Tampa Bay Lightning vs. Montreal Canadiens Game 4 Prediction, Playoff Odds
One win. After a 6-3 victory on Friday at the Bell Centre, that’s all Tampa needs to repeat as Stanley Cup Champions and take another step closer to becoming the latest modern day dynasty. On the other side of the ice is a Canadiens team that is looking to do what only the 1942 Toronto Maple Leafs have done and comeback to win the Stanley Cup after trailing 0-3 in the Finals. Both teams are looking to make history as Game 4 is set to go from the Bell Centre in Montreal on Monday night.
The Lightning are -156 road favourites to win on the NHL odds with a total of 5.0.
Lightning vs. Canadiens Stanley Cup Odds
If recent history between these teams is any indication, the Bolts will lift the Cup on Monday. Tampa has won seven straight games against the Habs and five of their last six in Montreal. The exact favoured series score is a Lightning sweep at -156. The total has gone Over in two of three games in this series (Game 1 and Game 3).
The Canadiens need to be perfect from here on out or their surprise run to the Finals is done. Montreal has won five of their last seven home games, but they’ve clearly struggled against Tampa at the Bell Centre (and in Tampa). The total has gone Under in 10 of the last 15 games between these teams, but as noted above, only Game 2 of this series has gone Under. The Habs are +2000 underdogs to complete the series comeback.
Teams that lead 3-0 in a best-of-7 Cup Final are 26-1 (.963) winning the series.
Tampa Bay Lightning
The Bolts are one win away from their second straight Stanley Cup, thanks to goals from Jan Rutta, Victor Hedman, Nikita Kucherov, Tyler Johnson (two goals) and Blake Coleman (empty net). Andrei Vasilevskiy made 32 saves. Rutta became the first player in NHL history to score a regular season or playoff goal in July and Hedman became the first player to score in every month. Vasilevskiy has now won 11 straight games against Montreal, dating to back to February 2018.
The most glaring difference in this series is the production Tampa is getting from the back-end. The Bolts have nine points (3G, 6A) from defencemen in the Cup Final. In Tampa’s last nine games, their defencemen have combined to score 22 points (6G, 16A). The fact that the defence is contributing valuable offence without sacrificing defensive production has been the biggest factor in this series.
There’s a lot of history on the line for Tampa in Game 4. If they can get one more win, they’ll become just the second team to win back-to-back championships in the salary cap era, after Pittsburgh did it in 2016 and 2017. If they can do it on Monday, they’ll also be the first team to sweep the Cup Final since Detroit did it against Washington in 1998.
Montreal Canadiens
It’s do-or-die for Montreal at this point and with nothing to lose, expect them to come out aggressively from the start on Monday. Goals from Phillip Danault, Nick Suzuki and Corey Perry weren’t enough to get the job done in Game 3. Carey Price made 24 saves in the loss and has looked like a completely different goalie from the first three rounds. Price has allowed 13 goals on 79 shots in the series, posting an .835 save percentage. Montreal has been outscored 14-5 in the first three games.
It’s been a weird postseason for the Habs, who only just got coach Dominique Ducharme back behind the bench for Game 3. Ducharme spent 14 days in isolation and missed six games after a positive COVID test in the semifinals against Vegas. Montreal was 3-3 under assistant coach Luke Richardson, during Ducharme’s absence. What’s clear, is Montreal simply hasn’t been good enough. Short of Price stopping every shot he faces, things don’t look good for Les Habitants.
TB
MON