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No game is more closely contested in the men’s Olympic hockey quarterfinal round than Germany vs. Slovakia on Wednesday morning. 

The two haven’t met in best-on-best play since the 2022 Salt Lake City Winter Olympics, where the Germans emerged 3-0. Now, they are ever-slight favorites at DraftKings in what’s a borderline pick’em. 

Germany earned their way into the quarterfinal with a 5-1 trouncing of France on Tuesday. Leon Draisaitl, who we can already anoint the greatest German-born hockey player ever, is much to thank for the decisive victory with a goal and two assists. 

Draisaitl sits inside the tournament’s top-10 point scorers, tied with Germany’s Tim Stützle with six points in four games. A lot of this production has come early; he’s scored in the first period twice.

We knew that Germany was a top-heavy club heading into the Games and that it would need to be extremely reliant on Draisaitl to scrape by. That assessment has proved crystal clear per time on ice, as Draisaitl ranks sixth overall, averaging 23:34. He is the only forward in the top-14 players of the category. 

No. 15? Stützle, at 21:47.

Slovakia, defending bronze medalists from the 2022 Beijing Games, earned a bid into the quarterfinal by winning Group B with a plus-1 goal differential in their games against Sweden and Finland. 

Like Germany, much of their play has been contingent on production from the scarcity of NHL stars on the roster. Juraj Slafkovsky has not disappointed, penciling three goals and six points through three games. 

The 2022 Olympics MVP is matchup proof, showing up with a goal and an assist in Slovakia’s 5-3 loss to Sweden, their only defeat of preliminary play.  

A lot of this success has come from volume: Slafkovsky is spraying the cage with five shots on goal per game. The Montreal Canadiens power forward has used his elite physical tools to protect the puck and open up shooting lanes and trial his eruptive shooting velocity. 

This is a bout between which keystones can prove themselves a bigger influence on the result of this game, and either way, we are going to see a lot of them in these 60 minutes. These roles can be targeted via Draisaitl’s plus-money anytime goal scorer price or Slafkovsky’s shot volume either individually or in a same game parlay for +365 at DraftKings. 

THE PLAY: Leon Draisaitl Anytime Goal Scorer (+105, DraftKings) | Juraj Slafkovsky 5+ Shots on Goal (+140, DraftKings)

Sean Treppedi handicaps the NFL, NHL, MLB and college football for the New York Post. He primarily focuses on picks that reflect market value while tracking trends to mitigate risk.