The Tampa Bay Lightning (0-0-0) and New York Rangers (0-1-0) are lined up for a Thursday contest in New York, New York. The opening puck drop at Madison Square Garden will be at 7 p.m. ET. Let's analyze NHL odds around the Lightning vs. Rangers odds and make our expert NHL picks and predictions.
2025-26 season series: Rangers won 2-1, with the loss coming at home
Tampa Bay is playing its season opener. The Lightning went 50-26-6 and finished second in the Atlantic Division in 2025-26. They lost a first-round playoff series extending their run without a postseason series victory since reaching the 2022 Stanley Cup Final. Veteran RW Nikita Kucherov enters his 13th season with 401 career goals, 44 to lead the team last season.
New York opened this
season with a 3-0 loss (Under 5.5) at the -110 Boston Bruins Tuesday. All 3 goals the Rangers allowed were in the third period.
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Lightning at Rangers odds
Provided by BetMGM Sportsbook; access USA TODAY Sports Scores and Sports Betting Odds hub for a full list. Lines last updated at 10:47 a.m. ET.
- Moneyline (ML): Lightning -145 (bet $100 to win $145) | Rangers +120 (bet $120 to win $100)
- Puck line (RL)/Against the spread (ATS): Lightning -1.5 (+165) | Rangers +1.5 (-200)
- Over/Under (O/U): 6 (O: -105 | U: -115)
Lightning at Rangers projected goalies
Andrei Vasilevskiy (2025-26: 39-15-4, 2.31 GAA, .911 SV%) vs. Igor Shesterkin (2025-26: 25-19-6, 2.50 GAA, .912 SV%)
Vasilevskiy returns for his 13th NHL season after winning his second Vezina Trophy in 2025-26. The 32-year-old scuffled in the preseason, allowing 5 goals on 37 shots over 2 outings.
Shesterkin stopped 20 of 22 shots in Tuesday's 3-0 loss to the Bruins. Boston's third goal was an empty-netter. The 30-year-old owns a healthy .922 SV% across 13 career games vs. the Bolts.
Lightning at Rangers picks and predictions
Prediction
Rangers 4, Lightning 3
Moneyline
The Rangers are 3-1 (with a trio of multi-goal triumphs) across the last 4 series meetings.
New York was solid in setting up high-danger looks in its Tuesday game, and from an expected-goals standpoint that contest goes down as a Rangers win. The Blueshirts were partly undone by 16 blocked shots by the Bruins.
The Rangers are going up against the top-notch Vasilevskiy, but he scuffled in the preseason. And New York did score 15 goals in their 4-game preseason slate. In Vasilevskiy's lone game vs. the Rangers last season, he was pulled after yielding 5 goals on 13 shots in 40 minutes.
The Rangers are a lean, but peg the ML pricing as being solid here. Consider making NEW YORK (+120) a partial-unit play.
Puck line/Against the spread
PASS.
The Rangers +1.5 (-200) are to expensive to consider, especially with plus money on an outright win.
Over/Under
Coach Jon Cooper's Tampa clubs usually settle into a defensive groove and end up being stingy squads at that end. Last season, the Bolts held foes to just 2.79 goals per game; that ranked third in the league.
But the Lightning have often faltered early before clamping things down. Last season, they allowed 5 goals in each of their first 2 games, and the Over cashed in their first 3. The year prior, the Over went 4-2 in their first half-dozen games. In 2023-24, the Over hit in games 1 and 2.
Expect some bounce-back from a New York offense that scored 4.29 goals per game over its last 7 at home last spring.
The leverage tag here is the OVER 6 (-105).
Best prop bet
Rangers LW PAVEL DOROFEYEV ANYTIME GOAL (+195)
Dorofeyev rifled off 5 shots in the Tuesday opener. He has a history of fast starts, as he has netted 16 goals across 28 career games in October.
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This article originally appeared on Sportsbook Wire: Tampa Bay Lightning at New York Rangers odds, picks and predictions
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