Another NHL series might end Wednesday. The Avalanche return home for Game 5, and if they beat the Wild, they will move on to the Western Conference Finals. Since this is the only game Wednesday, it's time for some single-game NHL DFS action. You get $50,000 in salary for six players, and one is your Captain. Your Captain nets you 1.5 times the points, but at an elevated salary. The first puck drops at 8 p.m. ET. What I decided to do here was find a Captain I could go with a little down the salary line so that I could roster both Colorado and Minnesota's best forwards. That is what I did, and here is the lineup I landed on.
CAPTAIN
Martin Necas, COL vs. MIN ($12,600): Necas is a good guy to have as a Captain if you're trying to save some salary. One, the Avalanche have scored five goals or more in three games in this series. They are on fire. Two, Necas plays on the top line and on the top power-play unit. He has nine points in his last seven games, but eight of those are assists. Necas has a 5.0 shooting percentage in that time, so he's been productive and unlucky.
FLEX
Nathan MacKinnon, COL vs. MIN ($11,000): MacKinnon is the guy who Necas gets to play with, much to Necas' benefit. Crisis averted, by the way, in terms of that puck the potential MVP took to the face. He returned, and he scored a goal to extend his point streak to five games. Additionally, he's put 27 shots on net over eight playoff games. Oh, and he's Nathan MacKinnon, a future Hall of Famer with more than 110 points in each of the last four seasons. There's that as well.
Kirill Kaprizov, MIN at COL ($10,000): MacKinnon is Colorado's best forward, and Kaprizov is Minnesota's, so now they are both accounted for. The Russian has 14 points and 25 shots on net in 10 postseason contests. Seven times in his last 16 games Kaprizov has had multiple points, and he had a point in the first two games in Colorado, so the fact this series is moving back there isn't a concern.
Brock Nelson, COL vs. MIN ($6,800): Alright, so with those three salaries accounted for, where do I go from there? First up I have Nelson. He's a second-line center for a team that is rolling offensively, and he has hit 30 goals four times in his last five campaigns. Yeah, that will work. He only has three points in the playoffs, but that includes two points in this series. On top of that, Nelson has put three or more shots on net in three games in this series.
Vladimir Tarasenko, MIN at COL ($5,600): The journeyman Tarasenko tallied 23 goals in his first season with the Wild. He's been a strong complementary piece in the playoffs, which is the kind of thing you hope for when you sign a veteran like Tarasenko. The Russian has notched one point in five of his last six games and put multiple shots on net in four of those games.
Michael McCarron, MIN at COL ($4,000): With the salary I had left, McCarron slotted in. That's not too shabby, especially if Joel Eriksson Ek is out once again. Unexpectedly, McCarron has four points in his last eight games. He's put multiple shots on goal in four of his last five contests, and in three of his last four games he's blocked multiple shots. At his salary, basically anything positive he does will yield positive value to your DFS lineup.
