Tampa Bay Lightning vs. Vancouver Canucks Prediction, NHL Odds
Tampa Bay is one the hottest teams in the NHL and has dominated the Canucks in matchups over the past few seasons. This makes the Lightning a -182 favourite to win on the NHL odds with the total set at 6.5.
Lightning vs. Canucks NHL Betting Odds
This will be the final meeting of the season between these squads after the Lightning squeaked out a 5-4 win on home ice versus the Canucks just a week ago. Alex Killorn, Brandon Hagel and Nikita Kucherov all notched a goal and an assist, while Steven Stamkos scored the game-winner as well assist. On the Canucks side, both J.T. Miller and Elias Petterson picked up two points and Quinn Hughes had three.
That matchup was the fourth of their past five to hit the Over, a stretch where Tampa has beaten Vancouver every time. The Canucks have not beaten the Lightning since November 2018.
Coming in riding a four-game win streak where the Lightning have covered in three of those games, Tampa is now only four points back of the second place in the division. They have a 20-22 record ATS this season and are only 7-12 on the road. In their past 10 games, seven have played the Under putting them to 19-17-6 on the Over/Under overall.
The Canucks have covered the spread in each of their past four games, despite only pulling out one win, improving their record ATS to 22-21 on the year. When Vancouver does win a game, it’s simply because they outgunned their opponent. They are top 10 in league scoring (3.4 per game), but are also second in goals against (3.9 per game), helping them to a 25-14-4 record on the Over/Under.
Tampa Bay Lightning
After a 4-1 win over the Seattle Kraken on Monday night, the Lightning has increased their win streak to four games and pushed their record to 8-2 in the last 10.
The Bolts secondary scoring stepped up big against the Kraken, getting goals from Pierre-Edouard Bellemare (2) and Nicholas Paul (16) to put them up 2-0 going into the third. Andrei Vasilevskiy had his shutout ruined midway through the third, opening the door for his team to pot two empty net goals at the other end, one from Brandon Hagel and one from Victor Hedman for a 4-1 final.
Tampa will be playing back-to-back games on the road, Wednesday in Vancouver and Thursday in Edmonton and after Vasilevskiy started the team’s past five games, Brian Elliot (8-3, 3.17 GAA, .897 save%) will likely start versus the Canucks.
Captain Steven Stamkos is chasing 500 goals after scoring number 499 against Vancouver earlier this week. The 32-year-old is second on the team in scoring with 49 points (18G 31A) in just 42 games, looking to put up 100 points for the second time in his career.
Vancouver Canucks
The Canucks snapped a four-game skid on Sunday night, with a 4-3 come-from-behind shootout win over the Carolina Hurricanes. Vancouver found themselves down 2-0 after the first period, before Ethan Bear (3) would get them on the board just before the end of the second. J.T. Miller (17) would score on a rebound to tie the game in the third, but Brock Boeser (9) would step up and tie the game again with just 17 seconds left to send the game to overtime. Andrei Kuzmenko and Elias Pettersson would score in the shoutout to seal the deal and Colin Delia would stop 29 of 32 shots for his fourth win of the campaign.
Defenceman Quinn Hughes added another assist in the game to extend his point streak to four, a stretch where he picked up seven points (2G 5A). The 23-year-old is on pace for the highest point production of his career so far with 38 points (3G 35A) in 39 games, in his five seasons with the Canucks he has yet to post a point per game.
With rumours surrounding everyone on the team, including their head coach, the team must get their act together to get a respectable return on their assets. They are 12 points out of a playoff spot after the halfway point of the season.
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