The Arizona Coyotes and the Tampa Bay Lightning meet in NHL action from the Amalie Arena on Saturday afternoon.
The Arizona Coyotes will try to build on a 6-3 win over Toronto in their last game. Clayton Keller leads the Coyotes with 33 points including 13 goals and a team-high 20 assists while Shayne Gostisbehere has 26 points with 9 goals and 17 assists. JJ Moser has 17 points with 12 assists while Matias Maccelli has 22 points with 19 assists and Lawson Crouse has a team-high 14 goals on the year. Karel Vejmelka has gone 11-9-4 with a 3.08 GAA and a .910 save percentage while Connor Ingram has gone 2-7-1 with a 4.24 GAA and an .878 save percentage between the pipes for Arizona this season.
The Tampa Bay Lightning will be out to build on a 2-1 shootout win over the Rangers in their last outing. Nikita Kucherov leads the Lightning with 51 points including a team-high 38 assists while Steven Stamkos has 39 points with 16 goals on the year. Brayden Point also has 35 points with a team-high 20 goals and 15 assists while Mikhail Sergachev has 28 points with 5 goals and 23 assists this season. Andrei Vasilevskiy is 15-9-1 with a 2.40 GAA and a .922 save percentage while Brian Elliott is 7-2 with a 3.31 GAA and an .894 save percentage so far between the pipes for Tampa Bay.
Arizona is 5-21 in their last 26 Saturday games and 1-7 in their last 8 games when their opponent scores 2 goals or less in their previous game while the over is 7-1 in their last 8 games against a team with a winning record. Tampa Bay is 7-0 in their last 7 Saturday games and 4-0 in their last 4 games against the Central division while the under is 3-0-1 in their last 4 games following a win.
I get the case to be made for either side here, with Tampa Bay the deserved favorite and a tempting amount of plus money with Arizona on the take back. However, I’m looking at the over because however it ends up going, I see a whole pile of goals coming. Whether it’s a one-sided Tampa Bay win or Arizona making a game of it, I think we have at least 7 goals here. Give me the over.