Free NHL Picks Today: Toronto Maple Leafs vs Tampa Bay Lightning 12/20/22

The Tampa Bay Lightning (20-9-1) and their dynamic offense are on the road to take on the Toronto Maple Leafs (19-7-6) and their stifling defense at Scotiabank Arena on Tuesday.

Tampa Bay is coming off a 5-1 win over the Canadiens on Saturday, their fifth consecutive win. The Lightning committed five penalties in the game, though they held Montreal without a power play goal.

Brandon Hagel led the Lightning with two goals. Andrei Vasilevskiy had a great performance with 22 saves (.956%) in the win. Toronto fell 5-2 to the Capitals on Saturday.

Auston Matthews and William Nylander each scored once for the Maple Leafs. Matthews added an assist to lead the team in scoring. Ilya Samsonov saved only 23 of 28 shots against (.821%) in the loss.

HEAD TO HEAD

The Lightning won the first meeting between the teams this season, a 4-3 (OT) victory on December 3, their third straight win against Toronto. Corey Perry and Anthony Cirelli each had two points (0G 2A) to lead Tampa Bay. Mitchell Marner led Toronto with two goals. Vasilevskiy got the win, saving 36 of 39 shots (.923%).

FACING OFF

Tampa Bay is averaging 3.67 goals per game for the season, third in the NHL. The visitors will face a difficult test against a Maple Leafs team that is allowing only 2.44 goals a game (2nd).

Meanwhile, Toronto has found the net 3.22 times a game on average, 14th in the league, and the Lightning are allowing opponents to score 2.83 goals per game (11th).

The Lightning’s 27.43% power play percentage ranks sixth in the league, while the Maple Leafs are 11th with a conversion rate of 23.30%. When it comes to penalty killing, Tampa Bay has the league’s seventh-ranked PK% at 81.00%, while Toronto is 10th at 80.61%.

TOP PERFORMERS:

With 47 points this season, fourth-most in the NHL, Nikita Kucherov is the top skater for the Lightning. He leads the league with 35 assists and has added 12 goals of his own. In the net, Vasilevskiy (12-8-1) is Tampa Bay’s top goaltender.

He has a 2.63 GAA and a .913% save percentage. Matthews and Marner lead the Maple Leafs in scoring with 37 points apiece. Matthews has 16 goals and 21 assists, while Marner has 12 goals and 25 assists (9th) in 32 games.

Nylander has 18 goals and 16 assists. Samsonov (9-2-0) has the best goals against average for Toronto at 1.70, best in the league. He has a save percentage of .939%, also best.