Los Angeles Kings vs Tampa Bay Lightning Prediction, Odds and Picks for Today, 12/18/25

The Tampa Bay Lightning are set to host the Los Angeles Kings for a Thursday night matchup at Benchmark International Arena. The Lightning seem to have a strong scheduling advantage in this one, as they have not been in action since Monday. Conversely, the Kings are playing on the second end of a road back-to-back after falling 3-2 to the Panthers last night. Los Angeles enters this matchup riding a 4-game losing streak and has picked up just 2 wins over 8 games so far in December.

The Lightning have also struggled in December, but the good news is that Andrei Vasilevskiy was activated off of IR on Tuesday and is slated to return to action in this matchup. The 31-year-old netminder owns an 11-6-2 record to go along with a strong .916 save percentage and 2.31 goals-against average in 19 starts this season. After a slow start in which he posted a save percentage of .899 and goals-against average of 2.61 in October, he posted a .928 save percentage and 2.01 goals-against average in November before suffering an undisclosed injury. The Bolts are also happy to see Brayden Pint finding his groove again after returning from an injury of his own. Point has 7 points in 5 games since returning to the ice on December 8, and his groove makes the Tampa Bay offensive attack much more dangerous. Bak the Bolts in regulation on home ice.

Kings vs Lightning prediction: Tampa Bay Lightning 3-Way ML (-125) available at time of publishing. Playable at that number.

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