Betting news, trends, odds and predictions from various handicappers and websites for Saturday 5/19/18
Washington Capitals vs. Tampa Bay Lightning Preview and Predictions 05-19-2018
18th May 2018 by Gracenote
neither team has figured out a way to win on home ice yet in the eastern conference finals as the washington capitals visit the tampa bay lightning on saturday for game 5 of the best-of-seven series. the capitals had a 7-1 edge in even-strength goals to dominate the first two games in tampa bay and the lightning responded by winning two in washington with a red-hot power play and brilliant goaltending from andrei vasilevskiy.
"it's pretty bizarre," tampa bay captain steven stamkos, who has six goals in the last seven games, told reporters, "but you come on the road and there's just this business-like attitude where you're together as a group, you're with each other for dinner, you're watching the other game, you're playing cards, you're going into the hockey rink and just playing." vasilevskiy stopped 72 of the 76 shots he faced the last two games and the capitals will have to find a way to cool off the lightning power play, which is 6-for-14 in the series and that does not include alex killorn's winning goal in thursday's 4-2 triumph that came six seconds after a man advantage. washington, which is 7-1 on the road in the postseason, can't complain about the chances it created the last two games at home - outshooting tampa bay 76-43 combined - and has a 145-99 edge in shots during the series. "it's a missed opportunity," capitals captain alex ovechkin told reporters. "it is what it is. nothing we can do. we're not going to look back. we're just going to look forward. this group of guys has been in different situations all year and we fight through it."
tv: 7:15 p.m. et, nbc, cbc, tva
about the capitals: nicklas backstrom (hand) returned to the lineup for game 4 after missing the previous four contests, recording four shots and winning six of nine faceoffs with a minus-1 rating in 18:51 of ice time. center evgeny kuznetsov scored thursday for his seventh point of the series and has 21 in the postseason, tying ovechkin's franchise record in one playoff season that was set in 2009. defenseman john carlson, who has 14 points in the playoffs, was a minus-3 on thursday and center lars eller (five points in the series) has been called for five minor penalties in the last two contests - two leading to power-play goals.
about the lightning: vasilevskiy has allowed two goals or fewer in eight of 14 playoff games, including the last two and stamkos told reporters after thursday's win: "vasy was there to bail us out. that's why he's one of, if not the best, goalie in the world." stamkos has scored with the man advantage in each of the last four games and passed martin st. louis for the franchise record with 11 power-play goals in the playoffs. center brayden point recorded a goal and an assist in each of the last three games and owns 16 points in the postseason to tie stamkos and nikita kucherov for the team lead - all of them scoring seven and setting up nine.
overtime
1. the capitals were converting at 32.7 percent on the power play in the postseason before going 0-for-7 in the last two games.
2. killorn's goal thursday was his first in 11 contests after scoring four times in the first three games of the playoffs.
3. ovechkin has 20 points this postseason in 16 games after managing 20 combined in 25 contests over the past two years
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prediction: lightning 4, capitals 3