The Florida Panthers look to close out the series as they face the Tampa Bay Lightning. It’s time to continue our Stanley Cup Playoffs odds series with a Panthers-Lightning Game 5 prediction and pick.

But this time there's a twist. In 2021 and 2022, the Lightning were the defending Stanley Cup champion; this time the Panthers are. Each time the two teams have faced each other, the winner of the series has gone on to reach the Stanley Cup Final.

Game 4 between the Florida Panthers and Tampa Bay Lightning produced one of the wildest sequences of the Stanley Cup Playoffs through Monday and an all-time record. The game started slowly, with a scoreless first period and the Panthers' Anton Lundell opening the scoring nine minutes into the second period.