Defending Champs Chicago Faces High Octane Tampa Bay

Wagering: 1.888.238.8018 - 1.888.889.4313
Customer Service: 1.877.717.7747 - 1.888.889.4368

: 1.888.238.8198 - 1.888.889.4312
: 1.888.378.0888 - 1.888.889.4219

Defending Champs Chicago Faces High Octane Tampa Bay

The defending Stanley Cup Champion Chicago Blackhawks will try to continue their impressive run of recent play as they travel to Florida’s ‘Cigar City’ to take on the high scoring Tampa Bay Lightning. The Blackhawks bumbled through most of the first half of the season but have started to play like champs lately with only 1 regulation loss in their last 10 games. The Lightning have been near the top of the NHL’s scoring offense ranking this season and have also been at or near the top of the Eastern Conference standings. It’ll be an interesting contrast in styles as the teams tangle at the St. Pete Times Forum on Wednesday night.

Chicago looked nothing like Stanley Cup champions for the first half of the season and spent much of that time out of the top eight teams that’ll qualify for the playoffs. That’s changed dramatically of late—heading in to the weekend the Blackhawks had won 8 straight and 9 of their last 10 to pull into fourth place in the Western Conference and within 6 points of Central Division leading Detroit. Catching the Red Wings and taking over the division lead would vault them into the second place in the conference standings and they’d be well poised for a repeat run in the playoffs. Even if they fall short of that goal, they’re still playing their best hockey of the season at the best time of the year and that’ll make them dangerous in the playoffs.

Tampa Bay is one of the most confounding teams in the league. They score a lot of goals, but aren’t a very good defensive team. At press time they’re in third place in the NHL Eastern Conference despite having a -3 point scoring differential. Compare that to the other top teams in the East—Philadelphia, Boston and Pittsburgh have scoring differentials of +34, +47 and +27. They have found that even when you score a ton of goals as the season winds down it gets harder to beat good teams—Tampa has gone 4-4-2 in their last 10 games and is only one point ahead of a now defensively tenacious Washington Capitals team.

Our biggest concern here is scheduling—Chicago is coming off a game the night before against a plodding Florida Panthers team and the contrast in styles to the wide open Bolts combined with the back-to-back situation could be a problem. The Blackhawks are still our pick in this game—they’re a battle tested veteran team that knows what it takes to win a championship. That should be enough to get past a defensively porous and inconsistent Tampa Bay side.