Los Angeles Kings at Nashville Predators Betting Preview
It turns out that getting on the road was all the Los Angeles Kings needed to start picking up wins. L.A. dropped their first two games of the season at home but have since gone away to beat the Wild 7-6 and Detroit 5-4 to even their record at 2-2.
The Nashville Predators (2-2) are in a nice spot to snap their two-game losing streak, considering L.A. is on the back-to-back. Nashville hasn’t played since their 5-1 loss in Dallas on Saturday, thus the -164 line on the Predators.
L.A. Still Struggling Defensively
Scoring 12 goals the last two games and still just winning each contest by one is both a testament to the Kings’ offense and an indictment on their defense. The Kings have allowed 4+ goals in all four of their games this season, so really a 2-2 record isn’t that horrible.
Adrian Kempe is off to a solid start this season with four goals in four games, while Gabriel Villardi has found the back of the net in three of four. The Kings are up to the #14 scoring offense in the NHL at 3.7 goals/game.
Jonathan Quick stopped 29 of 33 shots against Detroit to guide the 5-4 OT win on Monday night. He’ll almost assuredly rest on the back-to-back, so Cal Peterson gets his second start of the year. Peterson gave up six goals against Minnesota on Saturday.
Preds’ Need to Get Their Offense Going
Nashville is hoping that having the last couple of nights off helps them recalibrate their offense a bit because it hasn’t been working in home-and-home 4-1 and 5-1 losses to Dallas the last two games. We will see if the Predators’ skates were inefficient or if Dallas goaltender Jake Oettinger was just dialed in after stopping 60 of 62 SOG.
Nashville definitely gets the matchup to fix their offense, with the Kings giving up 18 goals in their first four games. At the same time, though, the L.A. skaters have scored 12 goals in their last two games, which isn’t ideal when Nashville goaltender Juuse Saros has only stopped 50 of the last 59 shots he’s faced.
Kings at Predators Pick and Prediction
On equal rest, the Kings might have some value at +132, but it’s hard to ask L.A. to get the upset playing in their third straight road game and in their first back-to-back of the season. Nashville has had the last two nights off but were also heavily outgunned by Dallas in their last two games.
The -164 price tag is way too much to pay on the Nashville side the way they played against the Stars. The way the Kings are scoring – but also not stopping anybody else from scoring – and while also playing on consecutive nights means this is a total play on the over.
Saros allowing nine goals in his last two starts doesn’t hurt this play, either.
Pick: Over 6
