NHL Betting: Ottawa Senators vs. Tampa Bay Lightning Odds & Pick: April 8th 2010

Ottawa Senators vs. Tampa Bay Lightning
Free NHL Pick: Ottawa Senators -140 odds
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I played on Ottawa successfully two nights ago and they beat up on the Panthers 5-2; for a number of different reasons I believe they’ll once again come out on top tonight against a team they’ve owned historically: After losing 4-1 to the Islanders on Saturday, the Sens bounced back with that 5-2 win over Florida on Tuesday. “We did some good things. I thought we worked hard on the penalty kill,” said coach Cory Clouston, whose team has held its last eight opponents to 2 for 31 on the power play. “We generated the offense that we wanted. I thought we lost a little bit of focus toward the end of third but overall very happy with the game.” Not only is Ottawa 7-1 its last eight, its also 4-1 its last five on the road. On the other side of the ice: Only the Leafs have allowed more goals this year than the Lightning. They are coming off a 5-0 loss to the Rangers on Friday and an 8-5 home loss to the Hurricanes on Tuesday. Antero Niittymaki fell to 4-9-0 with a 4.09 goals-against average in his last 16 appearances and was relieved Tuesday by Mike Smith, one game after Smith was chased in favor of Niittymaki. Tampa is limping down the stretch; 1-4 its last five overall; 1-6 its last seven in front of the home town crowd.

Bottom line: Ottawa is clearly the more motivated team here and will look to secure the fourth spot with a victory tonight; consider a second look at the decently priced SENATORS in this one.