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Tampa Bay Lightning vs. Washington Capitals NHL Pick
After falling to 3-1 in their first round series with Pittsburgh, the Tampa Bay Lightning have now six in a row including Tuesdays Game 3 against the Washington Capitals and will look to close out the best of seven series when they host the Caps in Game 4 of the NJL Eastern Conference Semifinals on Wednesday in Tampa.
Date/Time: Wednesday, May 7, 7:00 PM ET
Venue: St. Pete Times Forum
Broadcast: Versus
Money Line: Capitals +105, Lightning -125
Spread: Lightning -1.5
Over/Under: 5
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The Eastern Conference’s No. 1 seeded Washington Capitals find themselves on the brink of elimination for the second time in as many years after Tampa Bay pulled off an amazing 4-3 after entering Tuesday’s Game 3 at home, trailing 3-2. But goals from Steven Stamkos and Ryan Malone 24 seconds apart left Washington pondering a possible premature exit.
Vincent Lecavalier and Sean Bergenheim also scored for the Bolts, with each getting his fifth goal of the playoffs to match Martin St. Louis for the team high. Tampa seems to have found a working productive offensive balance of their big three of Lecavalier, St. Louis, and Stamkos while playing strong defensively in front of Roloson, giving him good vision of the Caps shooters.
Washington will need to quickly regroup and try to regain their mid to late season form where their defensive presence was tough and they were very disciplined in their own zone.
That has not been the case in this series as the Caps have been less than impressive and not nearly as good as they were against the Rangers in the opening round. However, that could be because the Lightning are just that good.
The Bolts have been able to attack the Washington net often and for the most part unopposed in the neutral zone like a runaway train.
In contrast, the Capitals offense has been anemic, as it appears that they are yet to figure out a way to slip the biscuit past Tampa keeper Dwayne Roloson with any consistency despite the resurgence of Alex Ovechkin in the past two games. Ovechkin scored on a 5-on-3 advantage on Tuesday, but that is Washington’s only goal in 16 power plays in the series.
If the Caps want to keep from being swept, they will need to rev up their power play and get better goaltending from Michal Neuvirth who has allowed at least three goals in five of the last six games, giving up 10 on 76 shots for a .868 save percentage against Tampa Bay.
The odds makers have the Tampa Bay Lightning as a -1.5 point favorite with an over/under of 5.
Check out the latest NHL Hockey Odds here.
Matt’s Free Prediction: Washington- If the Caps cannot regain their composure the Lightning will find themselves back in the Eastern Conference finals for the first time since winning the Cup in 2004. However, I expect the Caps to have enough left in the tank to push this series back to Washington for Game 5.
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