Looking at this match-up between the Vancouver Canucks and the Tampa Bay Lightning, we have a real barn burner lined up. Our ice jockeys in goal for the Canucks are Kevin Lankinen and Arturs Silovs. Lankinen, choppy in the recent past, actually put up a rather respectable 90.7% save rate last season. On the other side we have Andrei Vasilevskiy for the Lightning, whose save percentage is as impressive as his name is difficult to spell.
Offensively Quinn Hughes, J.T. Miller and Brock Boeser take center stage for the Canucks. Hughes, distant memory of last season aside, is a particular standout with his 35 plus-minus. Meanwhile, the Lightning are bringing their own thunder with Victor Hedman, Jake Guentzel and Nikita Kucherov. Kucherov, for one, apparently decided last season that he wasn't quite satisfied with just winning the game, he wanted a scoring board that resembled a pinball machine.
Peering into the ghost of Christmas past, the Canucks and the Lightning have had a rollercoaster rivalry with results seemingly decided by the flip of a coin. As for present form, Canucks have been slipping up more often than a tap dancer on a banana peel, while the Lightning have managed to keep it together.
Alright, enough dancing around the puck. Drum roll please...
Albert’s Prediction: Tampa Bay Lightning by 2