Showdown NHL slates are an interesting beast to tackle. They carry unprecedented volatility, and honestly, a lot of luck. I can’t say I recommend them for cash games because you are going to need that one funky player to win. And, if you do have him, you jump right up into the top 20% and beyond if he’s not uber chalk. Fade him, and you don’t even hit 5050s if he is uber chalk. Fact is, we just don’t often know who the “funky player” is going to be on a given night. That said, we can try to spot him…

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Edmonton Oilers @ San Jose Sharks

The first place I’m looking tonight is the Vegas totals and implied goals. The game total carries a 6 as of this writing, but with the money line favoring the home team, that sways the implied goals rather dramatically. EDM is implied to score 2.54 goals and SJS is implied to score 3.46 goals. I’m going to focus most of my action on San Jose skaters and goalie, Martin Jones. I will, however, toss a few “hedge” lineups in for the Oilers in hopes of a contrarian “flip-flop” of the Vegas prediction most people will follow.

Basic DFS NHL Showdown Construction

I like building combinations of lines from my “goalie out.” That simply means I look at my goalie and want to line up a defenseman, wing, and centerman as a standard stack. A great example for San Jose would be Jones/Burns/Kane/Couture. Why? Brent Burns has a huge floor (39 shots and 9 blocks over his last 10 games) that gives us insurance against a dud. He also factors into 20+ minutes of ice time, pushes into the offensive plays, and factors heavily into power plays (8 assists in the last 10 games). From this solid foundation, I will push out into the even more offensive NHL players.

Evander Kane isn’t exactly setting the world on fire, but he does shoot the puck an average of 4 times per game. When he nets a biscuit, he is a 20 point game waiting to happen (has scored 20+ three times in his last seven). I love him on the 3rd line in a showdown format where most will focus solely on the top two lines. He also serves on the 2nd power play unit with Brent Burns for a little correlation should we get lucky.

I will also be looking at the top line, and tonight I find a couple of options. First, for complete PP2 correlation, Timo Meier. I’m not concerned with “fading chalk” after using Kane, and Meier has been hot in the not too distant past. Six of his last ten games have double digit Fanduel points scored, and four of them are over 20. Second, our centerman, Logan Couture. I do like the D/W/C structure a lot. Couture runs on the first power play unit, so we do diversify a little there, if we choose this route. And, outside of his last game, Couture has been rather cold and unproductive. This cooler look may scare the masses off, and if we are lucky, we time an upcoming heater from him and capitalize. In showdowns, you just never know.

Other NHL Construction Methods

When it comes to this game, you have tons of options even inside a single game. While my “basic construction” was going to require us diving for value after our “core stack” it is what I like to do. For my value, I can run to Edmonton skaters for a couple, or I can focus on some of the cheaper San Jose Sharks hoping to really catch the right pieces in the Vegas-indicated higher side of the game.

Another tip I would share with you is using that third line. Not necessarily for a brand name like Evander Kane, but for the lesser known players. They come cheap, and if you can find one that logs some quality ice time on a power play, it can really pay off in this format. Tonight isn’t probably the best NHL night for it being neither team really has a strong third line, but watch for it going forward if you enjoy showdown slates.

Even More NHL Theory

As previously stated, showdowns often require you catch the top player on the night. But, there are other ways to separate yourself from the field in the gpp formats…

Think about who the highest owned player on the NHL night is likely to be (Connor McDavid) and fade him.
Note the goalie most will use, and go overweight on the opposing team.
Focus almost entirely on the second and third lines instead of the top line. Very unique technique for NHL.
Leave salary on the table. People have fewer options, and fewer stud players. Naturally, they will default to jamming as many in as they can. Refuse that urge and leave $1000+ on the table.
Stack against your own goalie. Yes, it’s suboptimal, but in a single game format, it only matters you have the most points. Grab the higher scoring goalie (even if both are low scores) and have the offense doing the damage, and you still win (better for games that wind up 7-5 or 6-3).
Find that super value play people will gravitate towards, and pivot. Use another cheaper play on his NHL line, another line, or the other team.

Showdowns are about the nuts, and the nuts alone. There isn’t as much discrepancy in the scoring with such small player pools and limited options. Above all, focus on being unique. But, realize it’s not going to work often. It’s just not. You are almost choosing suboptimal plays in order to be alone at the top of the leaderboard when you inevitably have a good night.

Showdowns and Captains

I literally held this part off until the end. Why? Hockey is very volatile. There is no one type of player to put in your MVP or Captain slot if you have one. You have to pick the higher scoring player on the night and gamble. I don’t mean to downplay the extra points. I mean to get you thinking about maxing your points out completely to win. And, that simply means you have to nut the captain spot with the highest scoring player on the slate whether it’s Brent Burns, Connor McDavid, or even Kyle Brodziak.

Bring Out the Zamboni

Showdowns can be a fun way to play, but they aren’t for the feint of heart. Enjoy tonight, we have a larger than large 14 game slate cranking tomorrow. Bookmark our content page (NHL Content) and come back in the morning as we rev up. If you prefer one-on-one discussion and even groupthink, you simply need to become a VIP tonight and jump in full bore tomorrow.

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