The Tampa Bay Lightning and Colorado Avalanche meet Wednesday in game 1 of the NHL Stanley Cup Finals at the Ball Arena. The Tampa Bay Lightning are coming off a 6-game series win against the Rangers. The Colorado Avalanche are coming off a sweep of the Oilers and haven’t played in 9 days.

The Tampa Bay Lightning are averaging 3.06 goals per game and are scoring on 22.6 percent of their power play opportunities. Steven Stamoks leads Tampa Bay with 6 goals, Nikita Kucherov has 16 assists and Victor Hedman has 54 shots on goal. Defensively, the Tampa Bay Lightning are allowing 2.41 goals per game and are killing 82.5 percent of their opponent’s power plays. Andrei Vasilevskiy has given up 39 goals on 541 shots faced.

The Colorado Avalanche are averaging 4.64 goals per game and are scoring on 31.1 percent of their power play opportunities. Nathan MacKinnon leads Colorado with 11 goals, Cale Makar has 17 assists and Nazem Kadri has 47 shots on goal. Defensively, the Colorado Avalanche are allowing 2.86 goals per game and are killing 75.7 percent of their opponent’s power plays. Darcy Kuemper has allowed 24 goals on 234 shots faced, and Pavel Francouz has given up 15 goals on 160 shots.

The Lightning are 4-1 in their last 5 games as an underdog and 19-7 in their last 26 overall. The Avalanche are 62-19 in their last 81 games as a favorite and 56-19 in their last 75 overall. The under is 10-1 in Lightning last 11 overall. The over is 14-6-2 in Avalanche last 22 Wednesday games. The Lightning are 5-1 in the last 6 meetings in Colorado. The favorite is 15-4 in the last 19 meetings.

The Tampa Bay Lightning have great value in the underdog role, as we’re talking about the two-time defending champions and a team that made light work of the Rangers in four straight games. The Lightning are very, very good and shouldn’t be taken lightly. With that said, the Colorado Avalanche have been a buzz saw all year, especially at home where they’ve won 81.4 percent of their last 70 tries. The only reason to hesitant with the Avs is because of the long layoff and potential rust, but other than that, I’m not eager to step in front of the Avalanche on their home ice.