The Vegas Golden Knights and the Florida Panthers go head-to-head in Game 5 of the 2023 NHL Stanley Cup Finals. The Golden Knights are one win away from securing their first Stanley Cup in franchise history. We’ve seen the Panthers come back from being down 3-1 before, but it almost feels impossible for them to do it again. The game still needs to be played on the ice, so we can’t say it’s over just yet. You can build daily fantasy hockey lineups on DraftKings, FanDuel, and Yahoo Fantasy for Tuesday, June 13th, but 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.

 

NHL DFS Picks Stanley Cup Finals Game 5

Highest Expected Goal Totals 

Vegas Golden Knights vs. Sergei Bobrovsky: (3.6)

Florida Panthers vs. Adin Hill: (2.6)
 

Florida Panthers vs. Vegas Golden Knights Stanley Cup Game 5 Preview


Players to target: Carter Verhaeghe, Nick Cousins, Anthony Duclair Adin Hill, Jack Eichel, Jonathan Marchessault, Brett Howden, Brayden McNabb, Zach Whitecloud, Mark Stone, Chandler Stephenson


The total for Game 5 opened at 6.0 and should stay at that number as we approach puck drop. It is surprising to see the total so high considering the fact that Matthew Tkachuk is a game-time decision for this game. Unless he dies before the game, there’s a good chance he plays, but how effective is he going to be and how much can he play? Brandon Montour is also banged up, but he stated that he will play this game. With so many question marks for the Panthers, we have to look at the Vegas side when building our DFS lineup.

Adin Hill is going to be very popular tonight and for good reason. The Panthers have struggled to score goals in this series and a banged-up Tkachuk just makes his matchup that much more appealing. He’s my lock for the CPT spot, but if you’re trying to take down a GPP, you might as well look at Sergei Bobrovsky. If he can stand on his head and steal a win for his team, he’s going to shoot your lineup to the top of the leaderboard. If you want to focus on a forward, Jantah Marchessault is the only name I would consider. 

As for the rest of our lineup, there are two ways to look at things. The first is loading up on Vegas skaters, specifically Jack Eichel, Mark Stone and Chandler Stephenson. All three players are playing great hockey and if you believe that the over will hit, then you need exposure to those three. If you don’t want to play all three, you can look at adding Alex Pietrangelo to the mix. I still have a soft spot for Brayden McNabb and Zach Whitecloud, but I just don’t see how Florida will generate enough offense for both players to flirt with three blocked shots.

The second theory is to believe that the Panthers can force a Game 6. I still wouldn’t target Matthew Tkachuk because we know he isn’t healthy and his ice time could be a factor, so I’ll look to players like Anthony Duclair, Nick Cousins and Carter Verhaeghe. Those three need to be a factor tonight if they want to have any chance of sending this series back to South Florida. I’ll also have some shares of Brandon Montour. He’s an offensive defenseman who can jump up in the play, be we’ve also seen him block a fair amount of shots. If Florida is trailing in this game, Paul Maurice isn’t going to wait to shorten his bench, so I expect Montour to see a healthy amount of ice time if his body can allow it.