Predators vs Lightning Betting Lines: NHL Betting Preview for Thursday Night
Predators Head South to Sunny Florida for Battle With Lightning
Thursday Night’s Short NHL Lineup
Gets rolling with a southern showdown as the Nashville Predators take on the Tampa Bay Lightning. Let’s analyze this battle on the ice for Thursday night as we take a look at the Predators vs Lightning Betting Lines in this betting preview for Thursday night’s contest.
Game Information
Game: Nashville Predators (12-9-2, 26 points) at Tampa Bay Lightning (15-9-1, 31 points)
Location: Amalie Arena, Tampa Bay, Florida
Day/Time: Thursday, December 8th, 7:00 pm ET/4:00 pm PT
Streaming: Live Stream Sport
Predators Scratching and Surviving
The Nashville Predators are on a nice run right now, winning nine of their last eleven games and hanging around in fifth place of a tough Central Division.
The Predators have had six days off since their last game, a 4-1 victory over the New York Islanders out in Belmont. Forwards Matt Duchene, Filip Forsberg and defenseman Roman Josi all scored a goal and an assist while backup goaltender Kevin Lankinen had his best performance of this NHL season, making 48 saves on 49 shots faced – to earn his third victory of the season.
Nashville’s power-play unit has been strong of late, scoring at least one goal in five of the last eight contests. Eight different players have at least one power-play goal for the Predators thus far, with the aforementioned Josi leading the way with four goals on the man-advantage.
Depth Charge for the Lightning?
The Tampa Bay Lightning are slowly but surely getting back to their winning ways after a slower start to the season than usual. This team has played a lot of meaningful hockey over the last four years, and those back-to-back Stanley Cup runs and three straight Prince of Wales Championships as the winner of the Eastern Conference can take a toll on even the most talented of teams over time.
Tampa Bay has won eight of their last eleven games, including seven of their last eleven home games, which is where they will be on Thursday night to continue the third game of a seven-game homestand at Amalie Arena on the hockey schedule.
On Tuesday night, the Lightning dropped a tough 4-2 battle to the Detroit Red Wings despite goals in the third period from forwards Steven Stamkos and Brayden Point. Goaltender Andrei Vasilevskiy made just 22 saves on 24 shots faced for his eighth defeat on the season.
While he still has a solid 2.75 goals-against average, the 28-year old Russian native has had some rough games this year, and the fatigue of logging big minutes seems to be wearing down the former Conn Smythe and Vezina Trophy winner.
Predators vs Lightning Betting Odds
Wrapping up with our Predators vs Lightning betting lines analysis, sportsbooks have the hosting Tampa Bay Lightning odds to win as large favorites against the visiting Nashville Predators on Thursday night priced in the range around -180 to -190.
This is the 23rd game this season where Tampa Bay has been favored, with the Lightning winning 14 of their first 22 games in that role. For Nashville, it’s their 12th game of the season as an underdog, with the Predators winning just four of their first eleven games when lined at plus money. Tampa Bay has dominated this series, winning 10 of the last 12 meetings overall, including four of the last five meetings at Amalie Arena.
Concluding this Predators vs Lightning Betting Preview: The total for this contest is set at 6.5 goals shaded slightly to the Under around the pick’em range between -115 to -125. Nashville has gone Under the total in six of their last nine games, with an overall record of 10-12-1. For Tampa Bay, They have gone Over the total in nine of the last 12 games at home, including four of the last five home contests against the Predators.
Check out all the updated Predators vs Lightning Betting Lines, nhl picks and parlays, lineups, future odds, stats, recent news and betting tips, right here at Point Spreads.
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