NHL Hockey Betting: Colorado Avalanche at Tampa Bay Lightning
Thursday night’s NHL hockey card offers a very intriguing non-conference matchup between the Colorado Avalanche and Tampa Bay Lightning. The Lightning are off to a respectable start at 5-3-2 but find themselves looking up at the Montreal Canadiens in the Atlantic Division. Of course since the Habs started the season 9-1-0 everyone else is looking up at Montreal as well. Tampa has lost two straight and five of their last seven games heading into this matchup. Colorado has gotten off to a rocky start (no pun intended) and enters having lost four straight and 5 of their last 7. The Avalanche might be on the verge of turning things around–they’re getting better play from Semyon Varlamov in net and three of their four losses during the current streak have been by a single goal. Of course, Colorado’s struggles are magnified and compounded due to their playing in the brutally tough Central Division. They’re the only team in the Central with a losing record which has them mired in last place, six points back of 5th place Winnipeg (who has played decent hockey with a record of 5-3-1.
Patrick Roy’s team has shown flashes of excellence at various points this season but has woefully lacked consistency. They’ve been OK on special teams but their 5 on 5 play has been abysmal. That’s bad news tonight against a team with the skills to torment any opponent five on five. The players are showing a lack of intensity which is something that Roy should be able to address. A bigger problem is getting every component of the team on the same page at the same time. The Avs were doing a decent job scoring goals in the early going only to be hurt by poor goaltending. Now the goaltending is improving and they’re struggling to score goals. This disjointed play simply doesn’t work in the NHL and particularly in the Central Division with highly regimented and well coached teams like Nashville and St. Louis.
Ironically, Tampa Bay has had a similar problem this year–they’re having trouble putting it all together. In their last two losses against Chicago and St. Louis they’ve finally gotten some good goaltending as the combination of Kristers Gudlevskis and Ben Bishop held the teams to a total of three goals. The bad news–the potent Lightning offense hung a goose egg and got shut out in both games 1-0 and 2-0 respectively. Bishop will be back in net tonight though you’ll likely see more of the talented young Latvian Gudlevskis going forward and especially if Bishop continues to struggle.
Bottom line–this game is a lot closer than the betting line would indicate. Tampa Bay isn’t playing well enough to be a -200 favorite over anyone at this point and particularly against a team with the talent–and desperation–of the Colorado Avalanche.
BET COLORADO AVALANCHE +175 OVER TAMPA BAY LIGHTNING