The Montreal Canadiens will have their backs to the wall when they return home for Game 3 of their Stanley Cup Final clash with the Tampa Bay Lightning on Friday night as +115 home underdogs on the NHL odds at sportsbooks monitored by OddsShark.com.
Montreal outshot Tampa Bay by a wide 43-23 margin in Game 2, but it was not enough to prevent a 3-1 defeat that leaves the club lagging 2-0 in the series going into Friday night’s matchup at the Bell Centre.
Now riding their first losing streak since dropping three in a row to Toronto in the first round, the Canadiens have a mountain to climb to get back into this series. With Wednesday’s defeat, Montreal has now lost six straight to the Lightning, and has failed to record consecutive victories over the defending Stanley Cup champions while posting just three wins in 17 meetings since October 2016, according to the OddsShark NHL Database.
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The Canadiens’ woes against Tampa Bay extend to the postseason, with the team topping the Lightning just twice in their past eight playoff meetings. However, Montreal has produced better results when battling the Lightning on home ice during the playoffs, winning three of their past five while holding Tampa Bay shooters to three or fewer goals on four occasions over that stretch.
While the Canadiens saw their request to increase fan attendance to 50% capacity for Friday night’s Game 3 matchup get denied, they have managed to produce results on home ice despite playing before sparse crowds. Montreal has won five of its past six games at the Bell Centre, while allowing fewer than two goals per game in those contests. That stinginess has helped maintain a steady run for the UNDER, which has gone 5-1-2 over the Canadiens’ past eight home dates at sports betting sites.
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Poised to push the Canadiens to the brink of elimination, the Lightning return to action on Friday night set as -135 road favourites at sportsbooks. Tampa Bay has built its run towards a second straight Stanley Cup championship on stingy play, particularly on home ice, where the team has now won five straight. However, things have not gone quite as smoothly on the road, where the Lightning have fallen to defeat in two straight, and scored just 13 total goals over their past seven such outings.
However, netminder Andrei Vasilevskiy has proven to be the difference for Tampa Bay on the road, surrendering one or fewer goals in five of nine road appearances during these playoffs, cementing his position as the betting favourite on the updated Conn Smythe Trophy odds.
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