Face-off: 1900 ET, 02/04/2022
Arena: Amalie Arena
It is no surprise to see Tampa Bay coming on strong at the business end of the season and they are expected to brush aside Montreal next.
The Lightning have rattled off four straight victories to step up their bid for a hat-trick of Stanley Cup triumphs and will be hard to stop.
We’re taking 4.1 for a home win by exactly three goals to kick off our Tampa Bay Lightning vs Montreal Canadiens predictions.
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Tampa Bay Lightning Odds
Tampa Bay have faced stiff competition in the Atlantic Division this term, still trailing leaders Florida by six points and only just heading Toronto and Boston.
However, they are clearly coming good at the right time and wore down Chicago for a 5-2 success at Amalie Arena last night.
The Blackhawks battled hard to be level at 2-2 after the first period but Ross Colton’s double in the second put the Lightning in control.
Head coach Jon Cooper said: “There was a lot to like about our game, other than the amount of penalties we took in the first half of the game.
“But we were on pucks. We had to keep our discipline and, for the most part, I thought we did.”
A new line of Colton, Nick Paul and Brandon Hagel appears to be pulling together after the latter pair were brought in via trade deals.
Tampa Bay are past masters at outlasting opponents and Montreal’s third-period record is poor, trailing 53-84 in that section.
Looking at the NHL odds, we like 2.15 for the Lightning to score more than once in the final 20 minutes.
Montreal Canadiens Odds
Montreal’s brave rally under Martin St Louis hasn’t quite been maintained on a current tough road trip.
The Canadiens went down 7-4 at Florida on Tuesday and were then crushed 4-0 by Carolina on Thursday.
Building for the future is now the main aim and 21-year-old defenseman Jordan Harris is set to make his NHL debut here.
He said: “I’m very excited. It’s a dream come true. It’s all just going by quickly, but I’ll try to take it all in.
“Talk about getting thrown into the fire, but I’m very excited about that. They’re a very talented team. I’m just going to try to do my best out there to help.”
Star rookie Cole Caufield and leading points scorer Nick Suzuki are set to team up with Rem Pitlick, who has impressed since joining in January.
That exciting trio may cause Tampa Bay some trouble, so we’re adding 2.65 for a home win in regular time and both teams to score at least twice to our NHL predictions.
Additional stats
Last result:
TAMPA BAY 5-2 Chicago
Carolina 4-0 MONTREAL
Season head-to-head: Tampa Bay 5-4 Montreal, Montreal 2-3 Tampa Bay
