Lightning vs Panthers Betting Tips: Heated Atlantic Division Battle in South Florida

Heading Into Packed NHL Weekend

The Tampa Bay Lightning and the Florida Panthers rekindle their heated rivalry on Friday night in their first regular season meeting since the Bolts swept the Panthers out of the Eastern Conference Semifinals in 4 games last spring. Let’s analyze the Lightning vs Panthers Betting Tips in this game preview for Friday.

Weak Charge Detected with Lightning

The Tampa Bay Lighting are going through the motions to start the season, losing three of their first four contests. This is not shocking to most hockey betting lines experts, who anticipated a slow start from the three-time defending Prince of Wales trophy winners. Tampa has played a lot of high pressure, high intensity hockey in the last few seasons, and that can wear on a core of players that aren’t getting any younger.

On Tuesday night, the Lightning dropped a 3-2 decision to the Philadelphia Flyers. Despite getting a pair of power-play goals from captain Steven Stamkos early in the second period. Philly countered with a late goal from Scott Laughton in the middle frame, and tied the contest with a power-play tally from veteran defenseman James van Riemsdyk. The Flyers capped off the win with a late goal by Noah Cates, and won their third straight game at the time. Carter Hart outdueled Andrei Vasilevskiy in this game, making 36 saves on 38 shots on goal, while the 28-year old Russian made 21 saves over 24 shots faced.

Cat Scratch Payback for Panthers?

The Florida Panthers head into this contest off of a victory against the same club that the Lightning just last faced in the Philadelphia Flyers. One night after Philly picked up the 3-2 in Tampa, they went down to Sunrise and lost their first game of the season 4-3, thanks in part to a pair of goals in the first period from forward Carter Verhaeghe along with two-assist performances from Aleksander Barkov, Matthew Tkachuk and Sam Bennett. Goaltender Sergei Bobrovsky made 31 saves on 34 shots faced and recorded his second win of the season and the 19th victory of his career over his former club Philadelphia.

Lightning vs Panthers Betting Tips

Sportsbooks have the Tampa Bay Lightning as short favorites in the pick’em range against the Florida Panthers on Friday night priced in the -110 to -115 range. This is the first time in the regular season that Tampa Bay has been this short of a favorite. Florida is technically an underdog for the first time since their postseason exit in Game Four of the Eastern Conference Semifinals, when Tampa Bay completed the sweep at home in a 2-0 victory.

Sportsbooks have the Tampa Bay Lightning as short favorites in the pick’em range against the Florida Panthers on Friday night in the -110 to -115 range.

The total for this contest is set at 6.5 goals shaded heavily to the Over around the -125 to -130 range. Florida is 2-1-1 to the Over this season, with the Over 6.5 goals cashing in their last game against Philadelphia thanks to a late Flyers goal with 1.6 seconds in the third period to make 4-3 NHL score predictions.

Panthers coach Paul Maurice is utilizing a cycle-heavy offensive attack, which exerts less speed than the “Run ‘n’ Gun” style that Florida played under former coach Andrew Brunette. Tampa Bay hasn’t exactly played with the same speed offensively that many are used to seeing the Bolts dictate the pace and tempo with on a nightly basis. With a 2-2 totals record in their first four games, Tampa Bay will look to get back on track against a club where they have won seven of the last ten meetings but have gone under in eight of those ten aforementioned contests.

Check out all the updated Tampa Bay Lightning and Florida Panthers future odds, stats, recent news and betting tips, right here at Point Spreads.

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