Pittsburgh Penguins vs. Tampa Bay Lightning Predictions, Picks and NHL Preview – February 5, 2016

The Pittsburgh Penguins are hitting their stride at the right time, as Sidney Crosby and company have stitched together four straight wins. They’ll be gunning for five in a row at Amelie Arena later tonight when they face the equally hot Tampa Bay Lightning.

Read on for a breakdown of this matchup. You can also check out our preview of Blackhawks vs. Stars.

Pittsburgh Penguins vs. Tampa Bay Lightning Betting Preview

Where: Amalie Arena, Tampa Bay

When: Friday, February 5, 2016 7:30 PM ET

Line: Pittsburgh Penguins vs. Tampa Bay Lightning – view all NHL lines

TV Broadcast: ROOT (Local: PIT)/ SUN (Local: TB)

Betting on the Pittsburgh Penguins (25-17-7)

Sidney Crosby wasn’t part of the All-Star festivities, but he’s definitely playing like an MVP of late. With Crosby waxing hot, the Pens were able to go 4-0 in their last four games.

That stretch includes Pittsburgh’s 6-5 win over Ottawa on Tuesday, when Crosby went nuclear on the Sens, netting a hat trick to go along with an assist. For those keeping count, Crosby has eight goals and six assists over his last eight games. Crosby will look to strike while the iron is hot later tonight against the Bolts, who beat Pittsburgh in the first meeting, 5-4 (OT). The Pens appear to know how to break Tampa Bay’s blue line in that game, though, as they won the shots battle, 40-25.

The Penguins have been deadly this season on the man advantage, as they’re eighth in the NHL with a 20.5 percent conversion rate. They’ve scored six power play goals on 16 chances over the last four contests.

On the other end of the ice, the Pens are hoping for a much better performance from Marc Andre-Fleury, who’s allowed five goals against Ottawa. Fleury, however, has managed two shutouts in two of his past five outings, so the Pens are counting on him to weather Tampa Bay’s middling offense that ranks 15th in the league with 2.6 goals for per game.

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Betting on the Tampa Bay Lightning (28-18-4)

What All-Star break hangover? The Lightning clearly don’t have that malady, as they quickly went back to work following the midseason lull by demolishing Detroit on Wednesday, 3-1. The surging Lightning now look to win three in a row and 10 of 11 when they host the Penguins later tonight. Tampa Bay is 7-0 in its last seven home games.

In the win over Detroit, the Lightning got an offensive boost from their second line with Tyler Johnson and Nikita Kucherov scoring a goal each with third-liner J.T. Brown providing the other goal. It’s the first line, however, that will be worth watching later tonight, considering that it was Vladislav Namestnikov, who did most of the damage in the first meeting with Pittsburgh by scoring three goals—including the game-winner in overtime.

Also, the Lightning are likely to put a different goalie in front of their tonight than in the previous matchup with Pittsburgh. Instead of Andrei Vasilevskiy, the Bolts may be going for Ben Bishop, who keeps a 20-14-3 record with a 1.99 GAA and .927 SV%. Bishop turned away 24 of 25 shots faced in the win over Detroit.

Tampa Bay, which allows just 2.3 goals per gam,e is 3-0 in its last three home games with Bishop as the starter.

Writer’s Prediction

Tampa Bay wins, 4-3.

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