Ice Cold Lightning Host Suddenly Surging Capitals Thursday Night<\/strong><\/p>\n The Washington Capitals will try to build on a season high two game win streak when they head to Tampa Bay to take on a Lightning squad that has lost five straight after starting the season on fire. <\/p>\n Washington Capitals (4-8-1-0) at Tampa Bay Lightning (6-5-0-1)<\/strong> Matchup<\/a> | Preview<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n Check out our in-house NHL Handicapper!!! Buy Razor Ray’s NHL Picks Today!<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n The Capitals will be out to avenge a 6-3 loss at the hands of the Lightning on opening night and they may have caught Tampa Bay at precisely the right time.<\/p>\n The Caps have been awful this season but there is hope on the horizon after sweeping the Panthers in a home-and-home and scoring 11 goals over that span. The previously anemic offense for the Caps has come alive \u2013 now it is up to the poor defense and goaltending to catch up to the offensive output.<\/p>\n The Caps are now averaging 2.77 goals per game after their 11 goal\/two game output. Finally Alex Ovechkin has goals in three straight games and points in five straight. After a slow start, he\u2019s up to five tallies and 10 points in 13 contests. Let\u2019s face it \u2013 Washington is a better team than they\u2019ve shown so far. The big question mark is \u2026<\/p>\n Goaltending. The Capitals allow 3.54 goals per game. Braden Holtby is 3-4-0 with a 4.03 goal against average and an ugly .874 save percentage.<\/p>\n The Tampa Bay Lightning have hit the skids after a hot start- 6-1 with 37 goals in their first seven games. After scoring at will the first seven the Lightning scored a total of six goals in four games before \u201cbreaking out\u201d with three goals in a loss to Montreal. Steven Stamkos was held without a goal Tuesday – his fourth straight game since scoring six in the previous five. But this game reeks of breakout doesn\u2019t it? [soliloquy id=”82219″]<\/p>\n The Lightning have won six straight at home against Washington, dating back to the final two contests of a four-game sweep in the 2011 Stanley Cup Playoffs. Stamkos has five goals and five assists in his last six games versus Washington. Martin St. Louis scored two of his three this season and added an assist against the Capitals last month.<\/p>\n A few trends to consider:<\/p>\n \u2022 WAS are 1-7 in their last 8 road games. It seems odd that a team that has lost five straight is favorite over a team on a two game win streak doesn\u2019t it? But like I said \u2013 this game has breakout written all over it for Tampa Bay. Add in the fact that Ovy is pointless \u2013 POINTLESS in his last three games against the Lightning and my choice is easy.<\/p>\n Pick<\/strong>: Tampa Bay Lightning -139<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Caps vs Lightning NHL Spread\/Handicapping Ice Cold Lightning Host Suddenly Surging Capitals Thursday Night The Washington Capitals will try to build on a season high two game win streak when they head to Tampa Bay to take on a Lightning squad that has lost five straight after starting the season on fire.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":37609,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[53103,1547,48843,48844,48845,2993,2276,1956,3801,2284,895,48841,48842,58085],"class_list":["post-59977","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-nhl","tag-53103","tag-betting-predictions","tag-capitals-lightning-odds","tag-capitals-lightning-picks","tag-capitals-vs-lightning","tag-free-nhl-picks","tag-hockey-betting","tag-hockey-odds","tag-nhl-free-predictions","tag-nhl-odds","tag-nhl-picks","tag-washington-capitals-vs-tampa-bay-lightning","tag-washington-vs-tampa-bay","tag-washington-vs-tampa-bay-free-pick"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/59977","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=59977"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/59977\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":59986,"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/59977\/revisions\/59986"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/37609"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=59977"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=59977"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=59977"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Bet On NHL Hockey Today at One of our top online sportsbooks!!!<\/a><\/h3>\n
\n When: 7:30 PM ET, Thursday, February 14, 2013<\/strong>
\n Where: Tampa Bay Times Forum, Tampa, Florida<\/strong>
\n Broadcast: NHLN-US, CSN-DC, SUN<\/strong>
\n Caps vs. Lightning Betting Lines from JustBet<\/a><\/strong>
\n Washington Capitals +1\u00bd -245 +126 Ov 5\u00bd -137<\/strong>
\n Tampa Bay Lightning -1\u00bd +205 -139 Un 5\u00bd +124<\/strong><\/p>\nClick here now to check out the TOP NHL Cappers at CappersPicks.com!!!<\/a><\/h3>\n
Betting Prediction<\/strong>:<\/h3>\n
\n\u2022 WAS are 1-7 in their last 8 games following a win.
\n\u2022 Under is 23-5-1 in WAS last 29 Thu. games.
\n\u2022 TB are 9-2 in their last 11 home games.
\n\u2022 Over is 49-22-3 in TB last 74 home games.
\n\u2022 Over is 48-22-1 in TB last 71 overall.
\n\u2022 Home team is 9-0 in the last 9 meetings.
\n\u2022 Over is 7-2 in the last 9 meetings.<\/p>\n