The Vegas Golden Knights will have to wait a little longer to determine their opponent in the Stanley Cup Finals after the Washington Capitals forced a Game 7 in the Eastern Conference finals with a 3-0 win on Monday. Will the Caps clinch a ticket to the finals? Or will the Lightning send themselves to a date with Vegas?
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Betting Preview for the Washington Capitals vs Tampa Bay Lightning NHL East Conference Finals Game 7 on May 23, 2018
When: Amalie Arena, Tampa Bay Florida
When: Wednesday, May 23,8:00pm EST
Line: Washington Capitals (point spread) vs Tampa Bay Lightning (point spread) – view all NBA lines
TV Broadcast: NBCS, TVA
Betting on the Washington Capitals (+1.5)
The Capitals fought with a tremendous sense of urgency in Game 6, as it was win or go home for them. The Caps outshot Tampa Bay on Monday, 34-24, and played the Bolts rough, as evidenced by the 39 hits they applied on the Lighting, who only had 19 hits themselves. T.J. Oshie scored twice, including an empty-netter, while Devante Smith-Pelly scored his second goal of the series to help lift Washington to a victory. The Caps have won the possession battle in each of the last six games of the series, so there’s reason to expect they’ll do it again on Wednesday. That would be a great boost for goalie Braden Holtby, who stopped all 24 shots he faced in Game 6. Holtby has a 2.16 GAA and .919 SV% in 17 appearances (16 starts) in front of the net this postseason.
Betting on the Tampa Bay Lightning (-1.5)
Although they failed to wrap the series up in six games, the Lightning are at least going to have home-ice advantage in Game 7. The Lightning did not have much going on on offense in Game 6, as mentioned earlier with their limited count of shots on goal. Still, they have a lethal group of scorers in the form of the likes of Steven Stamkos, Nikita Kucherov, and Ondrej Palat, who compose the team’s first line. Kucherov, Stamkos, and Brayden Point all has seven goals in the playoffs, while Palat has six. While the Lightning allowed a power play goal on Monday, that’s the first PP goal they allowed in eight tries on the man advantage by the Caps. Andrei Vasilevskiy , meanwhile, has to be in top form for Game 7 after allowing two goals on 33 shots faced in Game 6. He is 11-5 with a 2.55 GAA and .920 SV% in the playoffs.
Writer’s Prediction
Washington wins, 3-2.
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