Tampa Bay Lightning at New York Islanders Betting Preview
23 June 2021
The Lightning have now won three of the last four games in this series to push the Islanders to the brink of elimination. Tampa Bay came away with an 8-0 win in Game 5 on Monday night, and they will come into New York with plenty of confidence.
New York rattled off four straight wins at one point in these playoffs, but they are starting to head in the wrong direction. The Islanders have been a great underdog story throughout the postseason, but they now have to pull off to straight upsets.
The Tampa Bay Lightning are -152 on the money line over New York in Game 6.
Lightning Light the Lamp
This was an extremely competitive series through the first five games, but Tampa Bay simply took over the matchup in Game 6, scoring eight goals. The Lightning have not been a dominant offensive team in the postseason, but there are plenty of talented goal scorers on the roster.
Brayden Point leads the Lightning with 13 goals in the postseason, but he has gotten plenty of help. Nikita Kucherov has a team-high 22 assists and 27 points, and the Lightning are starting to get production from all four lines.
Goaltender Andrei Vasilevskiy has been the biggest star in the entire NHL Playoffs, allowing just 2.05 goals per game. Another dominant performance from Vasilevskiy should have the Lightning back in the Stanley Cup Finals.
Islanders Must Slow it Down
New York allowed just 2.2 goals per game this season while scoring just 2.7 per game. This is a team that wants to slow down the pace on both ends of the ice, and that just simply wasn’t the case in the Game 5 loss.
Semyon Varlamov is the top goaltender for the Islanders, and New York is going to need him to set the tone in Game 6. The defense didn’t do a great job of giving this team much help, but New York has to slow down the Tampa Bay attack.
Brock Nelson and Kyle Palmieri lead the Islanders with seven goals in the postseason, and both players will need to step up. Scoring goals has been a challenge for New York, but a boost from the home crowd could help generate offense.
Lightning Finish Off Islanders
New York looked like it was going to give Tampa Bay a challenge in this series, but things changed quickly in Game. Tampa Bay took complete control of that matchup in the first period, and it’s hard to see the Islanders finding a way to recover.
Playing at home should give New York a boost to begin the game, but it’s not going to matter by the third period. Tampa Bay just has too much momentum, and the Lightning will put together another dominating performance in Game 6.
Bet the Tampa Bay Lightning -3.5 as they win Game 6 by at least four goals to advance to the Stanley Cup Finals.
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