In a rematch of the 2021 Stanley Cup Finals, the Tampa Bay Lightning are hosting the Montreal Canadiens in Amalie Arena in Tampa, FL on December 28, 2021.
Match Details
- Tampa Bay Lightning vs Montreal Canadiens
- NHL – Regular season
- Date – 28/12/2021
- Starting time – 7 PM ET
- Venue: Amalie Arena, Tampa, FL
Tampa Bay Lightning Stats & Form
The defending champions Tampa Bay Lightning are on top of the Eastern Conference with a 20-6-4 record. They have won eight of the last nine games.
Most recently, the Lightning defeated the Las Vegas Knights 4-3 on the road.
Steven Stamkos scored the tiebreaking goal on a third-period power play in the final NHL game before an extended holiday break.
Gabriel Fortier, Pierre-Edouard Bellemare and Anthony Cirelli also scored for the Lightning, who played without coach Jon Cooper and trailed 3-1 late in the second. Andrei Vasilevskiy made 36 saves as the Lightning won their third straight and ended Vegas’ five-game winning streak.
The Lightning are 14-5-2 in conference play. Tampa Bay leads the Eastern Conference shooting 11.1% and averaging 3.2 goals on 28.9 shots per game.
Steven Stamkos leads the Lightning with 14 goals and has 35 points. Victor Hedman has nine assists over the last 10 games for Tampa Bay.
Tampa Bay Lightning News
Brayden Point is still out of the Lightning lineup due to an upper body injury while Eric Cernak is questionable.
Montreal Canadiens Stats & Form
The Montreal Canadiens are having a terrible season as they are at the bottom of the Eastern Conference with a 7-21-3 record.
Montreal played their last game on December 16th winning 3-2 in the shootout against the Philadelphia Flyers.
Jonathan Drouin was the only scorer in the shootout in an empty Bell Centre because of the rise of Covid-19 cases.
Artturi Lehkonen and Laurent Dauphin scored in regulation for Montreal, which snapped a seven-game losing streak. Cayden Primeau allowed two goals on 38 shots and he saved every shootout attempt.
The Canadiens are 2-5-1 against division opponents. Montreal scores 2.1 goals per game, the least in the league. Nicholas Suzuki leads them with six total goals. Suzuki leads the Canadiens with 18 points, scoring six goals and registering 12 assists. Jonathan Drouin has 6 points over the last 10 games for Montreal.
Montreal Canadiens News
Montreal will be without Mike Hoffman, Artturi Lehkonen and Christian Dvorak.
Tampa Bay Lightning vs Montreal Canadiens Head-to-Head Stats
The Tampa Bay Lightning have won nine of the last ten against the Montreal Canadiens including the 4-1 Stanley Cup finals series win last season.
The last time these two met was on December 7, when Tampa Bay won 3-2.
Seven of their last ten head-to-head have finished under 5.5 games.
Tampa Bay Lightning vs Montreal Canadiens Betting Odds
As expected, the odds are in favor of the Lighting with -167 for their win while the Canadiens are at 336. The draw is set at 400.
The total goals margin is set at 6 with -108 to go over and -123 for under.
Betting Tip
The Tampa Bay Lightning have been a nightmare opponent for the Canadiens in the past couple of years. That might be an extra motive for Montreal but they simply do not possess the quality to threaten the defending champions. Both teams will miss a lot of players but Tampa Bay will win this one easily.
- Tip Quote (Home team win): -174 by 22bet
- Tip Quote (Draw): 392 by 22bet
- Tip Quote (Away team win): 366 by 22bet
- Expert betting tip: Tampa Bay Lightning (-174 by 22bet)
