This article is part of our DraftKings NHL series.
One door closes and another door opens Sunday. We have the last first-round game of the NHL playoffs, Game 7 between Vegas and Dallas. Before that, though, at 4 p.m. ET, the second round kicks off with Game 1 between the Rangers and Hurricanes. From a DFS perspective, it means two games to pick your players from. Here are my recommendations.
SLATE PREVIEW
From a DFS perspective, there isn't much going on in terms of lineups. The goalies seem locked in. Maybe Mason Marchment and Filip Chytil will return to their respective lineups, but the impact in terms of decision making would likely be marginal. Marchment may be viable for a lineup, but if Chytil returns, I don't see him slotting in as anything more than the fourth-line center.
GOALIE
Jake Oettinger, DAL vs. VGK ($8,000): After looking iffy in Game 1, Oettinger has been impressive for the Stars. He has a 1.72 goals against average (GAA) and .940 save percentage over his last six outings. Three of these four teams were in the top eight in goals per game during the season, but Vegas ranked 13th.
VALUE PLAY/ONE-OFF
Tyler Seguin, DAL vs. VGK ($4,700): Seguin has three assists in this series, and he's put at least three shots on net in five of the six games. He scored 25 goals in 68 outings this season. Adin Hill has made two starts in this series, and just posted a shutout, but he allowed three goals in Game 5 and had a .909 save percentage this season.
FORWARD LINE STACK TO CONSIDER
Hurricanes at Rangers
Sebastian Aho (C - $7,300), Jake Guentzel (W - $7,600), Andrei Svechnikov (W - $5,100)
Washington's punchless offense did not threaten the Rangers, but Carolina is a different challenge. New York was quite good defensively. However, the Hurricanes were the best defensive team in the NHL. All three of these guys for Carolina play on the first power-play unit, and while the Rangers had the third-ranked penalty kill, power-play opportunity is power-play opportunity at this point in the year. Plus, Carolina had the league's top-ranked penalty kill, so it's not like we are missing out on that matchup.
In each of the last four full NHL seasons, Aho has notched between 36 and 38 goals. He also set a personal best this year in power-play points with 32. Guentzel had 25 points in 17 games with the Hurricanes after the biggest deadline deal, and he's stayed in form for the playoffs. The former Penguin had four points in the first round. Svechnikov had two games with two assists against the Islanders in the prior round. He added his first goal of the playoffs in Game 5, doing so on six shots on net. It was his second game with six shots on goal.
DEFENSEMAN
Noah Hanifin, VGK at DAL ($5,400): Hanifin was another big deadline deal. He had 12 points in 19 regular-season games with the Golden Knights. Hanifin has added five playoff points, and he's on the top power-play unit for Vegas now. Dallas ranked eighth on the penalty kill, but that's third among these four teams.
