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Winnipeg Jets vs Tampa Bay Lightning Best Bet: West vs East

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US Sports Expert

Winnipeg Jets vs Tampa Bay Lightning Best Bet: Friday, January 6th

It will be west vs east when the Lightning makes the trip to Winnipeg to take on the Jets on Friday night, and our resident pucks expert Ej Garr has his eyes on another team total. Something magical happens when these two teams take the ice, and it’s been happening for years!

In this article:

Winnipeg Jets vs Tampa Bay Lightning Preview

January 7, 01:00 (UK time)

The Lightning arrives in Winnipeg as slight favourites to take 2-points against the Jets on Friday night, but you’ll notice something that seems to happen whenever these two teams get together. Goals much?

Since they are not in the same conference, the Jets and Lightning don’t meet very often but since 2018 they have played 6 times. The theme every time has been twine and the sounds of horns with lamps being lit time and again. Last year, the Jets and Ning played a home-and-home series, and each time the home team earned a 7 – 4 win in convincing fashion.

The Jets are not the same team in the least, and playing their totals this season has been a tall order of late but it won’t stop me from doing it today. I was hoping to get a better line than 1.75 with the Lightning because I think they’ll be the team that has all the success scoring tonight.

The last 10 times the Jets have taken the ice, we have not seen more than 6 goals scored, but all of that is about to change today. The Lightning is ranked 4th in scoring (3.5 GPG) and with the Power Play (27.5%), and I suspect that the Tampa Bay team total is also a valid play tonight. Marathon is showing 2.19 for the Team Bay Team Total of Over 3.5 Goals, and that is sold! If any of these two teams are going to struggle to score, it will be the Jets as usual, and I foresee a 4 – 2 Tampa win even if it takes the empty-netter to get us there.

From all early indications, Connor Hellebuyck and Andrei Vasilevskiy will be the two netminders tonight. Hellebuyck is riding a personal 3-game win streak as is the Jets, and he has been stingy only allowing a total of 5 goals during the span. However, Vancouver, Edmonton, and Calgary are not the Tampa offense and this is about matchups not win streaks.

At 19 – 9 with a 2.31 GAA, Hellebuyck is a big reason why the Jets rank 2nd in the NHL allowing an average of 2.6 goals a night. As you always see me say, none of that happened against Tampa Bay, and this game is a matchup problem for the Jets.

First of all, the Lightning is as healthy as they have been in two years, and everyone they want on the ice is out there contributing. Nikita Kucherov has already thrown 133 pieces of rubber at the net this year, and his 54 points come from 41 assists, which is hella impressive to me.

On top of that, Steven Stamkos and Brayden Point have combined for 80 points at Center, and the two have combined to score 15 power-play goals this campaign. If the Jets find themselves in the sin bin too often tonight, it will spell disaster!