Stanley Cup Finals Betting Odds, Picks, Lines & Predictions Game 3

The Tampa Bay Lightning and the Montreal Canadians faced off for an intense Stanley Cup Finals game on Friday. The Tampa Bay Lightning are the halfway point to accomplishing something that has not been done for nearly a quarter-century now as they go to Montreal for their third game in the championship round on Friday night. The Tampa Bay Lightning come into this game 50-20-6 straight up and 34-37-5 over/under as they look to stay victorious. The Montreal Canadiens look to redeem themselves after two losses as they come into this game 36-27-12 straight up and 29-39-7 over/under. If The Habs don’t get their act together, Tampa Bay Lightning will look to take the first Stanley Cup final sweep going back to 1998.

Stanley Cup Finals Betting Odds & Line Movement

US Sportsbooks opened up their NHL betting lines with the Tampa Bay Lightning listed as the -147 favorites. which is a lot lower than bettors saw in game one and game two. However, we have seen the online betting odds move between the -130 and -135 range. The total is listed at five goals, with the under listed at -105, and the OVER listed at -115.

 

Notes On The Tampa Bay Lightning

One of the keys to Tampa Bay’s success has been their ability to win multiple ways – they are a balanced team that is capable of scoring effectively. The Lightning have been tough to score on, allowing only two goals from the Montreal Canadiens in the last 5 games.

That phenomenal back-end play in the second game won their team a 3-1 victory despite being on the wrong end of an unsurprising 43-23 shots discrepancy. Vasilevskiy was sensational in this series, making 42 saves and posting a 1.89 GAA and .939 save percentage for the playoffs.

Notes On The Montreal Canadiens

The Canadiens did not score more than Toronto could handle and will look to get out of that situation in game two. The Montreal Canadiens fell behind 3-1 to Toronto in the opening round of playoffs before storming back to eventually win the series.

We talked about Montreal’s problems scoring goals in previous games. But even if they are able to score more goals, it won’t matter if they don’t get better goaltending. Carey Price’s splits during the playoffs have been a 4.06 goals-against average and an 8.40 save percentage so far, where the Canadiens haven’t yet led at any point in time.

Stanley Cup Finals Betting Odds, Lines Pick & Prediction:Tampa Bay Lightning (-135)

Forward Frédérick Gaudreau hit the post with a shot from the slot and Artturi Lehkonen somehow couldn’t bundle in his own rebound at high speed. “If we’re playing our team game,” Lightning coach Jon Cooper said, “we win that one.”