Game one of the Stanley Cup Semifinals is here, and it should be a beauty. We might not see a ton of goals scored in this game, but that won’t take anything away from either team. Both teams deserve to be here and will put on a show for all of us to enjoy.


In the captain spot, I’m looking to target a player with the most upside, and that for me is either Steven Stamkos or Alex Killorn. With Killorn, it’s a question of trying to save some salary to be able to spend up elsewhere. He’s gone shotless in the last two games, but has 12 points in the last ten games, so he’s a high risk/high reward play. It’s the same story for Stamkos


For the rest of my lineup, I’ll try and target as many Tampa Bay skaters as possible. Any combination of the top-6 works for me, so work players into your lineup based on salary available.


On the flip side, I’ll continue to target Jean-Gabriel Pageau and Kyle Palmieri, who are still reasonably priced and have some upside. Pageau skates on the top power play unit, so that does add some extra value to his name. Ideally, I’d like to be able to fit Mathew Barzal into my lineup, but that might be too big of a task on this slate. 


The reason I say that is because I’d rather have Victor Hedman in my lineup. He’s by far the best defenceman tonight, and as much as he can score goals and rack up points, he can also block shots. I don’t know how much of that he will be doing in game one, but the ceiling with Hedman is high, so he’s worth the price tag.


While this game is expected to be low scoring, paying up for a goalie just isn’t something I’m willing to do. If you absolutely want to go with a goalie, Andrei Vasilevskiy is the obvious choice. You can’t play whoever starts for New York and stack a bunch of skaters against him, unless you REALLY think the Islanders are going to go off here.