The Los Angeles Kings and the Colorado Avalanche meet in NHL action from the Ball Arena on Wednesday night.
The Los Angeles Kings will look to build on their 5-2 win over the Chicago Blackhawks last time out. Anze Kopitar leads the Kings in scoring with 62 points including a team-high 44 assists and 18 goals while Viktor Arvidsson has 44 points with 20 goals and 24 assists and Adrian Kempe’s point total is at 48 with a team-high 32 goals of his own. Phillip Danault has 46 points with 22 goals and 24 assists while Trevor Moore has 45 points with 30 assists. Jonathan Quick’s gone 18-13-9 with a 2.67 GAA and a .908 save percentage this season between the pipes for the Kings while Cal Petersen’s gone 20-13-1 with a 2.79 GAA and an .899 save percentage.
The Colorado Avalanche will look to build on their six-game win streak after a 2-1 shootout win over the Edmonton Oilers last time out. Mikko Rantanen has a team-high 86 points and 35 goals with 51 assists while Nazem Kadri has 83 points including a team-high 57 assists. Gabriel Landeskog has 59 points and Cale Makar has 77 points with Landeskog logging 30 goals and 29 assists while Makar has 25 goals and 52 assists. Nathan MacKinnon also has 77 points with 26 goals and 51 assists this season. Darcy Kuemper has gone 34-9-3 with a 2.37 GAA and a .926 save percentage this season while Pavel Francouz has a record of 14-3-1 with a 2.58 GAA and a .917 save percentage in goal for Colorado.
Los Angeles is 6-0 in their last 6 games played on no rest and 11-5 in their last 16 road games while the under is 4-1 in their last 5 games as an underdog. Colorado is 48-9 in their last 57 home games and 40-11 in their last 51 games overall while the under is 13-2-1 in their last 16 games against a team with a winning record.
I get the case you could make for either side, as the Kings have done well on a back-to-back and have been really good on the road this season. But the Avs are a different beast on home ice in their own right. Instead, I’m going to side with the under. The two meetings this season have combined for eight goals and I think we have another low-scoring battle on our hands here. Give me the under.