The Florida Panthers and Tampa Bay Lightning meet Monday in game 4 of the East Second Round NHL Playoffs at the Amalie Arena. The Florida Panthers look to save their season and force a game 5 on Wednesday. The Tampa Bay Lightning look to advance to their third conference final in the last four years.
The Florida Panthers are averaging 2.56 goals per game and are scoring on 3.6 percent of their power play opportunities. Carter Verhaeghe leads Florida with 6 goals, Claude Giroux has 5 assists and Aleksander Barkov has 36 shots on goal. Defensively, the Florida Panthers are allowing 3.33 goals per game and are killing 68.6 percent of their opponent’s power plays. Sergei Bobrovsky has given up 26 goals on 278 shots faced.
The Tampa Bay Lightning are averaging 3.4 goals per game and are scoring on 25 percent of their power play opportunities. Ross Colton leads Tampa Bay with 5 goals, Nikita Kucherov has 11 assists and Victor Hedman has 35 shots on goal. Defensively, the Tampa Bay Lightning are allowing 2.7 goals per game and are killing 86.8 percent of their opponent’s power plays. Andrei Vasilevskiy has given up 25 goals on 319 shots faced.
The Panthers are 19-7 in their last 26 road games and 44-17 in their last 61 overall. The Lightning are 59-25 in their last 84 home games and 4-0 in their last 4 overall. The under is 11-5-4 in Panthers last 20 overall. The over is 13-5 in Lightning last 18 overall. The Panthers are 8-21 in the last 29 meetings in Tampa Bay and 1-4 in the last 5 meetings.
The Florida Panthers and plus money is worth a shot when you consider the talent on the roster and the fact they had the best record in the league. It’s hard to believe the Panthers are going to go out like this. With that said, the Panthers have shown little life in this series, and it often feels like they know they can’t win. There’s little life on either side, and the Lightning have gotten whatever they want. Back to back and at home, it’s hard seeing the Panthers put enough effort into this game to extend the series. I’d love to be wrong, but I have to side with the Lightning getting a sweep.