Lightning Can Take Game 2 To Even Series

Panthers vs. Lightning, 6:30 ET

Hockey is one of the sports that I've basically put on the backburner for most of the seasons. I wrote more about college basketball, and obviously the king of sports betting, football. As a result, I didn't put quite as many plays out there for hockey. I did have a few right before the end of the regular season, and another one at the start of the playoffs. Overall, it has been a good hockey season, but I'm looking for more here between the Panthers and Lightning.

The Panthers are the defending champs and have a bit of work to do in this one before they get the chance to defend the crown. I suppose technically they already are defending the crown, but I mean they still need to find a way to the Stanley Cup Finals. They are 47-31-4 for the season, but were just barely .500 on the road this season. They played pretty good hockey before the end of the year, but they ended the season four points behind Tampa Bay. For the year, the team was taking plenty of shots and outshooting opponents by about five shots per game while they scored roughly three goals per game. Their defense wasn't fantastic, allowing 2.72 goals per game. In this one they are probably looking to have their goalie Sergei Bobrovsky in the net. Bobrovsky is capable of getting hotter than any goalie in the league. He is 33-19-2 for the season and allows just 2.44 goals per game, good for fourth in the league. He only allowed four goals to Tampa in two starts this season.

TAMPA, FL - APRIL 15: Zemgus Girgensons #28 of the Tampa Bay Lightning skates against Nate Schmidt #88 and Vitek Vanecek #41 of the Florida Panthers at Amalie Arena on April 15, 2025 in Tampa, Florida. (Photo by Mark LoMoglio/NHLI via Getty Images)

The Lightning are another team with recent postseason success. Tampa won multiple championships in the past few years, but now looks to regain that success. They ended the season 47-27-8 for the year and were great at home. On their home ice, they are 21 games above .500 (with 4 overtime losses in addition to outright losses). They are a very good offensive team scoring 3.56 goals per game on just 28 shots. The thing is that they don't take that many more shots than their opponent. For Tampa, the expectation is that Andrei Vasilevskiy will be in the net. He put together a very strong season with a 38-20-5 record, allowing just 2.18 goals per game, and had a .921 save percentage. In other words, the Panthers are kind of firing at a wall this season.

Even as good as Vasilevskiy has been, he is just 1-2 in the three games he started against Florida. The Panthers are a really good team and have had a lot of postseason success to start the year. In the opening game, the Panthers looked great on offense. I expect Tampa to make adjustments here and take this game at -125. 

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