Tampa Bay Lightning vs. Pittsburgh Penguins Prediction, NHL Odds
The 2-3-1 Tampa Bay Lightning will play the second half of their first back to back tonight as they travel to Pittsburgh to battle a beat up 3-0-2 Penguins squad. Tampa has yet to win in regulation this year and their loss in Buffalo last night extended the Lightning’s losing streak to three games.
Tampa is a -144 favourite to win on the NHL odds, with a total of 6.0.
Lightning vs. Penguins NHL Betting Odds
The Bolts and Pens met on night one of the NHL season, when the Penguins beat Tampa 6-2 in the Amalie Arena. Before that, Tampa had beaten the Penguins five games in a row. About 59 per cent of bettors are siding with the underdogs in Pittsburgh for this one.
The Penguins scored three empty net goals en route to playing the over in the opening night matchup and they continued that trend going 4-1 to the over since then. The Bolts, on the other hand, are riding a four game under streak. Pittsburgh’s offence is second in league scoring, averaging 4.6 goals per game, which has 67 per cent of the betting public playing the over tonight.
Tampa Bay Lightning
Two empty net goals made it look like the Sabres ran over the Lightning last night, but in reality Tampa controlled most of the play and just could not find the back of the net in the 5-1 loss.
Alex Killorn scored in the first period, the first time the Bolts have scored in the opening frame this year.
Andrei Vasilevskiy will be back in the crease tonight after a night off yesterday. Vasi has not been up to par so far this year, rocking a 3.12 goals against average and a .893 save percentage. A bounce-back night for the perennial Vezina nominee is much overdue.
Pittsburgh Penguins
After smoking the Leafs 7-1 on Saturday night, the Penguins stay hot and improve to 3-0-2. This is without Sidney Crosby, Kris Letang, Evgeni Malkin, Jeff Carter, and the list goes on. The resilient Penguins are likely not to see any of their big names come back right away, either. Crosby is starting to participate in practice but is still some time away, while there’s no exact timetable on the rest.
Evan Rodrigues, Danton Heinen and rookie Drew O’Connor are all tied for the team lead with five points. O’Connor, a 23-year-old off-season signing, is second among rookies in both goals (3) and points (5), trailing only Detriot’s Lucas Raymond.
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