The Battle of… Florida? Who knew that two of the better teams in the NHL would both be from Florida, as the Florida Panthers will have home-ice advantage against the Tampa Bay Lightning in this best-of-seven series. The Lightning just came off of a game seven win over the Maple Leafs in round one, which should be able to propel their momentum into this series. The Panthers beat out the Capitals in six games, which was honestly two more than most people expected. Who's going to get the ball rolling early on in this series? It’s time to continue our NHL odds series with a Lightning-Panthers prediction and pick.
Here are the Lightning-Panthers NHL Odds, Courtesy of FanDuel
NHL Odds: Lightning-Panthers Odds
Tampa Bay Lightning: +1.5 (-178) (+132 ML)
Florida Panthers: -1.5 (+146) (-160 ML)
Over: 7 (+114)
Under: 7 (-140)
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Why The Lightning Can Cover The Spread/Win
The Tampa Bay Lightning will look to keep their momentum flowing tonight as they won two straight games to knock off the Maple Leafs in the first round. Moving into the second round, the Bolts will be short one of their star forwards, Brayden Point. Of course, everyone would like to see him play, but the Bolts are such a deep team that they can still win without him, as they've shown so in the regular season. Superstar goaltender Andrei Vasilevskiy will obviously be making the start tonight as he started to step up his game a bit. Through the first seven games, Vasilevskiy is sporting a .897 save percentage while allowing 3.04 goals against per game. Not his best effort, but in the playoffs, stats don't matter as much as wins do.
Why The Panthers Can Cover The Spread/Win
The Florida Panthers had a little bit of a scare in the first round after losing to the Capitals in the first game. From then on, it was a back and forth series before the Cats won three straight and finally finished off the Caps in six total games. The Caps definitely exposed some flaws in the Panthers' game throughout that series as their defense and goaltending were a little shaky. Their defense has been mediocre all season (ranked 17th in the league during the season), and will definitely need to improve it if they want any chance at beating the Lightning in this series. Goaltender Sergei Bobrovsky wasn't bad in the first round, putting up a .906 save percentage so far, but could've been better. As long as the Panthers can find greasy goals and defend the penalty kill, they're very capable of getting win number one at home tonight.
Final Lightning-Panthers Prediction & Pick
The classic hockey battle of Florida, who would've thought? Both of these teams played each other four times in the regular season and it split 2-2. These teams are both very good, but I'd be lying if I said I wasn't ready to take the Lightning. The Capitals, of all teams in the playoffs, showed the cracks in the Panthers' play, and teams are definitely going to pick up on them. The Presidents' Trophy is also a “curse” so the Panthers will have that stigma against them as well.
I'll be honest, I like the Lightning win not just this game, but the entire series. It'll be a close one, maybe the Lightning take it in six or seven games, but I think it starts with a win on the road tonight to set the tone for the series (not to mention the fantastic odds that the Bolts are going to get all series long).
Final Lightning-Panthers Prediction and Pick: Lightning ML (+132)
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