It all comes down to this, one game to determine who goes home, and who plays on for a chance at to hoist Lord Stanley. This has been an exciting series with four of the six games being decided by only one goal. How will this one end up? We have to wait and see, but there might be a betting angle we can take for Game 7.
So far, the home team has gone 4-2, with each team stealing a win away on the road. Home ice is important, and the Lightning are an impressive 21-7-0 at home this regular season. The Lightning have already lost three times on home ice in the playoffs. On the other side, the Islanders are not great as a road team, just 11-13-4. However, they have responded in the playoffs, winning five of nine on the road. I still think that even with these numbers, you have to lean towards Tampa having the edge. Right now you’re paying -175 to be on Tampa’s moneyline.
As far as goal totals, last time the game was played in Tampa, they won 8-0, absolutely trouncing the Islanders. The line sits at 5 goals, pretty common for the playoffs so far. Based on previous games, we have two that went over five, two under, and two pushes. The question is mostly if the teams will play tight or if they will both be aggressive looking to take command early. So far, the over has the higher juice.
One big question is will Nikita Kucherov go in Game 7? I’d expect him to, but you probably should be at least a little concerned that the effectiveness might not be there. So, we turn to the leading goal scorer for the Lightning, Brayden Point. He has a point or more in every game and has a goal in the last two. I’m going to play him to score a goal at +106. I also will sprinkle a little bit on him scoring the first goal of the game at +700. It is a shot in the dark, but there is no reason it couldn’t be him.
One other longshot play I’ll try out is the game final score will be 4-2 Lightning. This pays out at 19:1 (+1900). Why do I think this? I think both teams will certainly score, I think both teams score a couple of times and I think in the third period, the Lightning are leading and get an empty net goal to seal the deal. There isn’t anything scientific about it. Just an opinion and I like the value.
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- David Troy
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