NHL Best Playoff Picks For June 9th, 2022 - Ride The Lightning

NHL Best Playoff Picks For June 9th - Eastern Conference Final

Check out our NHL Best Playoff Picks for the Eastern Conference Final as Game 5 approaches on Thursday night!

With the online Stanley Cup betting odds heating up, here are some numbers for this pivotal clash between the Tampa Bay Lightning and New York Rangers. Let's have a look at the current NHL Playoffs odds.

Return Of The Tampa Bay Lightning

Honestly, this sounds more like a horror movie title, but it truly is "Return Of The Tampa Bay Lightning". Tampa enjoyed their trip back home while outscoring the New York Rangers 7-3 in the two games at Amalie Arena. No one should be surprised in a way. It is hard to keep a championship team down. This was not going to be easy. Andrei Vasilevskiy, Steven Stamkos, and Nikita Kucherov made sure this would be a series again.

Our plan is to hit the NHL Best Playoff Picks of June 9th, 2022, at full speed! There are some ways to attack this, but this series does have some eerie similarities to what happened in 2015. On the other hand, there have been considerable differences as well. History is not always fully the same. Sometimes twists and turns dominate the landscape. It's a nice way of saying one may get to the same end via different means.

Tampa did this against Toronto in Round 1. Honestly, several times in that series, the Lightning looked very much out of it and finished. Yet, they persevered. The Lightning scored some timely goals, and Andrei Vasilevskiy stopped the Maple Leafs cold when he needed. Round 2 features a slightly easier sweep against Florida, but this round feels similar to the opening round. It is weird how things can get a bit cyclical sometimes.

The Eastern Conference Finals have featured two of the best Russian goalies and goalies in the world. Andrei Vasilevskiy and Igor Shesterkin showcasing their skills have been a lot of fun, along with their more "human" moments. We cover the bases and spotlight the top NHL betting sites.

Wait, Tampa Bay Is Favored In Game 5?

It is a touch peculiar that Game 5 puts the screws to bettors a bit. Why Tampa Bay is favored in Game 5? That's an excellent question! Home history tends to say this is not possible. Sure, Tampa Bay has won two straight games and looked really good on Tuesday night in their 4-1 win. However, New York has been a completely different team at home.

Like 2015, the series is tied at two games apiece after four games. However, there are few similarities after that. New York won both home games with ease. Tampa Bay dominated from the second half of Game 3 until now. That sums up the series succinctly. More critically, for Tampa Bay, their power play started to look like a power play while their even-strength attack produced three goals in Game 4. That was a huge boost.

Now, Brayden Point got ruled out more than likely for Game 5, barring something unforeseen. Point keeps getting closer to playing and is skating more and more. It seems like a matter of when not if, with the center. If the pivot is in any decent form, that may spell curtains for New York. As it is, Andrei Vasilevskiy and their "counter-attack defense" have not given up an even-strength goal in more than two games.

Most tend to forget how good New York looked in Games 1 and 2. They are not going to back down here. Again, the game between Shesterkin and Vasilevskiy will be epic. However, Vasilevskiy has the pedigree and has been in this spot many times. That is why they are one of our NHL's Best Playoff Picks for game number five. Now, what aids us here is that number that gets us closer to even. That is never a bad thing in such an important game.

Tampa Bay Lightning To beat the New York Rangers

+118

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Tampa Bay Flexed Its Talent And Showed Its Mettle

Tampa Bay flexed its talent and showed its mettle on Sunday afternoon and Tuesday night. Now, a big part of that was Andrei Vasilevskiy again playing like the goaltender he is capable of being. After giving up six goals in Game 1, the Russian yielded just three in Games 3 and 4 combined. More importantly, he made the saves he had to. That was something Vasilevskiy did not do in Madison Square Garden. The Rangers will not have an easy time beating him there at least a third time.

Honestly, the Rangers showed just how good they were on the power play, even in Game 4. Their only goal came on the man advantage, but the chances on those man advantages were more limited. The Lightning started to repel those cross-ice passes which were so prevalent from Games 1-3. Tampa Bay showed the might of their counter-game as New York broke down and showed their ability to answer less and less. High danger chances and expected goals were dominated in Tampa by Tampa.

Tampa Bay Other NHL Best Playoff Picks

Even with the parallels from Game 1 in New York, do not expect Game 5 to be that quite proficient offensively. There will be plenty of speed but will be plenty of slow going too. With Ryan Strome and Filip Chytil's game-time decisions already, New York could be in further trouble. NHL Best Playoff Picks props Tampa Bay up for a reason. So, how about the over/under or maybe a prop or two?

Let's roll with that Under at 5 1/2 goals tonight. If history tells us anything, goaltending in this series is about to step up even more.

Tampa Bay Lightning and New York Rangers To score less than six goals

-140

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