NHL: Los Angeles Kings vs St. Louis Blues Odds Preview
Kings Look To Keep Pace While Blues Stay in the Playoff Race
The Los Angeles Kings (33-20-11, 77 points) start their three-game road trip with a stop in St. Louis to face the Blues (33-29-3, 69 points) at the Ameritrade Center.
Los Angeles owns the third spot in the Pacific Division but is being chased by the Vegas Golden Knights who are two points behind. The Blues have some work to do while trailing the Knights by eight points for the last wild card spot.
Oddsmakers have opened Los Angeles -145 with a total of 6.5 (under -115). Let’s start our Kings vs Blues odds preview starting with Los Angeles.
Los Angeles Kings vs St. Louis Blues 
Day/Time: Wedne
Location: Enterprise Center, St. Louis, MO
Streaming: TNT, MAX, & Bally Sports West
Kings Look To Build Off Shutout
Like a Boa constrictor, the Los Angeles Kings took an early lead, overcame early Islanders chances, and then suffocated the hope out of the New York Islanders in their 3-0 win two days ago. Los Angeles will need more of that down the stretch against a favorable schedule. Of their remaining 18 games, the Kings have the Blackhawks three times and the Ducks twice.
Currently, we have Los Angeles at 11th in our latest power ranking, and sixth in the Western Conference. We don’t think there is enough scoring to be a factor in the postseason but they do have some dangerous names like third-line forward Trevor Moore (25G, 20A, 45 points) and linemate Kevin Fiala with 21 goals and 36 assists.
The problem is there is no one to lean on for a three-point night or to pull a team back from a multiple-goal deficit. Their goaltending combination of Cam Talbot (19-15-6, 2.47 GAA, .916) and David Rittich (10-4-3, 2.19 GA, .919) has to be on every night to overcome offensive inconsistencies.
Over their last 16 games, they’ve scored three goals or less 10 times. They’ll have to get more from their top line to stay in the NHL playoff picture.Â
St. Louis Can Still Make The Playoffs
With a 5-1 win over the Boston Bruins a couple of nights ago, the St. Louis Blues crawled closer to the last wild-card spot which is the only way they’re making the playoffs.
The Blues trail the Vegas Golden Knights by six points but Vegas has a game in hand. The good news is, the St. Louis remaining schedule is friendly enough (29th) that they could sneak in.
The Blues have two games remaining against the Sharks, Ducks, and the Minnesota Wild. Even though many things line up, we don’t have St. Louis making the postseason with a ranking of 23 in our latest rating system.
The Blues are just 10-13 against top 10 teams and 16-19 against the top half teams, which the Kings are. Neither team features a dynamic NHL scoring leader which plays right into tonight’s official selection.
Both Teams Know They Must Win With Defense
The total on tonight’s game opened at 6.5 but we’re predicting a drop in this number before the puck drops. We think tonight’s game will feature two teams that will play like they’re afraid to make a mistake early, which should eat up the first 20 minutes.
The game won’t open up until there is a score and even then, it will have to be a panic move if one club is down multiple goals. If you can find a 6.5 grab it, but even at six our official selection is under. That does it for our Kings vs Blues odds preview.
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