Tampa Bay Lightning center Steven Stamkos skates off as the Columbus Blue Jackets celebrate their 4-3 win during Game 1 in Tampa, Fla. (AP Photo/Chris O’Meara) Associated Press
NHL

NHL Playoffs: Dietel picks Lightning v Blue Jackets, Golden Knights v Sharks and Islander v Penguins

First game at 7:08 pm

Craig Dietel

Best Bet
LIGHTNING (+105) over Blue Jackets and to cover the spread (-1.5)

Next Best Bet
GOLDEN KNIGHTS (+110) over Sharks

Best Under
Penguins-ISLANDERS (5.5)

The Skinny
The Lightning suffered an embarrassing loss to the Blue Jackets after surrendering a three goal lead in game one at home. This was the first time in Lightning history that this has ever happened. Look for them to correct the ship tonight, and to make Columbus look silly while doing so. . . The Golden Knights got trounced by the Sharks at the Shark Tank in game one. We think this is going to be a great bounce back opportunity for Vegas. We will be able to see if they can adapt to the Sharks run of play and turn the tides. Mark Stone and Co. should be able to get it done . . . Lastly, we saw a high scoring Isles-Pens game on Wednesday. This should be an abnormality as the Isles usually don’t score many goals but they also don’t give up many. We like the odds for the under hitting tonight.

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