NHL BETTING PREVIEW: Tampa Bay Lightning VS. Philadelphia Flyers 

It’s Thursday night, and in the world of hockey, that means one thing, it’s a busy one around the NHL. 

With 11 games on the schedule, there is plenty of action on the Fanduel Sportsbook. While we are interested in most, the one that has caught our eye is the Tampa Bay Lightning at the Philadelphia Flyers in the 7 pm ET window. 

Earlier, we mentioned that we are intrigued by this matchup between the Lightning and Flyers. That’s because while the numbers suggest Tampa has dominated the Flyers as of late, winning seven of their past ten meetings, but why we are so interested is because these two teams haven’t seen each other since August 8th, 2020. 

A year and a half in the NHL could be equivalent to a lifetime anywhere else. There has been a lot of overhaul on both of these rosters, especially on the home side. 

The Flyers made some big swings this offseason, bringing in names like Cam Atkinson, Ryan Ellis, Keith Yandle, and Rasmus Ristolainen. While these moves have led to Philadelphia’s offensive numbers dropping marginally from last this season, it’s a much better defensive team. Philly went from 3.30 GA/GP to a much better 2.43 this year, leading to the under 64.3% of the time this year.

In Tampa, they have somehow managed to keep their core together. Guys like Brayden Point, Steven Stamkos, Victor Headman, and Andrei Vasilevskiy are all leading the way. This Lightning team is chalked with depth as well. Even without Nikita Kucherov, names like Ross Colton and Mathieu Joseph have helped the Bolts uphold their ruthless offense, scoring three or more goals in six out of eight games without Kucherov. 

It is tricky with a 5.5 over/under because while the Flyers’ defense can be great, they haven’t seen an offense like Tampa’s in a year and a half. Good offense always prevails in our books, which is why Tampa will leave Philly with a win and a lot of goals to go with it. 

THE PICKS: Lightning Puckline (+184), Total Goals: Over 5.5 (-118)