That’s not an homage to former Van Halen frontman/tequila entrepreneur Sammy Hagar who was once known as ‘The Red Rocker’, but rather the name of the Washington Capitals ice girls.  Sportsbooks are offering a big slate of NHL betting opportunities for Thursday and we’ll look at the Caps hosting the Tampa Bay Lightning.  Washington has the best record in the NHL and got their post Olympic stretch run off to a good start with a victory at Buffalo on Wednesday night.  Tampa Bay is trying to get themselves into the playoffs.  They’re currently in 11th place in the Eastern Conference but they trail 8th place Boston by two points and 7th place Montreal by three points.  The Lightning were trounced 7-2 at Philadelphia in their first post Olympic action.

TAMPA BAY VS. WASHINGTON

The Capitals have been dominant of late, though they lost their final three games before the Winter Olympic break.  Before that, they won 14 straight games and 17 of 18.  They’ve been nearly unbeatable at home this season with a NHL best 23-3-3 mark.  Tampa Bay, conversely, has struggled on the road with a 9-17-5 record.  Washington wins games by outscoring their opponents.  Defensively, they’re merely adequate ranking 17th of 30 teams in the NHL in goals against per game.  Tampa Bay is 21st in this category, however, which doesn’t bode well for the Lightning against the Caps’ offense.  Not surprisingly, Washington leads the NHL in goals per game with a 3.92 average which is significantly higher than 2nd place San Jose who scores an average of 3.19 goals per game.  The Lightning ranks 20th in this department, meaning that this game has all the makings of a rout.

We’re not interested in laying -275 with Washington, however, even in what has the earmarks of a one sided game.  Instead, we’ll take a look at the total.  Washington’s defense has been relatively porous of late, and 6 of their L7 games have gone Over the total.  Within their division, they’ve gone Over in 10 of 15 .  The Lightning have gone Over in four straight and their defense looked awful against Philadelphia in their first game back from the break.  5 of the last 8 meetings in Washington have gone Over, and the last 9 head to head have seen an average of 7 goals per game scored.  Washington’s offense was held in check by defensively stingy Buffalo on Wednesday, but we look for them to get back in the scoring groove against a compliant Lightning team that they’ve beaten 14 of the last 17 times they’ve played.  We’ll go Over the total here.

PLAY WASHINGTON/TAMPA BAY OVER 6′ -115