Tampa Bay Lightning vs. Montreal Canadiens - 1/2/20 NHL Picks, Odds, and Prediction

Game: Tampa Bay Lightning vs Montreal Canadiens

Date: Thursday, January 2, 2020

Location: Bell Centre in Montreal, QC

TV: TSN2/SunS/RDS

Odds/Point Spread: Lightning (-130) Canadiens (+118)

Total/Over-Under: 6.5

Carey Price and the Montreal Canadiens (18-16-6, 5th in the Atlantic Division) play the Tampa Bay Lightning (21-13-4, 3rd in the Atlantic Division) at Bell Centre on Thursday, January 2, 2020. The Lightning open this contest at -130 while the Canadiens are priced at +118. The over/under has been set at 6.5. The Lightning cover 54.1% of the time, having gone 20-17 SU. Montreal is covering 42.1% of the time, going 16-22 straight up.

The Tampa Bay Lightning step onto the ice with a record of 21 wins and 13 defeats, which is good for 3rd in the Atlantic Division. Thus far in the season, they have scored a total of 136 goals which is good for 4th in the conference and 5th in the NHL. Their goal differential is +16, which is good for 7th in the NHL. The Lightning have earned a total of 46 points, which is good for 14th in the NHL and 8th in the East. In discussing shots toward the net, they have earned a total of 1,254 which is good for 10th in the conference and 18th in the NHL. As a team, Tampa Bay has obtained a total of 813 hits which means they are averaging 21.4 per contest. They have earned a total of 366 blocks for the season. The goaltender for Tampa Bay is Andrei Vasilevskiy from London, Ontario. He is 25 years old and has played 1,680 mins defending the net for the season. Vasilevskiy is surrendering 2.89 goals per contest which places him at 14th in the Eastern Conference and 29th in the NHL among goalies. For the season, he has given up 81 goals. He's earned a save percentage of .906 which places him at 18th in the Eastern Conference.

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The Tampa Bay Lightning had a good night with a 6 - 4 victory against the Buffalo Sabres in their previous contest. The Lightning played really well in this win. In this game, they finished 6 of the 27 shots they put on goal. Furthermore, they had 5 power play opportunities and netted 2 goals out of those attempts. Tampa Bay had a total of 15 penalty mins in their game. The Corsi for the Lightning sat at 32 and the Corsi against was 36 which means they had a Corsi percentage of 47.1%. Their Fenwick sat at 27 and the Fenwick against sat at 30, giving them a Fenwick percentage of 47.4%. They earned 17 face-off wins at even strength and lost 20 of the face-offs. Their offensive zone starts were rated at 37.4% and they had a PDO of 105.7 in this one. Concerning opponent stats, the Buffalo Sabres put up 28 shots. They had 27 penalty mins and they had 4 power play chances.

The Canadiens will be the team across the ice and for the current year they sit with 18 victories and 16 losses. in respect to goal differential, they are ranked 10th in the East and 18th in the league with -1. They have a total of 129 goals for the year which ranks them 8th in the conference. Montreal has a save % as a team of .897 which currently has them sitting 24th in the league, meaning scoring chances could be plentiful if they are aggressive. They have a shooting percentage of 9.1% ranking them 13th in the East. In goal for Montreal is Carey Price who is having a tough year by allowing 3.03 goals per game and that ranks him 19th among Eastern Conference goalies and 41st among goalies in the NHL. In the 1,879 mins he has been on the ice this year, he has surrendered 95 goals. He holds a save % of .901, which puts him at 23rd among Eastern Conference goalies and 44th among goalies in the NHL.

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The Montreal Canadiens went up against the Carolina Hurricanes in an outing where the Canadiens took a loss by a final of 3 - 1. In their game, Montreal went home with a 49.5% Corsi rating. That percentage was had by earning a Corsi of 54 while the opposition earned a Corsi of 55. They had a Fenwick percentage of 48.3% by notching a Fenwick of 42 and the Hurricanes having a 45 Fenwick at even strength. These Corsi stats speak to the kind of game that Montreal played and you could say that they have had better days on the ice. Their PDO was 96.8 and their percentage of oZS was 35.6%. The Canadiens scored 1 goal of the 30 shots on goal they tried. They had 3 power play opportunities in this outing but weren't able to put one in the back of the net. Regarding their opponent, the Hurricanes had 2 power play chances and came through by scoring 1 goal. Montreal allowed 36 shots on goal and the Hurricanes ended up with a total of 6 penalty mins.

Who will win tonight's NHL game ATS?

Josh's Pick: Take Montreal (+118)

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