The Tampa Bay Lightning and the New York Rangers will both be trying to pick up a win on Friday when they battle at Madison Square Garden.
Tampa Bay at NY Rangers
When: 8:00 PM ET, Friday, May 29, 2015
Where: Madison Square Garden, New York, New York
TV: 8 p.m. ET, NBCSN, CBC, TVA
PREDICTION: Rangers 3, Lightning 1
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Oddsmakers currently have the Rangers listed as 151-moneyline favorites versus the Lightning, while the game’s total is sitting at 5.
New York was a 7-3 winner in its last match on the road against the Lightning. They won as +120 underdogs, while the total score of 10 made winners of OVER bettors.
Tampa Bay did manage to win Games 6 and 7 in its first-round matchup with Detroit, but it needs to find a way to get the “Triplets” line of Ondrej Palat, Tyler Johnson and Nikita Kucherov going. Although Kucherov scored twice in Game 6 on a pair of assists by Johnson, the unit has produced six points in the last three contests after dominating the first half of the series by combining for eight goals and eight assists in the first three games. A flu bug that had been affecting the Lightning seems to have subsided, but they need a better outing from Ben Bishop, who allowed a goal on the first shot he faced in Game 6 and eventually was pulled after surrendering five tallies for the third time in four starts.
Team record: 61-32-8
The total has gone OVER in 4 of Tampa Bay’s last 5 games
Tampa Bay is 6-2 SU in its last 8 games on the road
The total has gone UNDER in 11 of Tampa Bay’s last 16 games on the road
Tampa Bay is 7-3 SU in its last 10 games when playing NY Rangers
Brassard had scored just one goal in his previous eight games before notching his first career hat trick and becoming the third player in franchise history to collect five points in a playoff contest. Rick Nash, a 42-goal scorer during the regular season who drew a ton of criticism after tallying only twice in the first 15 games of the postseason, has come alive with three goals and four assists over the last three contests. Still, the fortunes of the Presidents’ Trophy winners likely will hinge on the performance of Lundqvist, who set the tempo in Game 6 with 15 first-period saves and has been victorious in his last six Game 7s while posting a .973 save percentage and microscopic 0.81 goals-against average.
Team record: 64-28-8
NY Rangers is 17-8 SU in its last 25 games
The total has gone OVER in 4 of NY Rangers’s last 5 games
NY Rangers is 4-2 SU in its last 6 games at home
The total has gone UNDER in 4 of NY Rangers’s last 5 games at home
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