lightning vs predators betting predictions nhl odds

Tampa Bay Lightning at Nashville Predators Predictions

Tampa Bay Lightning Travel to Nashville to Face the Predators Saturday

The Tampa Bay Lightning and the Nashville Predators will face off on Saturday evening inside of Nissan Stadium in the Navy Federal Credit Union Stadium Series.

This will be the first of two games against one another as they are in opposite conferences. The Lightning are second in the Atlantic Division (32-11-6, 70 points) and the Predators are fourth in the Central Division (28-18-4, 60 points) so far this season. 

These teams should be leaning on their star players like Steven Stamkos and Andrei Vasilevskiy on the Tampa side and Roman Josi and Filip Forsberg on Nashville’s side of things. Let’s dive into each team to determine what sides we should be betting on for this game. 

Tampa Bay Lightning Continues to Strike

The Tampa Bay Lightning have been playing well offensively as they are averaging 3.41 goals on 30.3 shots per game this season. A huge reason why all of the offensive success has been the play of center Steven Stamkos as he is tied for 11th in the NHL in points with 55 points (23 goals, 32 assists).

He has been a force in the three games since the All-Star break as he has scored three points (all goals) in that stretch, so he needs to be a force here if they want to continue playing well. 

Goaltender Andrei Vasilevskiy has been playing extremely well this season as he is 26-8-4 with 2.27 goals per game allowed and a .922 save percentage with two shutouts under his belt.

The defense has been doing pretty well as they are giving up 2.76 goals on 29.3 shots per game thus far. The Lightning has been doing well at killing the power play as they have killed 81.6 percent of all penalties this season. 

Defense Into Offense

The Nashville Predators have been playing pretty well so far this season as they are averaging 3.04 goals on 29.4 shots per game so far. The team has been led by defenseman Roman Josi this year as he has been tied for the lead in points of all defensemen as he has recorded 51 points (13 goals, 38 assists) this season.

However, the goal scoring has primarily come from left winger Filip Forsberg as he has scored 25 goals on 111 shot attempts this season.  

Goaltender Juuse Saros has been doing pretty well for himself this season as he is currently 24-15-3 while giving up 2.49 goals with two shutouts and a .923 save percentage thus far.

As a team, the Predators are allowing 2.82 goals on 31.6 shot attempts and have been doing well. The biggest issue has been the fact they have allowed 36 power play goals with a 79.9 penalty kill percentage. 

Who to Bet on Lightning at Predators

With this being a neutral site game, the home record of the Predators seems to be a mute point. However, the Lightning are currently 16-7-2 away from Amalie Arena so far.

The biggest thing, though, is the fact that Tampa Bay is just 23-26 ATS this season while Nashville is 29-21 ATS, so the Predators on the puck line seems to be the better play as well.

These offenses have been a little quieter than you’d expect as the Lightning are scoring 3.8 goals in the last four games while the Predators are averaging just 2.3 goals in that same stretch.

All in all, go with the Predators to cover in a neutral site game and the under to hit here as well.


nhl betting odds* All odds provided by Action247 Sportsbook and all odds subject to change.
**All views expressed are my own. My picks are my own and are not a guarantee, bet at your own risk.