NHL FREE BETTING TIP: Colorado Avalanche vs Tampa Bay Lightning

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The Colorado Avalanche was the best team so far in the Playoffs losing only two games in the second round to the St. Louis Blues and sweeping the Nashville Predators in the opening round and the Edmonton Oilers in the Western Conference Playoffs.

The Avalanche have been considered a Stanley Cup contender in the previous seasons as well but after losing three years in a row in the second round, they finally found their way to the Stanley Cup Finals.

Colorado has two players who have won the Cup before: Andre Burakovsky with Washington in 2018 and Darren Helm with Detroit in 2008. There are more Cup rings in the front office with general manager Joe Sakic, who captained the Avalanche to the franchise's first championship in 1996 the year the team relocated from Quebec to Denver and also won it in 2001.

The Tampa Bay Lightning have now won 11 consecutive Playoff series and will have a chance to win their third consecutive Stanley Cup. If they manage to do so, they will become the first team since the New York Islanders to do so since 1984.

The Lightning had a tough quest in the Eastern Conference Finals losing the first two games to the New York Rangers but then going on to win 4 consecutive to find their way to the Stanley Cup finals.

Tampa Bay's core of Steven Stamkos, Victor Hedman, Nikita Kucherov, Ondrej Palat and Alex Killorn is in the final for the fourth time since 2015. The Lightning reached at least the East final six times in that span.

Key facts

• Samuel Girard will not play for Colorado tonight while Nazem Kadri and Andrew Cogliano are questionable
• Brent Seabrook will not play for the Lightning tonight while Brayden Point is questionable
• The Tampa Bay Lightning have won 6 of the last 10 games against Colorado but the Avalanche won both games this season
• Six of the last ten games between these two rivals have ended under 5.5 goals

The Colorado Avalanche and Tampa Bay Lightning start-up a highly-anticipated Stanley Cup Finals on Wednesday with the Lightning looking to three-peat as champions. However, Colorado comes in as favorites to take the cup home and are riding a five-game winning streak on route to making it to the final. Tampa’s path to this point has been due in large part to the play of goalie Andrei Vasilevskiy who surprisingly hasn’t been that great against the Avs in his career. He holds a 1-3-1 record in five games against them with a 3.41 goals-against average and .877 save percentage which are all below average. The Avalanche are 3-0 straight up and 2-1 against the spread outscoring opponents 18-11 in the opening games of the series in this Playoffs. The Lightning on the other hand has started two of their three series slow by losing Game 1 and being outscored 11-2 in the two losses. This series will have a similar start with the Avalanche winning tonight and taking a 1-0 series lead.

Value Bet

Colorado Avalanche to win in regulation

2.09

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