The Los Angeles Kings and the Vegas Golden Knights meet in NHL action from T-Mobile Arena on Friday night.
The Los Angeles Kings will look to bounce back from a 3-1 loss to Anaheim last time out. Anze Kopitar leads the Kings in scoring with 12 points including a team-high 11 assists while Drew Doughty has 7 points with 3 goals and 4 helpers. Dustin Brown and Jeff Carter each have 6 points with Brown logging 3 goals and 3 assists while Carter has 5 assists. Alex Iafallo, Adrian Kempe and Andreas Athanasiou each have 5 points with Athanasiou and Kempe each having 3 goals with 2 assists while Iafallo has 2 goals and 3 helpers this year. Jonathan Quick and Cal Petersen have split the workload in goal for L.A., with Quick going 2-3 with a 3.54 GAA while Petersen has a 1-3 mark with a 2.29 GAA this season.
The Vegas Golden Knights will try to bounce back from a 5-4 shootout loss to St. Louis last time out. Mark Stone has 11 points with a team-high 9 assists while Shea Theodore and Max Pacioretty each have 7 points with Theodore logging 3 goals and 4 assists while Pacioretty has a team-high 6 goals. Alex Tuch has 3 goals and 3 assists for his 6 points while Jonathan Marchessault and Alec Martinez each have 5 points, with the two combining for 9 assists this season. Robin Lehner’s posted a pair of wins with a 2.95 GAA in his 4 starts this season while Marc Andre Fleury’s gone 3-0 with a shutout and a 1.00 GAA on the year.
Los Angeles is 15-38 in their last 53 road games and 14-37 in their last 51 games as a road underdog while the over is 4-1 in their last 5 games as an underdog. Vegas is 19-7 in their last 26 games overall and 5-2 in their last 7 games as a favorite while the over is 4-1 in their last 5 games overall. Los Angeles is 4-1 in the last 5 meetings between these two teams.
I get why the Golden Knights are favored at home as they’re the better team side-by-side. However, the Golden Knights are also coming back off of a long layoff, and while a loss to the Ducks doesn’t inspire a ton of confidence, the Kings have battled teams hard all year long up to this point and may be able to catch Vegas shaking off some rust here. I’ll take a shot at Los Angeles and the plus money in this spot.