Tampa Bay Lightning vs Florida Panthers Prediction: Don’t expect a productive match

Prediction for the NHL match which will take place on December 28. Who will turn out to be stronger? Check the team conditions! Several betting options are available.

Tampa Bay spends the current regular season not in the best way. We're all used to the Lightning fighting for the top spots, but this season, they have to fight only for the playoffs. From the very first games, they started to lose a lot of points, so for a long time, they were out of cup eight, but gradually, they started to improve their position. They have been especially productive in recent games, where they beat St. Louis 6:1 and Vegas 5:4. Then Washington 2:1. Three consecutive victories allowed the Blue and White to climb to eighth place in the Eastern Conference standings.

Florida is a sensational finalist of the last Stanley Cup, but with their results in the current regular season, the Panthers are trying to prove that that success was legitimate. They were a little slower initially, but they started producing winning streaks in November. December also started well for the team, winning four games out of five. Before the pause in the championship, the South allowed four losses, beating only Edmonton and Vegas - 5:1 and 4:2, respectively. Florida now sits fifth in the Eastern Conference standings, seven points behind the leader.

Tampa Bay and Florida show similar results in the regular season, being only one point apart, with the Lightning approaching the head-to-head battle in better shape. They won the last three games in a row, and the opponents were very high-status teams; therefore, success should give them confidence in their abilities. The Panthers, on the other hand, are in a bit of a slump, as a result of which they have scored only 4 of a possible 12 points (33%) in the last six meetings.

Tampa Bay and Florida are two attacking and skillful teams, but they have stopped playing fun and productively between themselves. In the previous eight head-to-head meetings, the rivals have combined to score only 38 pucks (4.75 per game on average). In addition, in seven out of eight cases, at least one of the teams scored less than two pucks.