Tampa Bay Lightning vs. Florida Panthers NHL Picks, Odds, Predictions 5/24/2021
Tampa Bay Lightning (39-17-4) vs. Florida Panthers (38-17-5)
May 24, 2021 8:00 pm EDT
The Line: Florida Panthers +103 / Tampa Bay Lightning -127; Over/Under: +6
(Get latest betting odds)
The Tampa Bay Lightning and Florida Panthers meet Monday in game five of the NHL First Round Playoffs at the BB&T Center.
The Tampa Bay Lightning look to end this series with a victory and advance to the next round. The Tampa Bay Lightning are averaging 4.75 goals per game and are scoring on 46.7 percent of their power play opportunities. Brayden Point leads Tampa Bay with three goals, Victor Hedman has seven assists and Anthony Cirelli has 12 shots on goal. Defensively, the Tampa Bay Lightning are allowing 3.25 goals per game and are killing 66.7 percent of their opponents power plays. Andrei Vasilevskiy has given up 13 goals on 160 shots faced.
The Florida Panthers need a win here to save their season and force a game six on Wednesday. The Florida Panthers are averaging 3.25 goals per game and are scoring on 33.3 percent of their power play opportunities. Jonathan Huberdeau leads Florida with two goals, Aleksander Barkov has four assists and Carter Verhaeghe has 14 shots on goal. Defensively, the Florida Panthers are allowing 4.75 goals per game and are killing 53.3 percent of their opponents power plays. Chris Driedger has given up eight goals on 62 shots faced and Sergei Bobrovsky has given up 10 goals on 63 shots.
The Lightning are 77-35 in their last 112 games as a favorite and 83-38 in their last 121 overall. The Panthers are 11-3 in their last 14 home games and 7-3 in their last 10 overall. The over is 5-2-1 in Lightning last 8 overall. The over is 11-3-2 in Panthers last 16 overall. The Lightning are 15-7 in the last 22 meetings. The favorite is 20-6 in the last 26 meetings.
The Tampa Bay Lightning seem to be getting better each time they take the ice and they’re coming off an absolute dominant performance. The Lightning are dealing with injuries to Nikita Kucherov or Mikhail Sergachev and their status for this contest is still up n the air, but I’m not sure it matters at this point. Chris Driedger and Sergei Bobrovsky have been so bad in net for the Panthers that Florida is a tough team to get behind, even at home in a must-win game. I have no confidence in the Panthers goalies right now and it’s to the point I’d rather give 20-year-old Spencer Knight a shot. Because of that, give me the Lightning to close out this series.
