Betsided

Top NHL Picks and Predictions Today (Best Bets for Lightning vs. Rangers Game 5)

By Iain MacMillan

The Rangers and Lightning will face-off in Game 5 tonight.
The Rangers and Lightning will face-off in Game 5 tonight. / Bruce Bennett/GettyImages
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The Colorado Avalanche are patiently waiting for the Eastern Conference Final to conclude, so they can find out who they'll be facing in the Stanley Cup Final.

We'll take one step closer to determining who the Eastern Conference champion is tonight when the Tampa Bay Lightning and New York Rangers face-off in Madison Square Garden for Game 5.

Here's my best bet for tonight's game, with the odds courtesy of WynnBET, along with two prop bets that you should consider sprinkling on.

Best Bets for Lightning vs. Rangers Game 5

  • Lightning ML -130
  • Igor Shesterkin OVER 33.5 Saves (-115)
  • Ondrej Palat OVER 0.5 Points (-108)

Lightning ML -130

Game 4 between the Lightning and Rangers was a bit of a bizarro world-type situation. For the first time in the series, the Rangers outshot the Lightning, but this time it was Andrei Vasilevskiy, not Igor Shesterkin, who stole the show and secured the win.

He stopped 34 of the Rangers 35 shots, while Shesterkin allowed four goals on 31 shots.

Regardless, the Lightning are proving to be the better team in this series. They have a CORSI percentage of 53.92%, a FENWICK percentage of 54.76%, and their expected goals per game is 4.08, compared to the Rangers at 2.84.

I'm aware that the Rangers have won eight-straight home games, but I'm not trying to read too much into that. Let's not overthink this, and continue to back the better team.

Igor Shesterkin OVER 33.5 Saves (-115)

We barely missed out on this bet in Game 4, but I'm going back to the well on it today. The Lightning are averaging 38.25 shots on net per 60 minutes in this series, and there's no reason to believe that we won't see a similar result tonight.

Unless Shesterkin has a second-straight bad game, which I don't imagine will happen, this bet will always be in play.

Ondrej Palat OVER 0.5 Points (-108)

Ondrej Palat might be one of the most underrated players on the Tampa Bay Lightning. He had three points in Game 4 with a goal and two assists, and has recorded at least one point in three of the four games so far this series.

At -108 odds, he has the most betting value amongst all Lightning players to record a point tonight.

You can track Iain's bets on Betstamp here.

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