Senators-Lightning Odds: Tampa Bay Is the Biggest NHL Favorite Since 2015
Kim Klement, USA Today Sports. Pictured: Brayden Point
- The Tampa Bay Lightning are -490 favorites over the Ottawa Senators on Saturday night.
- The Lightning are on pace to close as the biggest NHL favorite since 2015.
The Ottawa Senators have hit rock bottom.
After trading away Mark Stone, Matt Duchene and Ryan Dzingel at the trade deadline, the Senators fired head coach Guy Boucher on Friday. Things have gone from bad to worse to disaster for Ottawa since they made a surprising run to Game 7 Eastern Conference Final in 2017.
The schedule is doing interim head coach Marc Crawford any favors in his first game behind Ottawa's bench as he will have to play the Tampa Bay Lightning, the best team in the NHL, on the road on Saturday night.
Needless to say oddsmakers aren't too keen on Ottawa's chances to end their six-game losing streak at Amalie Arena.
The Bolts are currently priced at -490 over the Sens, meaning they have an implied probability of 81.1%, assuming no vigorish.
Per Bet Labs, that makes Tampa Bay the biggest NHL favorite we've tracked since April 4, 2015 when the New York Islanders closed as -538 favorites against the Buffalo Sabres at Nassau Coliseum. The Isles won that game, 3-0.
Coincidentally, the Ottawa Senators are the biggest favorite we've ever tracked. The Sens closed as -598 faves over the Pittsburgh Penguins in 2006. That was a long time ago.
Should You Bet on Tampa Bay?
If you truly have an edge on Tampa Bay — or any NHL team — at -490, you are probably doing something wrong.
Yes, the Lightning are very likely to win this game pretty easily (the odds are telling you that, after all), but that doesn't make it a good bet.
Hockey is an incredibly random sport that leaves people scratching their heads quite often. If you think its wise to lay nearly five bucks on this ridiculous sport, perhaps you need to take a deep breath.
In fact, at this point the more rational thing to do would be to wait to see if this number keeps climbing and then betting on the Senators — just don't expect to win that bet, of course.
There is no such thing as a lock in betting and that is especially true in the NHL. The game is played on ice, after all.
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