The NHL is giving us whiplash to start the season. After an incredibly busy Thursday, there were no games on Friday while Saturday featured all 32 teams in action. And Sunday consists of a single matchup.
As for the game in question, the Rangers host the Capitals at 7 p.m. EDT. Both teams obviously played Saturday, where they went with their No. 1 goalies. For DFS purposes, you have $50,000 in salary to divvy out to six players. That includes your Captain, who earns you 1.5 times the points - though at an elevated salary. You can roster goalies if you want, but I personally don't want a backup netminder behind a defense playing its second game in as many days. Here's the lineup I ended up with.
CAPTAIN
Dylan Strome, WAS at NYR ($12,000): Charlie Lindgren and Jonathan Quick finished last season with sub-.900 save percentages. But one of them is in his early 30s and the other is about to turn 40, so I think there's more potential for Lindgren to improve. In terms of making Strome my Captain, it's not so much that he skates with Alex Ovechkin on the first line. It's that he's also on the top power play, where he contributed 34 points last year. Man-advantage minutes are easier on the legs and also easier to rack up scoring stats. When it comes to my Sunday lineup for Sunday, my goal was to get players who could put up points with the extra man as much as possible.
UTILITY
Artemi Panarin, NYR vs. WAS ($9,800): The Rangers get to be at home on Sunday for the second leg of a back-to-back, though both were on the road Saturday. Panarin is the best point getter the Rangers have coming off 87 (and 120 the previous season) while directing 300-plus shots on net. And yes, he's on the lead PP unit.
Adam Fox, NYR vs. WAS ($8,800): Fox's best skill is running the point on the power play with 18 points during that situation after going over 20 in each of the four previous years. He also logged slightly less PP time with a 2:55 average. So far this season (potted a PPG on Saturday) and with a new head coach, it seems like Fox will once again be back over three minutes.
Aliaksei Protas, WAS at NYR ($7,000): The other way to go on the back end of consecutive days is to roster a 24-year-old who can probably move around better than the veterans. Protas came out of nowhere last year to tally 30 goals, none of them while up a man. That being said, his power-play time is currently elevated. It's only a small sample, though it's pretty easy to get a big jump from that number.
Alexis Lafreniere, NYR vs. WAS ($6,600): A lot of players have first names that start with the letter A. Just an observation. With Vincent Trocheck week-to-week with an injury, the Rangers have already had to shuffle the lineup. Fortunately for Lafreniere, it seems as though he'll be on the top trio with Mika Zibanejad and the aforementioned Panarin. I'm a fan of his game, even if he will never be one of those first-overall picks who turns into a star. Even if he dropped to the 17 goals and 28 assists from last season, I believe he can reach 20 goals again. Lafreniere also just turned 24 while recording 12 shots through three outings.
Connor McMichael, WAS at NYR ($5,800): With apologies to Anthony Beauvillier, I opted to end my A-name run as McMichael is a decidedly better fantasy performer. Last season, he jumped from 18 goals to 26 and from 15 assists to 31. And just as important for McMichael's future deployment, he went from a minus-20 to a plus-19. He also skates on the Capitals' first line and could certainly light the lamp on Sunday against Jonathan Quick.
