Tampa desperately needs points, because it is in 13th place in the Eastern Conference, behind the playoff zone. It only seems that while the second decade of November, another 65 matches are ahead, and everything can be fixed. Yes, and “Lightning” had five games less than the same “Toronto,” which is in 12th place in the East and where Maple Leafs fans already hate Mike Babcock.
So, the head coach of Tampa John Cooper has an unstable position, therefore and he will encourage his team. The Lightning defeated the Buffalo in Stockholm twice (3: 2 and 5: 3), beat the Rangers at home (9: 3), but the Winnipeg flew home (3: 4), and lost in all respects and in regular time without taking a single point.
At the same time, “St. Louis” remains the best Western team in the table. And there will also be crazy motivation for Tampa. We are waiting not for the match, but the high playoff level rivalry. Therefore, we will not try to predict the winner here. Here I would choose the following coefficients:
1.9 – total over (6) in regular time. “Tampa” plays powerfully in the attack, and therefore it seems that the match should be effective.
2.4 – the total is higher (3.5), specifically on the Tampa, where the attack must manifest itself and squeeze four goals out of itself.
2.02 – and let’s play with total more (3) specifically on St. Louis. If the “Blues” scored three goals, it would be a refund. If four, we are in profit. If two or less – the St. Louis affair will be a fail. But look at the character of the guys from Craig Beruby’s team.
