NHL DFS Showdown Playbook June 18: Colorado Avalanche vs. Tampa Bay Lightning Stanley Cup Finals Game 2
Game two of the Stanley Cup Finals between the Colorado Avalanche and the Tampa Bay Lightning goes tonight. Tampa Bay was able to overcome a 3-1 deficit to send the game to overtime, but Colorado got the job done thanks to an early goal from Andre Burakovsky. Can they take a 2-0 lead heading back to South Florida? You can build daily fantasy hockey lineups on DraftKings, FanDuel, and Yahoo Fantasy for Saturday, June 18th 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 Tampa Bay Lightning came extremely close to stealing game one on the road, but they didn’t deserve to come that close. Colorado was the better team all night and that trend should continue tonight. Tampa will be better, but that may not be enough to do something one team has been able to do against Colorado-- win in their barn.
Colorado has so many elite players that Valeri Nichushkin is going to be forgotten tonight. He finished with two points and six shots on goal in game one and we could see a similar result tonight. I’ll go as far as considering using him in the Captain's spot. You’ll be able to get him at low ownership in that spot and he could be the one to really send your lineup to the top of the leaderboard. If you don’t want to take that much risk, Nathan MacKinnon and Nikita Kucherov are always the easy choices.
For the rest of your lineup, there are quite a few ways to go. Artturi Lehkonen and Ondrej Palat are by far the two best mid-price option players to consider. They just do it all for their respective teams. It’s still mind-blowing that we can secure both players on DraftKings at under $7K.
If we are talking superstars, Cale Makar and Victor Hedman are the two easy options to consider. Neither defenceman was elite in game one, but they could both easily bounce back tonight with massive games. I wouldn’t go as far as using them in the captain’s spot, but you can have them in your lineup.
When it comes to bargain players, Andre Burakovsky and Brayden Point are options to consider. Burakovsky is coming off that overtime winner and he continues to skate on the second line. He’s under $5K on DK and doesn’t have to do a ton to hit value. As for Points, he’s just too good to be skating on the third line and be priced at $7K. If the Lightning get off to a slow start, John Cooper might change things up and reunite his three best offensive forwards. Point on his own can get the job done, but Ross Colton and Nick Paul aren’t exactly the most talented players on the team. You want to have some correlation playing Point, and the top power play unit just isn’t enough.
I love defensemen in this series because both teams can generate shots. Erik Cernak finished the last game with five blocked shots and he’s only $4200. Ryan McDonagh, Mikhail Sergachev and Devon Toews are all options worth considering alone with Hedman and Makar because of their high upside. Don’t be afraid to use multiple defencemen in your lineup. If it comes down to having to play someone in the button six or a defenceman like Cernak, take the defenceman who is skating on the top unit and seeing a ton of ice time. All you need is the blocked shots bonus and a couple of shots on goal. Sergachev and McDonagh do that consistently, so there is no reason to be scared to use them, especially if it allows you to pay up for an elite skater.
I don’t love goalies when building Showdown lineups and that will remain true tonight. I will however say that if you do want to go down that route, Andrei Vasilevskiy is the way to go. He fell just one save short of hitting the save bonus and the Avalanche have made it very clear that they want to generate a ton of shots on goal. Vasilevskiy is going to see a decent amount of rubber in this game, and we know that he is very good when coming off a loss. I don’t know how much I’m willing to trust him, but it’s worth considering him in a GPP lineup, even if you have multiple Colorado skaters.
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Brice Turang was scratched from Wednesday’s lineup due to illness.
It’ll be rookie Isaac Collins, who connected for his first big-league homer on Tuesday night, taking over at the keystone in his absence. Turang might need a couple days to rest and recover before getting back into Milwaukee’s lineup. Fantasy managers should consider him day-to-day for now.
Jimmy Butler (pelvis, glute) is available to play against the Rockets in Game 5 on Wednesday.
As expected, Butler will be good to go once again after initially being listed as probable for this game. He played 40 minutes on Monday to help Golden State take a 3-1 lead in the series, and he will likely continue to play a ton of minutes to help the Warriors attempt to end the series on Wednesday.
Mike Trout was removed from Wednesday’s game against the Mariners for precautionary reasons with left knee soreness.
Trout told reporters following Wednesday’s contest that he’s already feeling better and expressed optimism that he’ll be ready for Thursday’s series opener against the Tigers. He also noted that he’s already undergone some preliminary testing, which didn’t reveal anything serious. It’s a significant concern for fantasy managers since Trout missed most of last season with a torn meniscus in his left knee. It sounds like his early exit was out of an abundance of caution and he’s not dealing with anything serious. He should be considered day-to-day for now.
Mookie Betts knocked in four runs with a triple and a single in the Dodgers’ 12-7 defeat of the Marlins on Wednesday.
Jesús Sánchez got turned around in center field on the triple, which really ought to have been an out. Still, the triple did travel 389 feet, which is the second farthest Betts has hit a ball this year. It was Betts’ second extra-base hit in two weeks and eighth of the year. At .250/.339/.407 through 28 games, he’s still looking for his first hot streak this season.
Making his 2025 debut, Tony Gonsolin fanned nine while allowing three runs over six innings Wednesday in a win over the Marlins.
He would have had an even better line if not for some outfield hijinks behind him. Gonsolin’s stellar showing included 17 missed swings and a 43% CSW over 77 pitches. Nine strikeouts stands alone as the second-highest total of his career behind a 10-strikeout game against the Rockies in 2020. Gonsolin probably won’t stay healthy and he definitely won’t get to face Miami every time out, but given that he’s fine physically right now and he actually will take on the Marlins again next week, he should be rostered in mixed leagues.
Cal Quantrill surrendered four runs in 3 2/3 innings Wednesday in a loss to the Dodgers.
This was pretty much the expected line for Quantrill. Pitching for the Rockies last year, he went 0-3 with an 8.31 ERA while totaling 17 1/3 innings in four starts against the Dodgers. The loss leaves him 2-3 with an 8.10 ERA in his six starts this year, and he’s probably going to get stuck facing L.A. again next time out.