Mark Lammey
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Following Colorado’s controversial overtime game winner in Game 4, the Stanley Cup Final heads back to Denver. The Avalanche have the opportunity to become champions on home ice after taking a 3-1 series lead. However, the Lightning are also a team that has proven to overcome adversity. While that makes picking a side for Friday night’s game a bit more difficult, there are plenty of skaters to target for props. One of those is arguably the best skater in the world.
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Nathan MacKinnon 0.5 assists (-105)
While the Avalanche are a team full of all-stars, none are more recognizable than Nathan MacKinnon. His all-world status is what makes it surprising that this prop is listed at such a reasonable price. After enduring a very rare performance in Game 3 in which he was held pointless, he bounced back in Game 4 with his first goal of the series. Not only was being held without a point a rarity, he is also usually more prone to dishing out assists. Of his 88 points in the regular season, 56 of them were assists.
That may seem strange for a skater that shoots the puck so often. However, that also creates more opportunities from rebounds off of goaltenders or the pipes of the goal. There was a perfect example of that in Game 3 with 1 of Gabriel Landeskog’s 2 goals. Now with Nazem Kadri back healthy, there are even more goal-scorers surrounding MacKinnon. It was Kadri who scored the overtime game winner on Wednesday and Landeskog has 4 goals in the last 5 games. MacKinnon had an assist in each of the first 2 games of this series that were also in Colorado; he should record another one back on home ice for Game 5.
Be sure to check out our full game preview for the Tampa Bay Lightning vs Colorado Avalanche
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