The Tampa Bay Lightning and Washington Capitals are each coming off big wins in their most recent games. These offenses are firing on all cylinders, but the goaltending is also a strength of both teams, so it will be interesting to see which team prevails.
Find out why my best Avalanche vs. Lightning predictions and NHL picks for Wednesday, November 27 are leaning on the Over.
Capitals vs Lightning prediction
My best bet
Over 6.5 (+100 at FanDuel)
My analysis
The Washington Capitals and Tampa Bay Lightning are both in the Top 5 of the NHL when it comes to scoring. The Capitals lead the league, averaging 4.05 goals per game, while the Lightning are fifth while scoring 3.80 goals per game.
The Bolts are coming off a game against a strong Colorado Avalanche team where they put up five goals in the first period and won by the score of 8-2. Of course, Colorado has been a bit sloppier defensively than Washington, but Tampa’s offense should still be able to generate plenty of opportunities tonight.
Tampa is generating the 10th most high-danger chances per contest, skating to 12.21 per 60 minutes. The Capitals are in the middle of the pack when it comes to allowing high-danger chances (11.21).
Tampa has been getting offensive contributions from plenty of different guys in the month of November. Since the first of the month, Nikita Kucherov, Brandon Hagel, and Anthony Cirelli have all been producing at least a point per game. Cirelli has been hot with seven goals in 10 games, and Brayden Point has tallied six goals in his last six games.
Let’s flip over to the Capitals, who have now played three games without their captain Alexander Ovechkin since he was injured vs. Utah. Dylan Strome continues to produce at a rapid rate for the Caps, with 16 points in his last 12 games with some help from Connor McMichael, Aliaksei Protos, and Pierre-Luc Dubois.
These two teams met earlier in the season and it resulted in a 3-0 win for Tampa, but tonight should be a bit more offensive.