Atlantic Division rivals meet on Tuesday night as the Tampa Bay Lightning visit the Detroit Red Wings. Both teams have hovered around the .500 mark this season but that is good enough to be in contention for 2nd place behind the Montreal Canadiens in the division. The Lightning beat the Red Wings last month by a score of 6-4 in the season opener for both teams. It has been almost all Tampa in this series of late as the Lightning have won seven of the last eight.
Don't miss the ice action from Joe Louis Arena at 7:30 p.m. ET on Tuesday, November 15, 2016. Catch every moment of the game live on NBCSN.
We'll have NHL odds at BookMaker.eu available for this and every game on the NHL Tuesday schedule.
Odds Analysis
This is not a good spot for Tampa Bay as they are playing with no rest having played at the Islanders on Monday night. This is the second game of a 5-game road trip for the Lightning. Tampa was 3-4 in their first seven road games. They are scoring three goals per game and allowing 2.7 per contest. Tampa has gone under 7 times, over 6 times with 2 pushes.
The Red Wings have not played since Saturday night and they will be primed for a big effort after getting humiliated 5-0 by Montreal. There are no excuses for Detroit as they will have had two days off to get ready and they are then off for two more days following this contest. The Red Wings are scoring 2.4 goals per game and allowing 2.7 per contest. They are 5-4 at home this season with five going over and four going under.
Special Teams
The Lightning are averaging three goals per game and the power play is a big reason why as Tampa is 4th in the league at 25.4%. They should have success against a poor Detroit penalty killing squad. The Lightning have also been solid on the penalty kill at 86% which is 7th best in the NHL.
The Red Wings have not been scoring many goals on the power play as they are just 20th in the league at 15.3%. It has been really ugly lately as they were 0 for 5 on the power play against the Canadiens and they are 3 for 40 in their past 11 games. The penalty kill for Detroit has been even worse as Detroit is just 26th in the NHL at 77.6%.
Goalie Report
The Lightning are in a back-to-back situation so there is a good chance that Tampa will be starting their backup goaltender. That might not sound good but Andrei Vasilevskiy has better numbers this season than Ben Bishop. Vasilevskiy is 3-2 on the season with a 2.00 goals against average while Bishop is just 5-5 with a 2.93 goals against average.
The Red Wings seems likely to go with Petr Mrazek in this contest after Howard started and was pulled in the loss to Montreal. Howard had been great before that start and even with the bad outing he is 4-3 with a 1.80 goals against average. Mrazek is 4-5 with a 3.06 goals against average. Before the season began it was thought that Mrzaek would be the starter but so far this season Howard has outplayed him.
Free NHL Picks
The question in this one is whether you go with the trends that show the Lightning dominating the Red Wings or if you go with the situation and take Detroit because the Lightning are playing with no rest. I have no confidence in the Red Wings and I think Tampa is the better team and the stats tell us the same thing as the Lightning have better overall numbers. I will take the Lightning to win this one on the road.
NHL Odds: Lightning 3, Red Wings 2
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