Tampa Bay Lightning vs San Jose Sharks: Preview, Matchups, Odds

Thus far, it has been a successful homestand for the Tampa Bay Lightning. Taking out the collapse against Toronto last Saturday, the Bolts have collected five out of a possible six points so far on their homestand.

The Lightning will have a golden opportunity to pick up two more points tonight as one of the worst teams in the NHL come limping into Amalie Arena.

Tampa Bay Lightning: Shark Bait

• Time – 7:00 PM
• Place – Amalie Arena
• TV – Bally Sports
• Radio – 102.5 The Bone

Tampa was somewhat fortunate to come away with two points against Carolina. The Hurricanes had an expected goals of 3.18, but the big night from Jonas Johannson kept a big zero on the scoreboard as the Lightning won 3-0.

Jon Cooper seems to have settled in on a top line he likes for now. Alex Barre-Boulet continues to play with Brayden Point and Nikita Kucherov and came through with his second goal of the season on Tuesday.

Cooper did make a switch and moved Nick Paul up to the second line while moving Anthony Cirelli down. As we noted earlier in the week, the pairing of Cirelli, Steven Stamkos, and Brayden Point was not going well. Adding Paul to the group seemed to pay dividends, and the line was able to ice the game in the third period with an even-strength goal from Paul.

Who to watch on San Jose

There is no way to be nice about it: The San Jose Sharks are one of the worst teams in the NHL. They enter tonight winless, with an overtime loss acting as their lone point in six games.

Pick any metric you want; San Jose is near or at the bottom of the league. The Sharks have the second-worst Corsi percentage (shots attempts for vs shot attempts against), the second-fewest goal from 5 v 5 play (with just five even-strength goals in six games), and they have the worst expected goals percentage in the NHL (teams have been expected to outscore San Jose by a rate of almost 2 to 1).

Tomas Hertl is probably the most recognizable name on San Jose right now. In his 11th season in the NHL, all with San Jose, Hertl has 204 career goals and 455 career points. He leads the team with five points this season. Look for him to get paired with Alexander Barabanov and Anthony Duclair, the latter of which is in his first season with San Jose after spending the last three with Florida.

Vegas Says…

This will be the most the Tampa Bay Lightning have been favored this season, with Vegas listing the Bolts as -275 favorites (bet $275 to profit $100).

Tampa is 2-1 this season when listed as the favorite.

The over/under is back down to 6.5 goals, more so a reflection of the lack of scoring punch San Jose has. The Sharks have only hit the over once this season, going 1-4-1 against the over/under.