Stars (+142) @ Lightning (5)
Pick: Lightning -157
I hate to give a boring handicap and say the Lightning are really good and are not going to go down 2-0 in the Stanley Cup Final, but that’s basically how I see tonight’s game unfolding. Tampa Bay absolutely dominated Dallas in every sense of the word in the third period on Saturday night but was already chasing the game and Anton Khudobin was brilliant yet again for Dallas between the pipes in a 4-1 Stars win. On the other hand, Andrei Vasilevskiy underperformed in goal for the Lightning and that will certainly have to change moving forward if Tampa is to hoist Lord Stanley’s Cup. Dallas is so well structured defensively and in net that a couple spotty goals from the opposing goaltender make the Stars a very hard team to come back on. That’s what Tampa learned on Saturday. However, if the Lightning can win the expected goals like they did on Saturday and tally up more shot attempts which they did convincingly in Game 1, I’d expect their top-end talent to crack Khudobin enough to even the series at 1 and so while it’s a juicy price, I’m willing to lay it here with Tampa Bay.