by Chuck Sommers
Wednesday, Jan 18, 2023
Time: 10 p.m. ET
Venue: Rogers Arena, Vancouver, BC
Where to watch: SNP, BSSUNX
Opening Odds at USA Sportsbooks
DraftKings: Lightning -180, Canucks +155
FanDuel: Lightning -184, Canucks +152
BetMGM: Lightning -185, Canucks +150
Caesars: Lightning -179, Canucks +150
Season record
Lightning: 28-13-1
Canucks: 18-22-3
We’ve hit the halfway mark in the NHL season. Yes, you read that right. We’re really hit that halfway mark that quickly. If you blinked, you probably missed a lot of good things happen in the hockey world. And with football about to be out of the way, look for our champion handicappers to get back on the rink. Oskeim Sports is on a 13-5-0 run in the NHL over the last 30 days, as is Will Rogers. Sean Murphy has also cashed in with a 16-10-0 run in the last month. Make sure you’re following our champion handicappers at bigal.com to get on this winning action!
Lightning - Canucks preview, prediction and analysis
Recent results
Lightning: won 4-1 at Kraken
Canucks: won 4-3 (SO) at Hurricanes
The Tampa Bay Lightning will be playing the Vancouver Canucks on Wednesday, January 18 in Vancouver.
The Tampa Bay Lightning won against the Seattle Kraken last Monday, January 16 in Seattle, Washington with a score of 4-1. The Tampa Bay Lightning currently rank 3rd in the Atlantic Division. Pierre-Edouard Bellemare, Nicholas Paul, Brandon Hagel, and Victor Hedman scored the four goals for Tampa Bay. Andrei Vasilevskiy made 22 saves.
"I thought we came out flying." Tampa Bay forward Ross Colton said. "We knew they were on a big winning streak. We wanted to set the tone, and I think we did a good job of doing that. Second period wasn't great, we kind of took our foot off the gas, thought it was going to be easy like the first. Obviously a good team over there and they took it to us, but credit to the leaders and the coaches."
"They're a good hockey team and are going to get some chances, but I thought we limited them pretty well," Tampa Bay coach Jon Cooper said. "They pushed, as to be expected, but we weathered it and [Nicholas Paul's] goal was a big one for us. It was a tight-checking game, special teams wasn't a big factor. It was just two pretty good teams going at it."
Don’t look now, but the Lightning may be finding a groove right now. Tampa Bay has won four in a row and eight of their last 10 on the moneyline. Sure, the only legit win in this run is that Seattle victory, but you don’t need to start giving this group any momentum.
"It's all about managing the game and we don't need another [goal]," Cooper said. "We just needed to prevent them from getting one. It's not like we sat back, we were feeling pretty good about our offensive game, at least the possession part of it."
The Vancouver Canucks won against the Carolina Hurricane last Sunday, January 15 in Raleigh, North Carolina with a score of 4-3 in a shootout, ending a four-game losing streak for the Canucks. The Vancouver Canucks currently rank 6th in the Pacific Division. Ethan Bear, J.T. Miller and Brock Boeser scored, and Andrei Kuzmenko had two assists for the Canucks. Collin Delia made 29 saves.
"It's been pretty much one-goal games this whole time," Vancouver captain Bo Horvat said. "We fought our way back and at least made it interesting in a lot of games. To finally get rewarded tonight definitely feels good."
Brock Boeser tied the game 3-3 with 17 seconds left in regulation.
"I think they earned that. They've been coming so close," Vancouver coach Bruce Boudreau said. "Even in the third, I thought we were playing really good, and they score with three minutes to go. But again, they said, 'No, we're not giving up,' and they went out there and scored and we got the shootout win. So it's great."
The abysmal season that has been the Canucks is still a little less than half from being finished. God bless this franchise.
Prediction
Yeah, this isn’t going to be a pretty one. Lightning 5, Canucks 2
Betting trends
The favorite is 5-0 in the last five meetings.
The Lightning have won the last five meetings and seven of the last eight in Vancouver.
The over is 19-7-1 in the last 27 meetings.
Projected lines
Lightning:
Brandon Hagel -- Brayden Point -- Nikita Kucherov
Anthony Cirelli -- Steven Stamkos -- Alex Killorn
Ross Colton -- Nicholas Paul -- Pat Maroon
Vladislav Namestnikov -- Pierre-Edouard Bellemare -- Corey Perry
Victor Hedman -- Zach Bogosian
Ian Cole -- Erik Cernak
Mikhail Sergachev -- Nick Perbix
Andrei Vasilevskiy
Canucks:
Andrei Kuzmenko -- Elias Pettersson -- Brock Boeser
Conor Garland -- Bo Horvat -- J.T. Miller
Dakota Joshua -- Curtis Lazar -- William Lockwood
Ilya Mikheyev -- Lane Pederson -- Jack Studnicka
Quinn Hughes -- Luke Schenn
Oliver Ekman-Larsson -- Tyler Myers
Riley Stillman -- Ethan Bear
Collin Delia
Don't miss our champion handicappers' free picks and expert hockey picks today. And if you enjoyed this Tampa Bay Lightning - Vancouver Canucks prediction, be sure to drop by every day for our daily NHL projections and previews.
Chuck Sommers
About the Author:
Chuck Sommers has camped outside of sportsbooks since he can remember, learning the tricks and nuances of the trade. He still has nightmares of betting $5,000 on the Raiders in the Tuck Rule game but has since turned that to 25 years of veteran handicapping greatness. You can find him mostly in the shadows at the Red Rock or Aliante casinos wondering if the over is cashing on any given Sunday.
