thurs nov 9 lightning@Kings

[EXTRAPOLATER]

Decent chance that TB's Peter Budaj could make his 3rd start in this game, with Andrei Vasilevskiy playing last night; TB has been working him to death, and Wednesday's ended up being a very peaceful game for all Lightning after the 1st minute of play was done, so who knows; I'm sure they realize it's a long season and might want to chill him for this one.

I'm interested as I'm willing to play the Lightning as a dog, right now, in just about any matchup and I've seen a few alleged 'early' +120's. No dice my place, yet. Vasilevskiy has been fantastic and the entire team has looked outstanding; I've been watching them tons and what a contrast to my Leafs suffrage, at least in the defensive end. Is back-to-back but a short trip--San Jose to LA--and the Lightning had 3 days off before Wednesday's, AND the aforementioned laugher yesterday (Lightning could have won by more than 4 as very few of their measly 30 shots were bad opportunities).

LA played 2 nights ago in Anaheim and were down 2-0 and 3-1 before fighting back to take in OT.
Quick wasn't great, allowing 3 of the 24 even-strength shots against to go in.

Budaj was a King just last year, filling in for an injured Quick and he did quite well as the Kings played their defensive style to survive. Not sure if Kings shooters or coaches might know Budaj's weakness better as a result, but in Budaj's 2 appearances he allowed 4 against each time, at NJ and in his last--2 weeks ago at home to Anaheim--the 4 against was on only 21 shots. Expecting a great game from Budaj would probably be unreasonable.

Quicksand should start but he doesn't scare me for Lightning or an over; Lightning were having fun in the offensive end yesterday and the Kings have been a high-scoring team as well this season. I haven't seen a total but I'd play over 5.5, which I don't think I'll see.

Should be an interesting game. Eastern Conference's current goal-differential leader against the Western Conference's current g-d leader.

Totally watch the Lightning, right now.
Z'all I can tell ya.
10:30 pm est

 

[EXTRAPOLATER]

jeez...just checked the other available totals (5 of 7 currently listed at pinnacle) and I see five 5.5's.
Juice on all but 'nucks@Ducks. min@Mon and tb@LA the 2 n/a's.

What has the grand salami thing done this year? Scoring is way up.
There was a calm day earlier this week, on Tuesday, with a whack of unders, but beyond that you
look at the scores and there are massive overages. Last Thursday I checked and of 12 games there were 7 games with 7 or more goals each, including a 10, two 9's and an 8 (freakin' Sabres at Coyotes even played to a 5-4 final and they are both near the bottom of the League in scoring).
73 goals in 12 games or 6.08 average. Includes one 2-0 score as lowest (flyers>Blues).

Looking at a list of prospective goalies, of the 14 I see maybe 4 decent goalies expected:
Schneider, Crawford, Allen and Quick.

I was gonna talk about totals elsewhere. Up this year--big time--partly due to major goofy penalty enforcement including added replay-boo-boo pena and BS faceoff misconducts; if second player in after a throw out commits the same mistake then its a penalty. Some refs appear to be really playing games instead of just dropping the friggin puck and, while annoying, it might be profitable on the overage angle. I've never given 2 shits about who the ref is--save for maybe international stuff--but I'd be curious about stats for referees on goofy penalty calls, if something similar exists. What K.I.S.S. rule?