NHL Showdown: Vegas Golden Knights vs Tampa Bay Lightning
Knights Look to Rebound After Being Embarrassed by Canes
The Vegas Golden Knights (21-7-5, 47 points) continue their road trip with a trip down South to take on the Tampa Bay Lightning (15-13-5, 35 points) in hopes of erasing a 6-3 loss to the Carolina Hurricanes from their memory. Despite the loss, Vegas is 7-2-1 in their last 10 games, holding on to a 1-point lead in the Pacific Division. Tampa Bay has struggled for most of the season, losing seven of their last 11, falling nine points behind the Boston Bruins in the Atlantic Division. Hockey betting lines show the Lightning a -120 home favorite with a total of 6.5 (under -115). Puck drop is scheduled for 7:05 p.m. ET / 4:05 p.m. PT and can be seen on the Sunshine and Scribbs Network. Let’s dive into our Lightning vs Knights statistical analysis starting with Vegas.
Lightning vs Knights 
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Vegas Shows Off Goaltending Depth In Loss
Logan Thompson was lit up for six goals on just 28 shots against the Carolina Hurricanes, not a great stat line for a team that’s dealing with an injury to Adin Hill. Through it all, they did show off their organizational depth when Jiri Patera came in to handle the last 15-plus minutes of the game.
Patera swept aside all 10 shots he faced giving Bruce Cassidy confidence that the Knights’ depth will be their strength come the postseason. From a betting perspective, the Golden Knights are once again getting the better of the NHL odds makers with 12.95 units won in 2023. Only the Boston Bruins (+16.54 units) and New York Rangers (+14.63 units) have been more of a friend to the public. We continue our Lightning vs Knights statistical analysis by focusing on Tampa.
Lightning Find Their Offense
There’s no question that the talent is there, but that hasn’t equated to goals or victories for the Tampa Bay Lightning. The Bolts are ninth in the league in scoring (3.36 GPG) but for an organization that’s used to occupying a top spot among most offensive categories, it’s not a familiar spot to be in. Since 2017, this is a team that has led the league in scoring three times. For bettors, other teams have been more disappointing but Tampa has to be close to that group after starting the season with -4.69 units lost. Perhaps we should have seen it coming because last year the Lightning were -10.83 units, their first losing season in five seasons. We conclude our Lightning vs Knights statistical analysis with our official selection.
Vegas, Another East Coast Rough Patch
No matter how good the Golden Knights are, we almost always see them struggle with an East Coast trip at some point. We think this is going to be another time when we should take a break from betting on Vegas. In an earlier road trip to the Northeast, the Knights went 1-3 and in the win, they needed six goals to beat the Montreal Canadiens, 6-5. In their Stanley Cup run last season, VGK was swept by the two New York Teams and the New Jersey Devils in a matter of four days.
Normally we wouldn’t worry about the Vegas Goaltending issues but against the Lightning who will likely start Andrei Vasilevskiy, the edge is in favor of Tampa. As a favorite Tampa has dominated, with a record of 105-60 (.636) over the last three seasons, but has struggled in that role this year with an 8-9 mark through 17 games.
Jon Cooper’s team is 26-12 against the Pacific Division in their last 28 games and 16-5 at home. Most home NHL odds for Tampa won’t be this low so we’re going to take advantage of the -120 and grab the Lighting as our official selection. We wish you all the best with your NHL picks and parlays tonight.
