Calgary Flames vs Tampa Bay Lightning Predictions, NHL Expert Picks 2/29/2020

Game: Calgary Flames vs Tampa Bay Lightning

Date: Saturday, February 29, 2020

Location: Amalie Arena in Tampa, FL

TV: RSNW/SunS

Odds/Point Spread: Flames (+144) Lightning (-160)

Total/Over-Under: 6

David Rittich and the Calgary Flames (33-25-7, 4th in the Pacific Division) are headed to Amalie Arena on Saturday where they'll meet the Tampa Bay Lightning (40-19-5, 2nd in the Atlantic Division). The Lightning open this matchup at -160 while the Flames are coming in at +144. The total has been set at 6. The Flames cover 45.8% of the time, having gone 27-32 SU. Tampa Bay is covering 61.3% of the time, going 38-24 straight up.

The Calgary Flames head into this game holding a record of 33 victories and 25 defeats, which is good for 4th in the Pacific Division. Thus far in the season, they have converted a total of 189 goals which has them ranked at 10th in the conference and 20th in the league. Their goal differential is -12, which is good for 25th in the league. The Flames have a total of 73 pts, which has them ranked at 17th in the league and 7th in the conference. In the matter of shots at the opposition, they have a total of 2,070 which has them ranked at 5th in the Western Conference and 10th in the league. As a group, Calgary currently has a total of 1,121 hits which means they have an average of 17.2 per game. They have a total of 728 blocks for the year. The man looking after the goal for Calgary is David Rittich from Jihlava, Czechoslovakia. He is 27 years old and has racked up 2,676 mins in goal for the season. Rittich is conceding an average of 2.92 goals per game which has him sitting 19th among Western Conference goalies and 39th in the NHL among goalies. For the year, he has given up 130 goals. His save percentage is .908 which has him sitting 19th among Western Conference goalies.

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The Calgary Flames will look for better times on the ice after their 4 - 3 loss against the Nashville Predators in their previous game. The Flames played like an average offensive team in the loss. For this outing, they finished 3 out of the 39 shots they attempted. Moreover, they had 1 power play chance but didn't net one. Calgary earned 6 penalty mins for this matchup. The Corsi for the Flames was 61 and the Corsi against was 62 which means they earned a Corsi percentage of 49.6%. Their Fenwick was 51 and the Fenwick against sat at 52, telling us they have a Fenwick percentage of 49.5%. They earned 22 face-off wins and were beaten on 22 of all total face-offs. The offensive zone starts for them were rated at 56.5% and they had a PDO of 96.3 in this game. With regard to the opposition's stats, the Nashville Predators tallied 38 shots. They had a total of 2 penalty minutes and they had 2 power play attempts.

The Lightning will be on the other side of the ice and for the current year they have 40 wins and 19 losses. In discussing goal differential, they are ranked 2nd in the conference and 3rd in the league with +44. They currently have a total of 224 goals for the year which ranks 2nd in the conference. Tampa Bay has a team save percentage of .909 which currently has them ranked 10th in the league, which means there should be some opportunities to score. They have a shooting percentage of 11.2% which puts them at 1st in the conference. In goal for Tampa Bay is Andrei Vasilevskiy who is having a marginal season by allowing 2.61 goals per game and that places him 11th in the Eastern Conference and 17th among goalies in the NHL. In the 2,824 mins he has been on the ice, he has allowed 123 goals. He has a save % of .915, which places him at 11th in the Eastern Conference and 22nd among goalies in the NHL.

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The Tampa Bay Lightning played the Chicago Blackhawks in a matchup where the Lightning took the loss by a mark of 5 - 2. In this game, Tampa Bay had a 57.7% Corsi rating. They got there by having a Corsi of 41 while their opponent had a Corsi of 30. Their Fenwick percentage came in at 57.4% with a Fenwick of 31 and the Blackhawks finishing with a 23 Fenwick at even strength. This Corsi rating is telling of the kind of game that Tampa Bay played and you could say that they have had better days on the ice. They had a PDO of 89.3 and they finished this one with an oZS percentage of 53.5%. The Lightning converted 2 goals of the 38 shots on goal they tried. They had 5 power play opportunities in this one but weren't able to put one in the back of the net. As for the opposition, the Blackhawks had 6 power play attempts and took advantage of the situation by scoring 1 goal. Tampa Bay allowed 27 shots on goal and the Blackhawks earned a total of 12 minutes in the box.

Who will win tonight's NHL game against the spread?

Josh's Pick: Take Calgary (+144)

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