Tampa Bay Lightning vs New York Rangers: Game preview, predictions and odds

Tampa Bay Lightning vs New York Rangers: Game preview, predictions and odds | April 17, 2025

By Cole Shelton

Modified Apr 17, 2025 18:02 GMT

NHL: New York Rangers at Florida Panthers - Source: Imagn — Tampa Bay Lightning vs New York Rangers: Game preview, predictions and odds | April 17, 2025 - Source: Imagn

The Tampa Bay Lightning are on the road to play the New York Rangers on Tuesday, April 17 at 7 p.m. ET.

Tampa Bay (47-26-8) is coming off a 5-1 win over Florida. New York (38-36-7) is coming off a 5-3 win over Florida.

Lightning vs Rangers: Head-to-head & key stats

Tampa Bay is 53-49-5-7 all-time against New York
The Lightning are averaging 3.6 goals per game (which is the best in the NHL)
New York is 18-19-3 at home
Tampa Bay is allowing 2.61 goals per game
The Rangers are averaging 3.09 goals per game
The Bolts are 18-18-4 on the road
New York is allowing 3.14 goals per game

Tampa Bay Lightning vs New York Rangers: Preview

Tampa Bay finished second in the Atlantic Division and will likely rest some key players in the final game of the regular season. The Lightning are led by Nikita Kucherov, who has 121 points. Brandon Hagel has 90 points, Brayden Point has 82 points, and Jake Guentzel has 80 points.

The Lightning are set to start Jonas Johansson, who's 9-5-3 with a 3.08 GAA and a .898 SV%.

New York, meanwhile, failed to make the playoffs in disappointing fashion. The Rangers will start Igor Shesterkin, who's 26-29-5 with a 2.91 GAA and a .903 SV%. In his career against Tampa Bay, he's 6-3-1 with a 2.50 GAA and a .917 SV%.

The Rangers are led by Artemi Panarin, who has 89 points. Adam Fox has 61 points, Mika Zibanejad has 59 points, and Vincent Trocheck has 58 points.

Lightning vs Rangers: Odds & Prediction

Tampa Bay is a +110 underdog while New York is a -130 favorite, and the over/under is set at 6.5 goals.

The Lightning have nothing to play for here and will likely rest some key players or even hold them out. New York, meanwhile, had a disappointing season, but the Rangers should end their season with a win at home here.

Johansson has struggled and New York will be able to score on him to get a big home win here.

Prediction: Rangers 5, Lightning 2.

Lightning vs Rangers: Odds & Prediction

Tip 1: New York ML (-130)

Tip 2: Over 6.5 goals (-108)

Tip 3: Vincent Trochek 3+ shots on goal (+125)

About the author

Cole is an NHL, NFL and College Sports reporter at Sportskeeda with over 7 years of experience writing for publications like CBC, USA Today, SMG, BJPENN, Sherdog and SB Nation.

An NHL fan his whole life, Cole played rep hockey in Canada from age 5 until 17 and grew up rooting for Martin St. Louis and the Tampa Bay Lightning. His all-time favorite players are Vincent Lecavalier and Steven Stamkos, while Jon Cooper is his favorite coach of all time.

Cole attended Sheridan College and received his journalism degree in 2019. After decades of watching and reporting, he considers his knowledge of sports as his primary strength. He ensures that the same story has been reported by at least two reputed reporters before creating it.

Cole enjoys playing golf and spending time with friends and family when not reporting breaking stories. His favorite sports moment is from the 2010 Olympics, when Sidney Crosby scored the golden goal in overtime to beat Team USA for the gold medal.

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Edited by Cole Shelton