Carolina Hurricanes (22-7-3) vs Tampa Bay Lightning (24-7-2)
Game Info: Saturday, March 27, 2021 at 7:00 pm (PNC Arena)
Betting Odds: Carolina Hurricanes +100 / Tampa Bay Lightning -120 --- Over/Under: 5.5 Click Here for the Latest Odds
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The Tampa Bay Lightning and the Carolina Hurricanes meet in NHL action from the PNC Arena on Saturday night.
The Tampa Bay Lightning will look to bounce back from a 4-3 loss to Dallas last time out. Victor Hedman leads the Lightning in scoring with 34 points including a team-high 28 assists while Steven Stamkos has 31 points with a team-high 16 goals and 15 assists and Ondrej Palat has 31 points as well with 19 assists. Brayden Point has 30 points with 13 goals and 17 assists while Yanni Gourde and Alex Killorn each have 23 points with double-digit goals and assists and Mikhail Sergachev’s got 20 assists as part of his 22 points this season. As a team, Tampa Bay is averaging 3.6 goals on 30.3 shots per game with a 28.7% success rate on the power play while allowing 2.3 goals on 27.9 shots with an 82.6% kill rate on the PK this season.
The Carolina Hurricanes will be out to build on their 4-3 win over Columbus last time out. Sebastian Aho leads Carolina in scoring with 31 points including 14 goals and 17 assists while Dougie Hamilton has 26 points with a team-high 23 assists and 100 shots on goal this season. Vincent Trocheck, Martin Necas and Andrei Svechnikov each have 24 points with double-digit assists with Trocheck logging 13 goals. Jordan Staal has 23 points with 10 goals and 13 assists and Nino Niederreiter has a team-high 14 goals as well. As a team, Carolina is averaging 3.3 goals on 31.6 shots with a 30% success rate on the power play while allowing 2.5 goals on 29 shots with an 82.4% success rate on the penalty kill this season.
Tampa Bay is 39-14 in their last 53 games overall and 37-15 in their lat 52 games against a team with a winning record while the over is 6-1 in their last 7 games as a road favorite. Carolina is 10-3 in their last 13 games overall and 10-4 in their last 14 home games while the under is 6-0-1 in their last 7 games as an underdog. Tampa Bay is 23-8 in the last 31 meetings between these two teams and 15-7 in the last 22 meetings between the two teams in Carolina.
I get why the ‘Canes as a home dog at even money are tempting, but the other side is just as tempting as the Lightning continue to be the best team in the NHL by a fair margin and realistically, you’re not going to get them at this kind of price tag very often which is value in itself. I’ll take my chances with the Lightning who have also won three straight against the Hurricanes this season.
Chris’s Pick Tampa Bay -120
AUTHOR: Chris Ruffolo
Follow Chris Ruffolo on Twitter @ruffthepickdawg