Tampa Bay Lightning vs. Washington Capitals - 12/21/19 NHL Picks, Odds, and Prediction

Game: Tampa Bay Lightning vs Washington Capitals

Date: Saturday, December 21, 2019

Location: Capital One Arena in Washington, D.C.

TV: SunS/NSWA

Odds/Point Spread: Lightning (+109) Capitals (-120)

Total/Over-Under: 6.5

Capital One Arena is the venue where Braden Holtby and the Washington Capitals (24-6-5, 1st in the Metropolitan Division) will play the Tampa Bay Lightning (17-12-4, 4th in the Atlantic Division) on Saturday. The Lightning open this matchup at +109 while the Capitals are coming in at -120. The total has been set at 6.5. The Lightning are covering 50.0% of the time, having gone 16-16 SU. The Capitals are covering 65.6% of the time, going 21-11 straight up.

The Tampa Bay Lightning head into this game holding a record of 17 wins and 12 losses, ranking them 4th in the Atlantic Division. So far this year, they have racked up a total of 116 goals which is 3rd in the Eastern Conference and 5th in the NHL. Their goal differential is +9, ranking them 10th in the NHL. The Lightning currently have a total of 38 points, which is 18th in the NHL and 9th in the Eastern Conference. When it comes to shots toward the net, they currently have a total of 1,097 which is 11th in the conference and 21st in the NHL. As a unit, Tampa Bay currently has a total of 723 hits which has them averaging 21.9 per game. They currently have a total of 330 blocks for the season. The man in the crease for Tampa Bay is Andrei Vasilevskiy from London, Ontario. He is 25 years old and has racked up 1,500 mins minding the net this year. Vasilevskiy is conceding 2.88 GAA which has him ranked 18th in the East and 34th in the NHL among goalies. Over the course of this season, he's surrendered 72 goals. He's earned a save % of .906 which has him ranked 19th in the East.

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The Tampa Bay Lightning will look for better times on the ice after their 4 - 3 loss against the Dallas Stars in their last contest. The Lightning had an average offensive outing in the defeat. For this outing, they netted 3 of the 48 shots they looked to score on. Additionally, they had 3 power play chances and were able to net 2 goals out of those opportunities. Tampa Bay had a total of 4 penalty minutes for this matchup. The Corsi for the Lightning was 71 and the Corsi against was 31 which means they earned a Corsi percentage of 69.6%. Their Fenwick sat at 56 while the Fenwick against sat at 25, which means they had a rate of 69.1%. They earned 33 face-off wins and were beaten on 32 of all total face-offs. Their offensive zone starts were rated at 59.0% and they had a PDO at even strength of 85.7 in this game. With regard to the opposition's stats, the Dallas Stars earned 20 shots. They finished with 8 penalty minutes and they earned a total of 1 power play opportunity.

The Capitals are the team looking to add points to their total and for the campaign they sit with 24 wins and 6 losses. When looking at goal differential, they currently sit 2nd in the conference and 3rd in the NHL with +24. They have compiled a total of 122 goals for the season which has them at 1st in the Eastern Conference. Washington has a team save percentage of .909 which has them 12th in the NHL, which means scoring chances could be there if they are opportunistic. They have a shooting percentage of 11.1% putting them at 1st in the Eastern Conference. In net for Washington is Braden Holtby who is having an average year by giving up 2.82 goals per contest and that places him 15th in the Eastern Conference and 31st among goalies in the NHL. In the 1,467 minutes he's played this season, he has given up 69 goals. He holds a save percentage of .909, which has him sitting 15th in the Eastern Conference and 33rd among goalies in the NHL.

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The Washington Capitals played the Columbus Blue Jackets in a matchup where the Capitals were on the wrong end of the score by a score of 3 - 0. While out there on the ice, Washington went home with a 62.2% Corsi rating. They got there by having a Corsi of 51 while their opponent had a Corsi of 31. They had a Fenwick percentage of 58.2% with a Fenwick of 39 and the Blue Jackets having a 28 Fenwick. This Corsi rating tells us the kind of game Washington had and we'd say it was a below average outing in all. They had a PDO at even strength of 85.0 and they finished the game with an oZS percentage of 60.0%. The Capitals converted 0 goals of the 30 shots on goal they tried. They had 4 power play opportunities in this game but didn't score a goal. Concerning their opponent, the Blue Jackets had 2 power play attempts but didn't put the puck in goal. Washington gave way to 21 shots on goal and the Blue Jackets had 25 penalty mins.

Who will win tonight's NHL game ATS?

Guy's Pick: Take Tampa Bay (+109)

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