The Coach's NHL Thursday Night - *SPECIAL OFFER*
(NHL) Calgary vs. Tampa Bay,
Money Line: -170.00 Tampa Bay (Home)
Result: Win
Both the hosts Tampa Bay Lightning and the visiting Calgary Flames are coming off three consecutive wins as they will match-up at Amalie Arena tonight. The Flames are in the middle of a five game road trip though, and their game at Washington on Tuesday went to overtime. I think fatigue may be an issue for the visitors here and I favor the home team in this contest.

Here are my keys to the game:

1. The Lightnings offense - Tampa Bay has scored the third most goals in the NHL for the season and has tallied 15 goals over it's last three games. The power play has been quite effective, scoring on exactly a quarter of the opportunities and those numbers are not likely to go down in this game as the Flames have one of the worst penalty kills in the league.

2. Home Cookin' - The Lightning have won five of their seven games in Tampa Bay this season and are looking to complete a perfect three game home stand tonight. Admittedly the Flames have been hot on the road so far, but if we look back to last season they had the fourth worst road record in the NHL. It will take more than a couple of road wins to convince me they've turned a corner.

3. X-factor - Nikita Kucherov is on fire, scoring five goals for nine points total over his last five games for Tampa.

Selection: This is a play on the Tampa Bay Lightning (8*)