Lightning vs Avalanche Game 1 Odds, Pick & Preview – Colorado Heavy Favorite to Open Stanley Cup Final

Jun 14- 10 min read

Lightning vs Avalanche Game 1 Odds, Pick & Preview

The Stanley Cup Finals are set and will feature the hottest team in the NHL, the Colorado Avalanche, and the back-to-back Stanley Cup Champions, Tampa Bay Lightning. This is the first time these teams play against each other in the playoffs. This is Colorado’s first time in the Stanley Cup Final since 2001, where they won it all beating the New Jersey Devils. We’ll dive into the Lightning vs Avalanche game 1 odds as the puck is set to drop on Wednesday.

Colorado won both the matchups between these teams in the regular season. The Avalanche are a young up-and-coming team who are looking to get over the top. They run into the buzzsaw that has been the Tampa Bay Lightning who have won 11 straight series after getting swept by the Blue Jackets in 2019. Who will bring home Lord Stanley as the back-to-back champs face off against the blazing hot Colorado Avalanche?

Lightning vs Avalanche Game 1 Odds

Team Moneyline Spread Total
Colorado Avalanche -160 -1.5 (+160) Over 6.0 (-115)
Tampa Bay Lightning +140 +1.5 (-190) Under 6.0 (-105)

Odds Courtesy of Caesars Sportsbook

The Lightning will look to become the first team to win three consecutive cups since the Islanders in the 1980s. Despite this, New York sports betting markets list them as the underdogs in this series. This is the third time in these playoffs that they have been underdogs in a series, including series against the Toronto Maple Leafs and Florida Panthers. The Lightning beat the Leafs in seven games and swept the Panthers.

The Avalanche have been favoured in every series they’ve played in, and have played like it, only losing two games so far in the playoffs. The Avalanche are averaging a ridiculous 4.6 goals a game, and only allowing 2.8. At Caesars Sportsbook you can get the Avalanche over 3.5 goals at +100.

lightning vs avalanche game 1 odds

Can Anyone Stop Colorado?

The Avalanche have the two best skaters in this series with Nathan Mackinnon and Cale Makar. They have been almost unstoppable all season and have only been listed as an underdog seven times all season. Even crazier, they have closed every single game as the favourites and are the first team to do that since the 2007-2008 Detroit Red Wings. The Avalanche currently have five players who are averaging over a point per game so far in the playoffs: Cale Makar, Nathan Mackinnon, Mikko Rantanen, Gabriel Landeskog and Nazem Kadri. Makar has put up a ridiculous 22 points in 14 games and even got praise from Wayne Gretzky stating, “He is the best defenceman since Bobby Orr.”

While Tampa’s goalie situation is very secure Colorado’s is more up in the air. Their regular starter, Darcy Keumper has been injured twice so far in the playoffs, and missed most of their last series against the Oilers. He will be in the lineup for this game, but I expect Pavel Francouz to get the start. After replacing Keumper in the Oilers series he only allowed 2.33 goals per game, and boasted a save percentage of .921%. Should Colorado get solid contributions from their goaltenders and their offence performs the way it has all season, they will have no problem in this series.

Is Tampa Bay Being Slighted?

The back-to-back Stanley Cup Champions enter this series as the underdog with +155 odds to win the series. They have one major advantage over the Avalanche and that is between the pipes. Goaltender, Andrei Vasilevskiy has been superb in all of the last three playoffs, and is the main reason the Lightning are back-to-back champions. He has allowed just five goals in the Lightnings last four wins, and only one of those tallies was 5 on 5. This will be the toughest test the Lightning defence and Vasilevsky have faced so far.

The Bolts do not have the offensive firepower that the Avalanche do, but they have plenty of stars themselves in Steven Stamkos, Nikita Kucherov and Victor Hedman. In the regular season Stamkos had 106 points in 81 games and Kucherov had 69 points in 47 games. Kucherov leads Tampa in scoring in the playoffs with 23 points. Stamkos has 15 points himself and surprise, Ondrej Palat has 16 points and 8 goals. Outside of the stars, Tampa and Colorado match-up fairly evenly so for Tampa to win this series they will need big performances out of their star players.

Lightning vs Avalanche Game 1 Betting Pick

I love the way the Avalanche are playing right now. I strongly think they win this game, and I thought about making my pick Colorado moneyline at -160. There isn’t enough value on this play to keep it on it’s own, perhaps there is a different angle. Therefore, my game 1 betting pick is the Colorado Avalanche -1.5  which is currently at +160 on Caesars Sportsbook.

The Avalanche are as hot as they have been all season and scored 22 goals in four games against the Edmonton Oilers. This trend will continue as Andrei Vasilevsky and the Lightning have struggled in game ones, losing to the Leafs 5-0 and the Rangers 6-2. The Avalanche on the other hand are averaging six goals a game in game ones. This just had too much value for me to pass up on at +160 and I’m riding with the team who hasn’t lost a game since May 25th.

Pick: Avalanche -1.5 (+160)

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