Coyotes Look to Avoid Lightning Strike

With just 18 games left in their regular season, the Arizona Coyotes still face a plethora of different standings possibilities – and those scenarios get a whole lot brighter if the Coyotes can prevail Saturday night against visiting Tampa Bay. The schedule is on the Coyotes' side, as they'll play 11 of their final 18 games at Gila River Arena.

Sportsbook Odds Analysis

You don't see the Lightning open as low as -155 all that often – which is probably why the line almost immediately jumped to -170 or even -175 at most sportsbooks. The total opened at 6 but has dipped to 5.5 in most spots.

Tampa Bay Lightning News & Notes

The Lightning saw their incredible 11-game winning streak come to an end last time out, dropping a 5-3 decision to Vegas in the second game on their three-game trek through the Western Conference. It was just their third regulation loss since Dec. 23; over that span, they put together two separate double-digit winning streaks to move to No. 2 overall in the NHL standings.

And there could be more good times ahead for the Nikita Kucherov-led Lightning, who have virtually guaranteed themselves a top-2 finish in the Atlantic Division with their latest winning streak. They'll play 12 of their final 21 regular-season games at Amalie Arena, including an upcoming five-game homestand that includes a showdown against the NHL-leading Boston Bruins.

Arizona Coyotes News & Notes

It's a good thing for the Coyotes that their home stretch is full of home games; they just completed a stretch of six road games in an eight-game span and performed terribly, going 1-4-1 in those contests. Yet, despite those struggles, they entered Friday just four points out of the top spot in the Pacific Division and even with Calgary on points for the final West wild-card spot.

Alas, two little words – specifically, "games played" – could prove to be a major impediment for Arizona in its quest to make the playoffs for the first time since 2011-12. The Coyotes have played the most games in the NHL to this point, and go into Friday having played at least two more games than every team ahead of them in the playoff race. 

Betting Pick: Lightning -1.5

Tampa Bay hasn't played two bad games in a row since before Christmas and isn't about to start now against a Coyotes club that has scuffled of late.