn’t turned out as I expected. The Vegas Knights, in their first season, are on the verge of sweeping their first-round matchup. Not many saw this coming, especially since they are up against the Kings, who were the best defensive team in the league this season, allowing the fewest goals.
With this being an elimination game for the Kings, Jonathan Quick will be a top option, as he continues to impress this postseason. He has yet to come away with a win, but has only allowed three goals and posted a .945 save percentage. He will continue to see the saves and continue to rack up the fantasy points. The problem for the Kings is that they have only three goals this entire series. The offense is super limited for them, and if you choose to go anywhere for players, there is no reason to go outside of the top few. Anze Kopitar, Dustin Brown, Jeff Carter, and Drew Doughty. Backs up against the wall for them, and they need to squeeze out a home victory tonight.
For Vegas, they are playing with house money at this point. Get it? Gambling joke when talking about the team from Las Vegas. Well, they can seemingly do no wrong in this situation. They are up 3-0 in this series, and even if they lose, they will have two more home games to close it out. Not saying they aren’t in a good spot tonight, since their offense has looked solid for the first few games, and they are taking a ton of shots, just not sure if I need to be playing them tonight. Their top line of Karlsson, Smith, and Marchessault is expensive, and you should shift that salary to a team like the Capitals, who are desperate for a win. I would take a few one-offs from Vegas compared to doing a full stack in GPPs.