This article is part of our DraftKings NHL series.
The weekend is over, so we're back to the usual NHL schedule. Although, it won't last for long. Soon enough we'll be down to just two series, and then just one. For Monday, though, there are two games, a 7 p.m. EDT start and a 9:30 p.m. start. Here are my lineup recommendations.
SLATE PREVIEW
Stuart Skinner has been confirmed in goal for the Oilers, with Calvin Pickard still banged up. Mark Stone's status is unknown, which is obviously significant for the Golden Knights. Brandon Saad is day-to-day for them as well. That's… less significant.
GOALIE
Frederik Andersen, CAR vs. WAS ($8,000): On Saturday, when these were the four teams in action, I said that Andersen was the only goalie I thought was really viable. He delivered a shutout. Logan Thompson, with a salary $600 less than Andersen, does entice me. However, in the end, I'd rather roll with the Danish goalie and work around his salary. He plays behind the NHL's best defensive team, and crucially the NHL's best penalty kill. He's allowed more than two goals only once this postseason, when he gave up three in a double-overtime game against the Devils. The next bad night he has will be his first of the playoffs.
VALUE PLAY/ONE-OFF
William Karlsson, VGK at EDM ($4,400): Stone is a question mark, and Pavel Dorofeyev was a non-factor in his first game back from injury. Stacking a Vegas line feels precarious, but I want a piece of a matchup against Stuart Skinner. He was benched for Calvin Pickard, a 33-year-old journeyman who has played in 175 regular-season games over a decade-long career. "Wild Bill" has picked up a point in every game of this series, and he had two points against Minnesota as well.
FORWARD LINE STACK TO CONSIDER
Oilers vs. Golden Knights
Ryan Nugent-Hopkins (C - $5,400), Zach Hyman (W - $5,300), Evander Kane (W - $4,400)
I'm going the route of Edmonton's second line again, because Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl have the two highest salaries for Monday's slate. Even higher than any goalie. Working around Edmonton's top line, as productive as it has been, would mean throwing darts at the wall elsewhere, especially if you also went with Andersen in net. Adin Hill has an .872 save percentage in the postseason and has allowed at least three goals in every game of this series. Vegas has gotten to this point in spite of him, not because of him -- which is something Edmonton's lineup can relate to, but that's neither here nor there.
Nugent-Hopkins is on a seven-game point streak. He's also the only one of this trio on the top power-play unit, and the Golden Knights had the 26th-ranked penalty kill this season. Hyman didn't have a point in Game 3, but he has seven points in the playoffs, including two in this series. He also scored 27 goals this season, and has had at least 27 goals in every season he's played with the Oilers. Kane is coming off his worst game of the playoffs, but he still has five points and 19 shots on net over his last seven games. Don't forget that he didn't play in the regular season, so he's really had to work himself into fighting shape. So far, so good.
DEFENSEMAN
Shayne Gostisbehere, CAR vs. WAS ($4,500): Gostisbehere had 45 points this season, and he's added six in the playoffs. How he does that is no mystery. He tallied 27 of those points in the regular season with the extra man, and five of his playoff points have been of the power-play variety. The guy has averaged 4:11 per contest on the power play in the postseason. It's what he does, and he does it well. Washington's penalty kill has struggled in the playoffs, though some of that stems from having to face Gostisbehere and the Hurricanes for three games already. In the postseason, when the skill level is high, being able to trust in a defenseman to likely play four minutes of power-play time in a key role is a nice thing to be able to do.
