Montréal Canadiens at Toronto Maple Leafs
The Maple Leafs will look to close things out at Scotiabank Place tonight with a 3-1 series lead on the Canadians.
The Maple Leafs will again be without John Tavares , and I expect Nick Foligno will be a game-time decision tonight after being a very late scratch last night. For the Canadiens, Artturi Lehkonen is listed as day-to-day and didn't participate in the morning skate so I expect he will be out tonight.
William Nylander continues to lead the way for Toronto and is the primary player to use in this lineup. We know that Matthews and Marner could blow up at any time, but we really haven't seen it from them this series, but if it's going to happen it's going to happen while they are at home where the last change can be leveraged. Alexander Kerfoot is coming off a three-point game and shouldn't be ignored as well playing with Nylander on the second line.
On Defence, it's Morgan Rielly or bust. Rielly is the most likely to provide points, and we really haven't seen any of their defencemen accumulate blocks which keeps them off the DFS radar.
In goal, Jack Campbell is a cash game play tonight. For him to be GPP relevant tonight he will need to get another shutout and that is tough to bet on, otherwise, he won't get the shot volume that the goalies in the Carolina vs Nashville game will see.
For the Canadians, I would largely look to avoid their players. Tyler Toffoli and Josh Andersen can both put shots on goal in volume, and I expect them to crash the net and try to get some cheap goals on Toronto with how much Montréal has struggled to score.
Not much has changed on defence, if you're shooting for upside you can look at Jeff Petry , and Shea Weber , both are a threat to get points and are willing to shoot in volume. If you're aiming for value look at Ben Chiarot who has 12 blocks in the first four games.
In goal, Carey Price will be back in net tonight. Price has played well, but he isn't seeing enough shots to really make a difference, and when you combine that with Montréal not being a favourite to win tonight its a tough sell to go with Price in this one tonight.
Carolina Hurricanes at Nashville Predators
The Preds will look to keep the good home game vibes going tonight and push this series to game seven
Looking at injuries tonight, Nashville has, Viktor Arvidsson who is still listed as day-to-day, and Mark Borowiecki is listed as week-to-week. Carolina doesn't have any injuries of note heading into tonights game.
With the Hurricanes we should start with Sebastian Aho , who has been a force for them in this series. He has five points(three goals and two assists), to go along with 26 shots in the first five games. He was held pointless in game five but he is a consistent threat From there you can choose who you want to pair with him. Andrei Svechnikov and Teuvo Teravainen are both viable options, although Svechnikov is the preferred option as he is also on the top powerplay with Aho. You could also look to pair him though with Vincent Trochek or Jordan Staal as they will offer you more 5 vs 5 exposure, and still have them share power-play time. Staal also has five points in the series and would have more if not for an estranged goaltender interference call that cost the Hurricanes a goal in game five.
On the backend, everything starts with Dougie Hamilton his shot volume(31 shots in five games) makes him a threat each game even if he has only accumulated one point so far. Brett Pesce is worth a look. He has four points in the series and ten blocks and will come cheaper than Hamilton. Brady Skjei is a value option also as he is blocking shots, but he isn't likely to get you any points, so his ceiling is limited.
I expect the Hurricanes to go back to Alex Nedeljkovic . He has played well and is more of a cash game-play for me with the likelihood that the Hurricanes win this game, but if we get back into overtime territory again, he could see enough shot volume to be worth a look in GPP's.
Not much has changed for the Predators forward group, they have spread the wealth around, and if I had to choose a pair, I would go with Filip Forsberg , and pair him with either Matt Duchene or Ryan Johansen , who have both played well in this series despite having lacklustre regular season performances.
On defence, Ryan Ellis leads the team in points, and Roman Josi leads the team in shots and blocks, so either could be useful tonight and likely don't see high ownership.
Juuse Saros has been the biggest reason for the Preds still playing right now. He is my goalie of choice in GPP games tonight. He has seen a lot of shots in this series and is yet to disappoint through five games. There is still the risk that he has an off game and the Preds lose, which will keep me from using him in cash games.