Tampa Bay vs Edmonton: The Lightning will beat the Oilers for the fifth consecutive time

Edmonton haven't taken points from Tampa Bay in four straight head-to-head meetings. Will the Oilers be able to break such a bad streak now? We predict that the Lightning will once again be closer to victory!

Tampa Bay are the champion of the last two NHL seasons, which lost several important players in the offseason but continues to go among the tournament leaders. The Lightning do not have the same stable and quality roster in the regular season, but their results are still excellent. In the previous seven meetings, Jon Cooper's team suffered only one defeat, and that was against Colorado - 2:3. Once again, the Blue and White lost to Vegas in a shootout, 2-3, but they have won without fail in the remaining five games. All that allows Tampa Bay to sit in third place in the Eastern Conference standings, five points behind the leader with a game to spare.

Edmonton are having a very tough regular season. In recent years, the Oilers have formed a good team that has steadily made it to the playoffs, but they are having trouble meeting that challenge this season. At the turn of December and January, the Blue and Orange team even went on a seven-game losing streak, but they've stopped their losing streak. In the last 14 meetings, only three times they left the ice without a point, one time they lost in overtime, and ten times they came out victorious. That's a powerful run! Edmonton lost 3-7 to Minnesota the day before, but their early success allowed them to seventh place in the Western Conference standings.

Tampa Bay and Edmonton approach the encounter, being in good shape. In this case, the Lightning have been showing quality hockey all season long, but the Oilers can't boast the stability, as they alternate between bad periods with good results. The day before, Jay Woodcroft's men lost 3-7 to Minnesota - a blowout that could mess them up. Moreover, in the last four head-to-head encounters, only the Americans have been stronger, and each time in regulation time, so even now, we need to bet on the victory of Tampa Bay for 1.76.

Tampa Bay and Edmonton are teams used to playing bright and attacking hockey. Even now, when the end of the regular season is approaching, both teams continue to demonstrate their usual style of play. In their last two meetings, the Lightning defeated Arizona and New Jersey 4-3 and 6-3, respectively. The Oilers have managed 33 goals against (8.25 average per game) in their previous four meetings, which is very high even for an NHL team. Given this, we would expect Total Over 6.5 pucks for 2.12.

Anthony Cirelli is a forward who continues to progress while playing for such a high-profile club as Tampa Bay. This is his fifth season playing for the main team while constantly improving his numbers. In the current regular season, he's already scored 28 points (13 goals + 15 assists) in 44 games, which can be considered a very nice statistic. His personal best is 44 points (16 goals + 18 assists), and he now has nearly a third of the regular season to improve on that mark. You can bet on Anthony Cirelli's Total Over 0.5 points for 4.00.