NHL Picks

New York Islanders vs. Tampa Bay Lightning NHL Picks, Odds, Predictions 6/21/2021

New York Islanders (42-22-8) vs. Tampa Bay Lightning (46-20-5)
June 21, 2021 8:00 pm EDT
The Line: Tampa Bay Lightning -185 / New York Islanders +165; Over/Under: 5.5
(Get latest betting odds)

The New York Islanders and the Tampa Bay Lightning meet in game five of their best of seven NHL Stanley Cup semi-final series on Monday night.

The New York Islanders will look to take a 3-2 series lead going back home after evening the series up at two wins apiece and making it a best of three after a 3-2 win over the Lightning last time out.

The game was scoreless through the opening 20 minutes and a fair portion of the second period before Josh Bailey gave the Isles the lead with the game’s opening goal 5:30 into the game. Mathew Barzal doubled New York’s lead with just over six minutes to go in the middle frame and Matt Martin pushed the lead to 3-0 with just over two minutes to play in the second. Brayden Point got the Bols on the board just under four minutes into the 3rd period and Tyler Johnson cut the deficit to 3-2 just 2:58 later, but that ended up being as close as Tampa Bay would get as the Islanders rode that 3-2 lead over the remaining 13 minutes to tie the series at two and go back to Tampa Bay on level terms in the series.

Semyon Varlamov got the win between the pipes for New York after stopping 28 of 30 shots faced in the winning effort while Andrei Vasilevskiy ended up with the loss in goal for Tampa Bay after allowing 3 goals on 30 shots faced in the losing effort.

New York is 5-2 in their last 7 games overall and 8-3 in their last 11 Monday games while the over is 5-1-1 in their last 7 games overall. Tampa Bay is 46-19 in their last 65 home games and 35-17 in their last 52 Monday games while the under is 8-2-1 in their last 11 games against a team with a winning record. The favorite is 7-3 in the last 10 mmeetings between these two teams.

I get why Tampa Bay would be favored at home, and with a more reasonable price, I’d give the Lightning a stronger look here. However, the Islanders have shown that they can win on the road and Barry Trotz has the Islanders playing playoff-style, gritty hockey to being with and it’s helped the Islanders in the long-run as this team is battle-tested and nothing scares them. I think the Islanders could steal game five and go back home trying to close out the series, and at this price, it’s more than worth the shot.

Chris Ruffolo's Free Pick: New York Islanders +165

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Chris Ruffolo

Chris joined the Sports Chat Place team in August 2016 and has a proven system that combines multiple analytical and situational statistics and trends to give out thousands of winning picks over the last three years with winning records across all of the top leagues, Follow Chris Ruffolo on Twitter @ruffthepickdawg

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