Stanley Cup Playoff Betting -- Lightning out to strike again in Game 4

  • In Charles Jay
  • Tue, Jun 7th, 2022 2:54:38 pm
  • By Charles Jay - Exclusive to OSGA


If the New York Rangers can bounce back from a last-minute defeat in Game 3, they can take a 3-1 lead in the Eastern Conference finals of the Stanley Cup playoffs.


Could anything have been as heartbreaking as having to endure a goal with less than a minute to go to prevent you from going up 3-0 in a series aginst the two-time defending Stanley Cup champions? As BetOnline customers know, that is what happened to the New York Rangers against the Tampa Bay Lightning in Sunday's Game 3 of the Eastern finals.

The Rangers, who had been so good at killing off power plays for most of the playoffs, allowed two power play gols on penaltirs committed by the same player - Jacob Trouba - but they also got two power play gols of their own, as their likely Vezina-winning goaltender, Igor Shesterkin, was interfered with much of the way.

Tampa Bay inundated Shesterkin with pressure, and well, it could be argued that if there is such a thing as momentum, they have it coming into Game 4 at the Amalie Arena in Tampa (8 PM ET, ESPN).

For the Rangers, Ryan Strome went off with a quadriceps injury, but the forward should be ready to play on Tuesday night. The Bolts are still waiting for Brayden Point to be available. Their top center, who has been down with injury since the final game of the opening series against Toronto, may be able to play in Game 5. Point has scored 14 goals in each of the last two postseasons.

In the Stanley Cup playoff betting odds posted on this game by the folks at BetOnline, the champions are favored to even things up:

Tampa Bay Lightning -173
New York Rangers +158

Over 5.5 Goals +111
Under 5.5 Goals -122

And on the puck line....

Lightning -1.5 Goals (+155)
Rangers +1.5 Goals (-125)

Shesterkin was once again brilliant in goal, stopping 48 of 51 shots (a .941 save percentage). But how long can he hold up under such heavy pounding? The Rangers are allowing too many chances. This is a team that was ahead 2-0 in the second period, but when the Bolts had to pour it on, they did. Over the last 13-1/2 minutes of Game 3, they had only three shots on goal. Meanwhile, in 5-on-5 situations, Tampa Bay got off 18 shots attempts in the third period to just two for New York.

There is no mistaking that the Lightning brings the championship-level experience into the fray that the Rangers lack. Ondrej Palat had the goal with 46 seconds left that broke a 2-2 tie. That was the tenth game-winning goal he's had in his playoff career. Nikita Kucherov (+1200 to win the Conn Smythe Trophy at BetOnline) had a goal and two assists, and got nine shot attempts off.

And then,of course, there is Andrei Vasilevskiy in net, and while he has not matched Shesterkin's brilliance this season, he does have 58 playoff victories and a 2.28 postseason goals-against.

Undoubtedly the Rangers have to defend better. We can appreciate that they are a resilient bunch, having bounced back from 3-1 3-2 deficits to Pittsburgh and Carolina in the previous two series.

But ultimately it is the consistency of Shesterkin who has kept them afloat, validating his candidacy not only for the Conn Smythe and the Vezina, but the Hart Trophy as well. Four of the five goals in Sunday's game were achieved with a man advantage. We're looking for another tight one, which points us UNDER.


Let BetOnline take you all the way through to the Stanley Cup finals!...... Remember that there re all kinds of props you can play through Prop Builder, and that there are plenty of deposit methods available through cryptocurrency, including, but not limited to, Bitcoin!


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