Tampa Bay Lightning: Bolts to Bounce Back

Tampa Bay Lightning: Bolts to Bounce Back

Tampa Bay Lightning off a Loss

The Tampa Bay Lightning head into Detroit off of a 6-5 OT loss to the Sabres on Thursday night. Tampa Bay has been quite profitable off a loss this season, going 13-7 straight up and against the puck line in such contests, outscoring their opponents 96-43 in those games. This should come as no surprise, considering the Bolts were 19-12 off a loss a season ago.

Motivation can be a key factor in handicapping a contest, as it can be difficult to get up for all 82 games. This can be especially important when in a situation similar to the Lightning who already know they will all too likely be playing the Leafs in the first round of the Stanley Cup Playoffs.

Red-hot-Wings

With a 4-1 win over the New York Rangers on Thursday, the Red Wings moved to 7-3 over their last 10 games and currently find themselves in the second wildcard position in the eastern conference. Detroit has only given up more than 2 goals three times over that span two of which were against the Edmonton Oilers.

The Red Wings are 2-0 against the Lightning this season. Looking back at their prior meetings, the Wings won 4-2 in Tampa, scoring a pair of empty netters in the contest. Red Wings goaltender Villie Husso had a season-high 46 shots against and had a season-high 44 saves. The other contest, a 7-4 for Detroit, was the second-leg of a back-to-back for the Lightning playing in Toronto the day prior. The Bolts had back-up netminder Brian Elliot in net.

The Side

This is a good get-right spot for the Lightning against a Detroit team that is due for a bit of regression. Detroit’s defense has been middle of the pack all year should come down from this very strong run allowing just 2.3 goals against over their last 10 games.

The prolific Tampa Bay Lightning offense that leads the league in high-danger scoring chances and are top 10 in just about every statistical category should find success against the Red Wings. With both teams on equal rest and the likely goaltenders to be Ville Husso and Andrei Vasilevskiy, lay the juice and take the Bolts on the moneyline at -150. I expect this line to close much closer to -170.

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