Canucks vs Lightning Pick – NHL Predictions & Odds 1/18/23

The Tampa Bay Lightning and Vancouver Canucks meet Wednesday in NHL action at the Rogers Arena. Let’s preview this game and give out a pick and prediction.

The Tampa Bay Lightning Preview

The Tampa Bay Lightning are averaging 3.6 goals per game and are scoring on 29.2 percent of their power play opportunities. Brayden Point leads Tampa Bay with 25 goals, Nikita Kucherov has 45 assists and Steven Stamkos has 145 shots on goal. Defensively, the Tampa Bay Lightning are allowing 2.9 goals per game and are killing 81.3 percent of their opponent’s power plays. Andrei Vasilevskiy has given up 76 goals on 930 shots faced, and Brian Elliott has allowed 35 goals on 341 shots.

The Vancouver Canucks Preview

The Vancouver Canucks are averaging 3.4 goals per game and are scoring on 24 percent of their power play opportunities. Bo Horvat leads Vancouver with 30 goals, Quinn Hughes has 35 assists and Elias Pettersson has 141 shots on goal. Defensively, the Vancouver Canucks are allowing 4 goals per game and are killing 66.1 percent of their opponent’s power plays. Thatcher Demko has given up 56 goals on 479 shots faced, and Spencer Martin has allowed 85 goals on 711 shots.

Trends

The Lightning are 6-1 in their last 7 games following a win and 21-7 in their last 28 overall. The Canucks are 9-4 in their last 13 Wednesday games and 1-4 in their last 5 overall. The under is 2-0-3 in Lightning last 5 road games. The over is 33-16-6 in Canucks last 55 overall. The Lightning are 7-1 in the last 8 meetings in Vancouver and 5-0 in the last 5 meetings. The favorite is 5-0 in the last 5 meetings.

Randy’s Free Pick

The Tampa Bay Lightning are back in one of those grooves where the wins don’t stop coming, and they’re running into a Canucks team they’ve beaten up over the years. The Vancouver Canucks lack of defense makes them hard to trust against quality sides, and they’re not finishing games lately. Give me Tampa and the PL for max betting value.