The Vegas Golden Knights and Los Angeles Kings meet Tuesday in NHL action at the crypto.com Arena. The Vegas Golden Knights are fresh off 43 wins and enter the Bruce Cassidy era. The Los Angeles Kings won 44 games last year and enter a fourth season under coach Todd McLellan.
The Vegas Golden Knights get their first taste of adversity since joining the NHL, as it’s been a dream for the first 3 years. Now, Vegas is fresh off missing the playoffs and has a new coach. Cassidy comes over from Boston after six seasons, and he’s won 292 career games with 7 playoff appearances overall. The Golden Knights are also dealing with goalie issues, as Robin Lehner is out for the year and Laurent Brossoit is battling a hip injury of his own. That means Adin Hill and Logan Thompson are going to see a lot of minutes until further notice. With all that said, Vegas is still a cup contender that features Jonathan Marchessault, Chandler Stephenson, Shea Theodore and Alex Pietrangelo. Questions or not, Vegas is still the team to beat in the Pacific and still has rather high expectations.
The Los Angeles Kings were a game away from the second round and added Kevin Fiala to the mix, which greatly improves their ceiling. The Kings also have a group of young players who could emerge at some point and that includes Adrian Kempe who is coming off his best year yet. Anze Kopitar is still producing at a high level despite his age, and the Kings didn’t really lose anybody from their core that made the postseason possible. You can also do a lot worse than a goalie tandem of Jonathan Quick and Cal Petersen. The Kings go from missing the playoffs in 4 of the last 5 years to a dark horse title contender that should not be slept on.
The Golden Knights are 5-11 in their last 16 road games and 2-5 in their last 7 overall. The Kings are 8-3 in their last 11 games playing on 2 days rest and 4-0 in their last 4 Tuesday games. The over is 4-1 in Golden Knights last 5 overall. The under is 6-1-1 in Kings last 8 home games. The road team is 5-2 in the last 7 meetings.
The Los Angeles Kings are a team I’ll be watching closely, and you’re going to make money on them long term this season. However, it’s the first game of the season where we’re feeling things out and getting a sample size to chew on. Until then, I’ll play things a bit safe and take the more trustworthy team and the cheaper price. The Vegas Golden Knights are still the team to beat in the division until proven otherwise, or what I think of the Kings. Give me the Golden Knights.