This is a 10* on TB

One of these teams being here is not a surprise. That would be Tampa Bay, who set numerous regular season records last season before infamously flaming out vs. Columbus in the first round of the playoffs. This season, the Lightning weren’t nearly as dominant (didn’t even finish first in the division), but have enjoyed a far more successful playoff run and that’s really all that matters. So far TB has lost only four games in the postseason, none of them consecutively, and they enter this Stanley Cup Finals as decided favorites over the Dallas Stars. The Stars being here is a surprise. They went through the top two teams in the Western Conference - Colorado and Vegas - and have been underdogs on the money line in each of their L12 games! They’ve definitely been “living dangerously” though with the last five wins all coming by a goal apiece. Several of those have required improbable comebacks, something we also saw in the 1st round series with Calgary as well as the round robin. While Dallas did win the two regular season meetings (Both in OT), the Lightning are pretty clearly the better team here. TB is 44-7 the L51 times it’s been off a game in which it scored 2 goals or less. They won 2-1 on Thursday in the close-out game vs. the Islanders. Play on TAMPA BAY

AAA