Simon Dalton presents his prediction for the NHL regular season match.
The Minnesota Wild have put together a successful road trip, winning three matches with a cumulative score of 12-3. On Thursday night, they'll continue their away tour in Florida with a game against the Tampa Bay Lightning.
Tampa Bay Lightning
The Tampa Bay Lightning remain unpredictable: one night they look like an unstoppable force with Stanley Cup aspirations, and on another, they collapse defensively and lose to lesser opponents. The team have allowed five goals in each of their last three games. Naturally, relying solely on their talented top-six forwards to compensate for this hasn't always been successful.
Minnesota Wild
The Minnesota Wild have every chance of becoming one of the toughest teams in the league defensively. They boast a cohesive blue line and an experienced coach who prefers to win with a scoreline of 2:1 rather than 6:5. So far, the Wild have been effective: they lead the league in defensive quality in the 5-on-5 format over 60 minutes, both in goals allowed (1.14) and expected goals (1.8).
Tampa Bay Lightning vs Minnesota Wild Prediction
The Tampa Bay Lightning's offence is heavily reliant on Nikita Kucherov's talent (7+5). He is by far the leading scorer for the Lightning, but he is less effective against the Minnesota Wild. They are one of the few NHL teams against whom Kucherov does not average more than a point per game (17 points in 17 games). The visitors will likely drag the favourites into their preferred low-event hockey, offering 50/50 chances. With this scenario, the bet on the Minnesota Wild to win looks promising.
