Overview
The Tampa Bay Lightning continue their west coast trip tonight in Anaheim where they take on the Ducks. Being in different conferences these two teams obviously don’t play each other all that often but since 2003 the Ducks are 7-4 versus the Lightning plus they are 8-3-1 lifetime versus the Lightning in games played in Anaheim.
Head to Head Trends
Home team is 5-0 in the last 5 meetings.
Lightning are 1-4 in the last 5 meetings in Anaheim.
Anaheim Ducks (-125)
The Anaheim Ducks are 1st in the Pacific Division with 77 points 10 points up on the 2nd place Vancouver Canucks. This has been another strong season for the Ducks but they have been struggling of late losing 4 of their last 5 games. I think the Ducks are fairly lucky to be where they are at in the standings because on the season they have scored 169 goals total while allowing 160 and if you do the math on that they should probably be just a few games over .500 instead of in 1st place. At home the Ducks have a 19-10 record with a +0.35 goal differential.
Anaheim Ducks Trends
Ducks are 52-25 in their last 77 home games.
Ducks are 1-4 in their last 5 overall.
Tampa Bay Lightning (+115)
The Tampa Bay Lightning are 2nd in the Atlantic Division with 76 points 2 points back of the 1st place Montreal Canadians but they have 3 more games played then the Canadians. They also have 4 more games played then the 3rd place Detroit Red Wings who are just 4 points back of the them so when the games start to even out they might drop a couples places in the standings. The Lightning have played great for most of the season but they are starting to cool off a bit going just 8-8 over their last 16 games which includes losing 3 of their last 4. The Lightning have also not played all that well on the road this season where they are just 13-17 largely due to poor goaltending allowing 3.1 goals per game.
Tampa Bay Lightning Trends
Lightning are 2-6 in their last 8 road games.
Lightning are 15-36 in their last 51 road games vs. a team with a home winning % of greater than .600.
Even though I think the Ducks have been a little bit lucky this season and may be due for a few losses I still like them as small -125 favorites over the Lightning who have really had their struggles playing away from home this season.
Free Pick: Anaheim Ducks -125 at 5Dimes
