Stanley Cup Final Picks: Avalanche vs Lightning Game 4

Stanley Cup Game 4

We have ourselves a series. The Lightning struck back in Game 3 at home jumping out to an early lead and never looking back. Darcy Kuemper didn’t have his best night for the Avs exposing their glaring weakness while Tampa played a near perfect game. Shifting the focus to tonight, how the Avs respond is the big question. They didn’t play all that bad in Game 3 and the Power Play was lethal with two tallies on the man advantage. Can they get to Vasilevskiy early or will he settle in and get comfortable? I’m on FanDuel for my odds tonight. You can sign up with them HERE and get a $1,000 No Sweat first bet on your initial wager. Onto the bets.

Avalanche vs Lightning Over 6 (+100)

Yes, as series start to get deeper things usually tighten up especially this late in the playoffs with this good of teams but given what we’ve seen in the first 3 games I still like the over. The Avs have been held under 3 goals just twice this postseason, and in Game 3 Tampa really sat back and didn’t allow much in the 3rd Period. Given how good Tampa looked, how good Colorado is, and how Kuemper looked in goal I think the recipe for the over is there even as the series gets deeper.

Nathan MacKinnon (+164) & Cale Makar (+310) Anytime Goal Scorer

We’re going to hear from MacKinnon at some point again this series. He hasn’t been bad, just a little snakebitten and held out of the net the last few games. He’s still getting his shots on goal with 14 in 3 games, and we’ll hear from him at some point. +164 is probably some of the best value you’ll get on MacKinnon anytime scorer so I’m happy to take it. Speaking of anytime scorer value, Cale Makar is +310. He’s usually closer to +240. The numbers go up as the series gets later because things tighten up like I mentioned, but I still think we’ll see our fair share of goals. Colorado’s Power Play is buzzing, Makar runs their Power Play, there’s too much value on him not to grab it here.

Ondrej Palat Anytime Goal Scorer (+245)

With how good Stamkos, Kucherov, and Hedman have been for Tampa during this current core’s run, the often forgot about player is Ondrej Palat. Hate to keep relating this to the Blackhawks run, but he’s the Patrick Sharp of this core. Top 6 player, scores A LOT of important goals, plays both ways, and often gets a little overshadowed by the elite star power on his own team. Palat already has two goals in this series, he’s got 10 in the postseason, and he knows how to bury the chances his elite, playmaking teammates set him up for. He’s got 7 goals in 8 home playoff games this season. Let’s take the value at +245.

WRITTEN BY

Matt Rooney

Matt comes from Chicago and has lived in the area his whole life. Graduated from and played football at Illinois Wesleyan University in Bloomington, IL while also serving as the director of student sports broadcasting. He writes for Betsperts as well as appears on several shows across the network.

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