The Tampa Bay Lightning return home up 3-2 in their series with the New York Rangers and are looking to close things out with a victory. Andrei Vasilevskiy has completely turned his game since his weak performance in Game one and the Rangers haven’t been able to answer back. Can they survive this elimination game and return home for a Game seven? You can build daily fantasy hockey lineups on DraftKings, FanDuel, and Yahoo Fantasy for Sunday, June 5th NHL playoffs action. Before you build those NHL daily fantasy lineups, don’t forget to check out our NHL DFS projections, the NHL Value Finder, and the NHL DFS lineup generator. Let's now take a closer look at the daily fantasy hockey top plays for tonight's NHL DFS Showdown slate

 


The New York Rangers had a chance to come to Tampa Bay with a 3-2 series lead, but the Lightning did something no team could yet do in this series; win on the road. The Rangers will need to come out swinging and throwing everything at the net if they want to force a deciding Game Seven. 

The Captain spot tonight is going to be critical. It’s unlikely that we see a ton of goals in this game, but someone will score at least one, and he needs to be in that spot. Ondrej Palat is the player I would trust the most. He has now scored goals in three consecutive games and has five points in that span. He’s averaging around three shots on goal per game, which isn’t much, but he’s finding a way to hit value and that’s all we care about. 

Another good option is Victor Hedman. His price tag is up there, but he’s by far the best defenceman on that Tampa Bay team. We know he can generate offence, but he’s also going to give you blocked shots. If he can hit that bonus tonight, it would be huge for any lineup.

For the rest of your lineup, it’s going to be about finding some value. There’s nothing wrong with Nikita Kucherov or Mika Zibanejad, but you’re going to get them at super high ownership and they won’t separate you from the back. Corey Perry and Filip Chytil are the two players I’ll probably have the most exposure to. They’ve both been really good in this series and they are going to be important factors for their respective teams. 

If you want to trust the Rangers to get it done tonight, the entire third line is worth considering. New York hasn’t found a ton of offence from their top six at even strength, and the “Kid Line’’ was relatively quiet last game. They are going to get a favourable matchup on paper, so they could do some damage. Alexis Lafreniere and Kaapo Kaako are two very good hockey players who can step up for their team.

When it comes to defensemen, there are good options on both sides. Mikhail Sergechev had himself a very good game five, but I don’t think he repeats that effort tonight. He’s going to be popular, but we can find better value elsewhere. Jacob Trouba and Ryan Lindgren are by far my two favourite options for this game. When Trouba isn’t trying to take off someone’s head, he’s out there firing the puck on goal and blocking shots. He blocked five last game and has blocked at least four in three of the last four games. His floor is extremely high and he’s worth the $8000 price tag on DraftKings. Lindgren is an absolute warrior. He isn’t as productive as Trouba, but he’s seeing over 21-minutes a game and is always involved. He only has six blocked shots in the last three games, but things could be different tonight. 

I don’t love goalies when building a Showdown lineup, but Andrei Vasilevsakiy and Igor Shesterkin are the exceptions to the rule. Both have been excellent in this series, but Vasilevskiy has gotten most of the love because he’s winning hockey games. Igor could face a decent amount of shots in this game, so he could hit value without registering the win. Either option works, it just depends on how much salary you have left over and where you decide to play either one in your lineup.

 

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