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Tampa Bay Lightning vs. Boston Bruins – 8/31/20 NHL Pick, Odds, and Prediction

Boston Bruins at Tampa Bay Lightning 8/31/20: NHL Hockey free preview, analysis, prediction, odds and pick against the spread.
2020-08-31 19:00:00 EDT

The Boston Bruins and Tampa Bay Lightning meet Saturday in game five of the NHL East Second Round at the Scotiabank Arena.            

The Boston Bruins need a victory here to save their season and force a game six on Wednesday. The Boston Bruins are averaging 2.25 goals per game and are scoring on 22 percent of their power play opportunities. Brad Marchand leads Boston with seven goals, David Krejci has seven assists and Patrice Bergeron has 42 shots on goal. Defensively, the Boston Bruins are allowing three goals per game and are killing 81.1 percent of their opponents power plays. Jaroslav Halak has allowed 22 goals on 221 shots faced and Tuukka Rask has allowed 11 goals on 114 shots. Dan Vladar has given up three goals on 15 shots.

The Tampa Bay Lightning have a chance to close out this series and advance to the next playoff series. The Tampa Bay Lightning are averaging three goals per game and are scoring on 19.4 percent of their power play opportunities. Brayden Point leads Tampa Bay with six goals, Nikita Kucherov has 12 assists and Victor Hedman has 42 shots on goal. Defensively, the Tampa Bay Lightning are allowing 2.33 goals per game and are killing 81.8 percent of their opponents power plays. Andrei Vasilevskiy has given up 27 goals on 371 shots faced.

The Bruins are 9-2 in their last 11 games playing on 1 days rest and 6-2 in their last 8 playoff games as an underdog. The Lightning are 4-1 in their last 5 playoff games as a favorite, 23-8 in their last 31 Monday games and 36-15 in their last 51 overall. The under is 12-5 in Bruins last 17 overall. The under is 8-3-2 in Lightning last 13 overall. The Bruins are 2-6 in the last 8 meetings in Tampa Bay and 3-14 in the last 17 meetings.

The Tampa Bay Lightning appear to have taken full control of this series with three straight victories, and they’ve made life difficult for the Bruins with their defense. The Lightning have also won eight of the last 10 meetings against the Bruins and four of those victories were decided by two or more goals. The Boston Bruins are a prideful bunch and they did outshoot the Lightning in game four despite the loss, so they’re not going to be easy to close out. Still, the Lightning have had the Bruins number over the years and this series has been no different. I’ll lay the cheap price again with Tampa Bay.

Randy Chambers's Free Pick: Tampa Bay Lightning -120

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Randy Chambers

Randy has covered sports betting since 2014 and writes about everything from NFL to WNBA. Follow Randy Chambers on Twitter.

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