Montreal Canadiens vs Tampa Bay Lightning Predictions, Free NHL Pick 3/5/2020

Game: Montreal Canadiens vs Tampa Bay Lightning

Date: Thursday, March 5, 2020

Location: Amalie Arena in Tampa, FL

TV: TSN2/SunS/RDS

Odds/Point Spread: Canadiens (+175) Lightning (-195)

Total/Over-Under: 6.5

Andrei Vasilevskiy and the Tampa Bay Lightning (41-20-5, 2nd in the Atlantic Division) play the Montreal Canadiens (31-28-9, 5th in the Atlantic Division) at Amalie Arena on Thursday, March 5, 2020. The Canadiens open this matchup at +175 while the Lightning are coming in at -195. The over/under is set at 6.5. The Canadiens are covering 42.2% of the time, having gone 27-37 SU. Tampa Bay covers 60.9% of the time, going 39-25 straight up.

The Montreal Canadiens head into this game holding a record of 31 victories and 28 defeats, ranking them 5th in the Atlantic Division. Thus far in the season, they have earned a total of 205 goals which ranks them 9th in the conference and 15th in the NHL. Their goal differential is -3, ranking them 21st in the NHL. The Canadiens currently have a total of 71 pts, which ranks them 23rd in the NHL and 12th in the East. With reference to shots at the opposing goalie, they currently have a total of 2,322 which ranks them 1st in the East and 2nd in the NHL. As a team, Montreal has collected a total of 1,687 hits which has them averaging 24.8 per contest. They currently have a total of 776 blocks for the year. The man looking after the net for Montreal is Carey Price from Farmingville, New York. He is 32 years old and has played 3,322 minutes protecting the goal for the campaign. Price is allowing an average of 2.75 goals against average which has him sitting 17th among East goalies and 29th in the NHL among goalies. For the year, he has given up 152 goals. His save percentage is .910 which has him sitting 16th among East goalies.

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The Montreal Canadiens were on the winning side of the scoreboard with a 6 - 2 win against the New York Islanders their last time out. The Canadiens had a solid offensive performance in this win. For this game, they finished 6 out of the 27 shots they looked to score on. They also had 1 power play opportunity but weren't able to score. Montreal had 13 penalty minutes in this game. The Corsi for the Canadiens was 50 and the Corsi against was 38 which gave them a Corsi percentage of 56.8%. Their Fenwick was 38 and the Fenwick against sat at 30, giving them a Fenwick percentage of 55.9%. They earned 16 face-off wins at even strength and lost 29 tries to control the puck. Their starts in the offensive zone came in at 64.0% and they had a PDO at even strength of 111.4 in this game. When it comes to their opponent, the New York Islanders put up 22 shots. Their total at the end of the game was 5 penalty mins and they earned a total of 4 power play attempts.

The Lightning will be on the other side of the ice and for the current year they sit with 41 wins and 20 defeats. Regarding goal differential, they are currently sitting 2nd in the Eastern Conference and 3rd in the NHL with +44. They currently have a total of 229 goals for the season which has them ranked at 2nd in the East. Tampa Bay has a team save % of .909 which has them sitting 10th in the NHL, meaning there should be some opportunities to score. They have a shooting percentage of 11.1% ranking them 1st in the East. In goal for Tampa Bay is Andrei Vasilevskiy who is having a marginal year by allowing 2.61 goals per game and that has him ranked 11th in the East and 18th in the NHL. In the 2,943 mins he has played this year, he's given up 128 goals. He's earned a save % of .915, which has him sitting 10th in the East and 23rd in the NHL.

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The Tampa Bay Lightning played the Boston Bruins in an outing where the Lightning ended up losing by a tally of 2 - 1. For this outing, Tampa Bay wound up with a 46.3% Corsi rating. They got to that percentage by earning a Corsi of 44 and the team opposite of them having a Corsi of 51. They earned a Fenwick percentage of 39.4% by earning a Fenwick of 26 and the Bruins earning a 40 Fenwick. This Corsi rating is telling of the kind of game that Tampa Bay played and you can safely assume that they'll look to improve in their next outing. They had a PDO of 99.3 and they finished the game with an oZS percentage of 55.9%. The Lightning notched 1 goal of the 21 shots on goal they tried. They had 1 power play chance in this game but weren't able to score a goal. As for their opponent, the Bruins had 3 power play attempts but were not able to notch a goal. Tampa Bay conceded 35 shots on goal and the Bruins ended up with a total of 7 penalty minutes.

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

Tony's Pick: Take Tampa Bay (-195)

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