Lightning vs Bruins Picks and Odds – August 5

• The Boston Bruins and Tampa Bay Lightning will face off on Wednesday, August 5th, 2020
• Tampa Bay beat the Bruins three out of four times they played during the regular season
• See the odds and best bets for this afternoon’s game, which sees the Bruins as home favorites
  

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The Lightning vs Bruins odds have Boston favored at -113 in their round-robin matchup against the Tampa Bay Lightning on Wednesday, August 5th, 2020 at 4:00 pm EST. After getting trounced in a 4-1 bout against the Philadelphia Flyers to open up their round-robin preliminary round, the Boston Bruins are seeking their first win since NHL play has resumed in a proverbial matchup featuring two of the league’s top teams.

The Tampa Bay Lightning made out well in their inaugural game, edging out the Washington Capitals 3-2 in a shootout victory on Monday night. The Lightning won three of four regular-season contests against Boston, despite narrowly outscoring them 12-10.

Lightning vs Bruins Odds

Odds taken August 4

Both Teams Have Identical Moneyline Records

Surprisingly (yet unsurprisingly), the Bruins and Lightning have identical records when it comes to covering moneyline wagers in 2019-2020. Both teams went 44-27 this season, tying for the NHL lead.

The Bruins also finished first in the NHL among wins covering the spread as favorites, however, Tampa Bay did not fare too bad themselves when covering the spreads as underdogs, going 8-1 in 2019-2020. While Boston also led the league as the favorite in moneyline wagers (41-22), the Lightning went a solid 6-3 for the same type of bet as underdogs.

Steven Stamkos Sidelined for Lightning

The Lightning will be without one of their top players in center Steven Stamkos, who’s been sidelined with a lower-body injury. Although he only played in two games against Boston this season, Stamkos was still an effective player against the Bruins, tallying two goals and three points.

Steven Stamkos has been ruled out for the @TBLightning's round-robin game vs. the @NHLBruins on Wednesday.https://t.co/WIywmC3K8O

— Sportsnet (@Sportsnet) August 4, 2020

Tampa Bay will have to hope their other top-tier forwards like Nikita Kucherov and Brayden Point (both of whom respectively had a goal and assist in Monday night’s game) can pick up the slack left by Stamkos’ absence. Despite averaging well over a point-per-game, Stamkos missed over a dozen games in 2019-2020 and has been plagued with persisting injuries throughout his storied career.

Both Teams Tied for Second-Most Games Scoring First, Lightning Have Better Win Percentage

The Bruins and Lightning both scored first in 41 games this season, tying for second among NHL teams. Coincidently, they’re also tied for second-fewest games where they’ve trailed first (29).

Out of those games where they’ve scored first, the Lightning wound up going 30-9-2, whereas Boston went 26-7-8. Tampa Bay has the better winning percentage when scoring first (.732), while Boston’s is (.634). On the contrary, Boston is the better team when trailing first. The Lightning went 13-12-4 in games where they trailed first (.448), with Boston going 18-7-4 (.621)—a strong sign of resilience.

Best Bets

This is a tough one for all the right reasons. Both teams are nearly identical in all the major statistics, with Tampa Bay being the superior team in possession at five-on-five. While the Bruins will look to shake off their frustrating loss to the Flyers, the Lightning aren’t necessarily on a stable foundation, since their shootout victory over Washington came after they blew a 2-0 lead.

Not having Stamkos will hurt for Tampa Bay, whereas the Bruins are expected to have goaltender Tuuka Rask available, who was briefly quarantined for 48 hours after coming down with a cough. I can’t see the Bruins going 0-2-0 and remaining the Eastern Conference’s only pointless team in the round-robin. They’re going to come out determined tonight.

The Pick: Boston Bruins (-113)