Devils vs Lightning Pick – NHL Predictions & Odds 3/16/23

The Tampa Bay Lightning and New Jersey Devils meet Thursday in NHL action at the Prudential Center. Let’s preview this game and give out a pick and prediction.

The Tampa Bay Lightning are averaging 3.4 goals per game and are scoring on 25.6 percent of their power play opportunities. Brayden Point leads Tampa Bay with 43 goals, Nikita Kucherov has 69 assists and Steven Stamkos has 208 shots on goal. Defensively, the Tampa Bay Lightning are allowing 3 goals per game and are killing 79.7 percent of their opponent’s power plays. Andrei Vasilevskiy has given up 136 goals on 1,587 shots faced, and Brian Elliott has allowed 54 goals on 521 shots.

The New Jersey Devils are averaging 3.5 goals per game and are scoring on 21.6 percent of their power play opportunities. Jack Hughes leads New Jersey with 37 goals, Dougie Hamilton has 45 assists and Nico Hischier has 211 shots on goal. Defensively, the New Jersey Devils are allowing 2.6 goals per game and are killing 82 percent of their opponent’s power plays. Vitek Vanecek has allowed 101 goals on 1,103 shots faced, and Mackenzie Blackwood has allowed 46 goals on 461 shots.

The Lightning are 2-5 in their last 7 road games and 3-7 in their last 10 overall. The Devils are 9-3 in their last 12 home games and 44-21 in their last 65 overall. The over is 5-2 in Lightning last 7 Thursday games. The under is 4-0 in Devils last 4 overall. The Lightning are 5-1 in the last 6 meetings in New Jersey and 9-2 in the last 11 meetings. The road team is 5-2 in the last 7 meetings. The favorite is 8-3 in the last 11 meetings.

The Tampa Bay Lightning head into this matchup ice-cold, and the road against good teams usually isn’t where you get things back on track. The New Jersey Devils have found their footing on their home ice, and hey could use a rare win over the Lightning to build confidence with the playoffs quickly approaching. I’ll lay the cheap price with the home team.