Scott Darling to the Rescue

Q – What do you do when you can’t play fantasy basketball on FanDuel because of the NBA’s drawn-out All-Star break?

A – Simple. You play NHL fantasy hockey on FanDuel.

In the past, I tried fantasy hockey a few times – with very little success. But with a week between NBA games, I thought I’d give it another shot. And since I lacked confidence, I minimized my risk by playing for $2.

So, Monday, I played the 8 P.M. and 9 P.M. slates:

8 P.M.

Dallas at Nashville
Toronto at Chicago

9 P.M.

Montreal at Arizona
Minnesota at Vancouver

In the first slate, I played one lineup in two pools:

I played a 100-Player League. In this type of contest, you must finish in the top 12 positions to cash out. Prizes range from $50 for first place all the way down to $6 for 10th-thru-12th place.

I also played a $3K Breakaway Tournament with 1,724 players. In this type contest, you must finish in the top 324 to cash out. Prizes range from $300 for first place all the way down to $5 for 130th-to-324th place.

I played similar contests at 9 P.M.

Chicago Blackhawks

To begin with, I believed the Chicago Blackhawks had an excellent chance of beating the Toronto Maple Leafs. That belief was reinforced when I noticed that Scott Darling was starting in goal instead of Corey Crawford. One of the best goalies in the NHL thus far, Crawford compiled a record of 31-13-2 while allowing just 2.10 goals/game.

In comparison, Darling started just 11 times and posted a record of 5-4-2 while allowing 2.48 goals/game.

To me, this meant that Blackhawks coach Joel Quenneville believed the game was in bag. He was so confident of a win; he was resting Crawford and starting Darling.

So I played Scott Darling in goal.

And since I believed the Blackhawks would win, I padded my lineup with three more Blackhawks:

Patrick Kane RW
Artemi Panarin LW
Duncan Keith D

I avoided playing any Maple Leafs because I didn’t want to be playing against myself. Instead, I filled in my lineup with players from the Stars and Predators:

Antoine Roussel LW
Craig Smith RW
Tyler Seguin C
Mike Fisher C
Shea Weber D

My lineup came in at $54,900 – which was $100 under budget.

LONG STORY SHORT

To make a long story short, the Blackhawks trounced the Maple Leafs 7-2 and my lineup posted 50.90 points. In fact, I was in fourth place in the 100-Player League when the games ended. Three players were ahead of me with 53.00 points. So I was going to win $16.

But I had Scott Darling in goal – and the Blackhawks won. Whereas the three players in front of me had Nashville’s Carter Hutton in goal – and the Predators lost 3-2. So when Darling was awarded three additional points for winning, I jumped into first place by the narrow margin of 53.90 to 53.00.