Tampa Bay Lightning vs Boston Bruins: the Hosts to Pove Themselves Favourites

Tampa Bay will play the next match at home against Boston Bruins. Will Jon Cooper’s team win another victory? Let’s choose several options for the bet.

In the previous match against Calgary, forward Nikita Kucherov rejoined the team. The Lightning repudiated Riley Nash, and now the team looks almost fully formed. The first two links have hardly changed compared to the previous championship season. The third combination is now Maroon with Perry and Bellemare. In the fourth match against the Flames, Joseph came out in the centre, Katchouk and Raddysh on the edges. Ross Colton is still injured. The Lightning has the opportunity to take on another player by expelling the expiring contract of the career-ending Brent Seabrook. Well, isn’t Tampa Bay the leading contender for the Stanley Cup? It looks like it is.

As for the fight with Calgary, the Lightning won very confidently - 4:1. Kucherov, who assisted both Point and Palat, had two passes. 26 saves from Andrei Vasilevskiy, who lacked over 4 minutes before the shutout. Tampa Bay has 23 wins in 36 games. Jon Cooper’s team tops the Western Conference standings.

The Bruins are going to the next game after a home loss to Minnesota. There wasn’t much hockey in this game – the teams staged a real massacre, getting 50 minutes of penalty. As a result, the opponents scored two goals, and the decisive goal was Matthew Boldy’s puck. 2:3 - Boston failed to cope with Kirill Kaprizov, who scored one of the Wild’s goals and suffered his first defeat in four previous matches.

Now Boston has 17 wins in 30 games. Bruce Cassidy’s team takes 8th place in the Eastern Conference and continues to fight for wild-card tickets, ahead by 1 point of 9th Detroit.

Tampa Bay convinces everyone that it is the undisputed favourite of this season. The only team in the East that could stop the Lightning, the New York Islanders, might not make it into the playoffs. Colorado is in the West, but the Avalanches first need to reach the finals, which has been impossible in recent years. In the upcoming match against Boston, John Cooper’s team will indeed demonstrate its high class. Prediction: Tampa Bay is likely to win.