Now Is the Time to Bet the Tampa Bay Lightning to Win the Eastern Conference Finals

The New York Rangers walked away victorious from Game 1 of the Eastern Conference Finals; beating the back-to-back Stanley Cup champions, the Tampa Bay Lightning, by a final score of 6-2.

Rangers fans are celebrating in the streets, but I'm here to tell you Lightning bettors, that this is good news, if anything.

If you didn't bet the Lightning to win the series before it started, now's the time to do it. In fact, I'm going to be placing a (likely irresponsible) amount on them.

WynnBET Sportsbook has them listed at +108 to win the series. I'll gladly put five (5) units on that.

I wouldn't recommend you put as much on it as I am, it's admittedly borderline irresponsible, but there's reasons I'm not panicking after a Game 1 loss.

Tampa Bay Lightning Will Win the Eastern Conference Final

The Rangers were out-played in the first two series in every facet except for one: Goaltending.

They got away with it again last night, but I refuse to believe it will continue through a best-of-7 series against this Tampa Bay team.

If you think I'm just being a "hater", and don't know what I'm talking about. Let's take a look at some numbers, because numbers don't lie.

Rangers Goals These Playoffs:

• Expected Goals For/60: 2.85
• Actual GF/60: 3.4

• Expected Goals Against/60: 4.04
• Actual GA/60: 2.77

Rangers High-Danger Scoring Chances These Playoffs:

• High-Danger Scoring Chances For/60: 10.76
• High-Danger Scoring Chances Allowed/60: 17.67

Those kinds of numbers aren't sustainable, no matter who your goaltender is. I don't care if you have Vladislav Tretiak in between the pipes, those numbers will come back to haunt you eventually.

Now, you might be thinking, "but they won by four goals last night, they out-played the Lightning!"

Did they though?

Game 1 Statistics:

Lightning's numbers:

• CORSI%: 53.23
• xGF: 4.42
• XGA: 3.08
• HDCF: 20
• HDCA: 14

Rangers' numbers:

• CORSI%: 53.23%
• xGF: 3.08
• xGA: 4.42
• HDCF: 14
• HDCA: 14

The Rangers, once again, got strong play from their goaltender and the opposing goalie struggled, the story of their playoff run. But if you think Andrei Vasilevskiy is going to continue to struggle the rest of the series, I'm sorry to tell ya, he's not going to.

Even if Vasilevskiy has an average performance, the Lightning win. Unfortunately, with a save percentage of 82.35%, he had his worst game of his postseason career.

Unless you think the 2019 Vezina Trophy winner and the 2021 Conn Smythe Trophy winner is going to continue to stink the for the next 4-6 games, then the Lightning are a fantastic bet right now to win the series.

They're -125 favorites in Game 2 on Friday night.

You can track Iain's bets on Betstamp here.