Categories
NHL

NHL Free Pick: Rangers vs. Lightning Betting Lines & Preview

Betting On NHL Playoff Hockey?

Weekly NHL Betting action sees the New York Rangers taking on the Tampa Bay Lightning May 22 at Amalie Arena. Cappers Picks provides free NHL handicapping tips all season long.

Has anyone seen the real New York Rangers? Seriously!

Daily NHL Hockey Odds

Lightning lead series 2-1
NY Rangers (62-27-3-5) at Tampa Bay (60-30-3-5)
When: 8:00 PM ET, Friday, May 22, 2015
Where: Amalie Arena, Tampa, Florida
Broadcast: NBCSN, CBC, TVA SPORTS
Rangers NHL Betting Odds: +1½ -280 +111
Lightning NHL Betting Odds: -1½ +235 -123
NHL Over Under Betting Odds: Ov 5 -105, Un 5 -105
***2015 NHL BONUSES***
[dfads params=’groups=63740&limit=1&return_javascript=0′]

Click here to view today’s… NHL Matchup Angles | NHL Insider Gambling Preview

The Tampa Bay Lightning will try to build on two impressive offensive efforts and take a 3-1 series lead in their Eastern Conference Final on Friday against the suddenly vulnerable Henrik Lundqvist and the New York Rangers.

Can New York rediscover their defensive identity or can we expect the Tampa Bay Lightning to keep on rolling in what has been a shocking final so far?

[dfads params=’groups=64160&limit=1&return_javascript=0′]

It may not be much of a shock that the New York Rangers have a fight on their hands against Tampa Bay – this is a team that was down 3-1 to Washington before rallying and winning the series. What is shocking is the way that the Rangers are losing.

For the second game in a row the Rangers gave up six goals – the Lightning have now scored at least five goals on Henrik Lundqvist four times in six meetings between the teams this season .

To say that the Lightning have the Rangers number may be a bit of an understatement – nobody has done this to New York this season – nobody!

That said the Rangers did some good things in a Game 2 loss – they scored five goals including two on the power play- that’s where the accolades stop!

[dfads params=’groups=16&limit=1&return_javascript=0′]

Henrik Lundqvist has allowed an astounding 12 goals on 66 shots the last two games, His goals against average has climbed nearly half a goal after two sub-par outings and his save percentage looks merely mortal now.

Don’t put all of the blame on King Henrik however – nearly all of New York’s best players are struggling. Martin St. Louis has still failed to score a goal in the playoffs, Rick Nash has gone four games without a point and the vaunted defensive corp. has been leaky to say the least.

The Rangers are a great team- a bounce back is inevitable. But can they right such a leaky ship in quick order? Game 4 will give us that answer.

The Tampa Bay Lightning on the other hand can do no wrong – especially offensively the last two games.

The Rangers, like all of the other teams that Tampa has faced so far have has zero answer for the Triplets line of Tyler Johnson, Ondrej Palat and Nikita Kucherov. Johnson scored his NHL playoff-leading 12th goal Wednesday, Palat scored twice and Kucherov recorded the Game 3 winner past Lundqvist 3:33 into overtime.

That line has seven goals and seven assists the last two games!!!!

Steven Stamkos has emerged from his slump with 11 points in his past eight games; Alex Killorn has three goals and two assists in the past two. Things are good in Tampa right now for sure.

[dfads params=’groups=64161&limit=1&return_javascript=0′]

An even better example of how good things are for the Lightning comes in the form of Ben Bishop who had an off-game on Wednesday but still recorded the in.

Bishop is now 10-1-0 lifetime against New York.

NHL Gambling Trends

• NYR are 13-3 in their last 16 Fri. games.
• Under is 9-3-1 in NYR last 13 overall.
• NYR are 28-10 in their last 38 road games.
• Over is 6-2 in TB last 8 vs. Metropolitan.
• TB are 40-14 in their last 54 home games.
• TB are 8-3 in their last 11 overall.

The New York Rangers have had a knack of winning 2-1 games this postseason – the will need to get back to that defensive style once again in order to have a chance in this series.

That said I just can’t see the Lightning being slowed Friday night – they are just too hot in the offensive zone and Henrik Lundqvist is just too ice-cold. On the flip side, New York’s offense knows they will have to generate some goals – it will take four or five to beat the Lightning the way they are going.

NHL Betting 4* Free Play

It all adds up to a third straight high scoring game!

The Over – 5 goals

The play here is the Over – 5 goals. This has all the makings of a 4-3 game.

CappersPicks.com NHL Betting and gambling site provides the BEST Online hockey predictions for you to bet on for the NHL hockey season! Stick with us all season long!

[dfads params=’groups=65112&limit=1&return_javascript=0′]

By DaveB

Dave B has been a Fantasy Football writer for us for 10 years. A couch potato wannabe, Dave’s insights have been read by 10’s of people for years. He hope’s for world peace + global relaxation. Enjoy and remember only smoke things that are completely natural.