NHL Game Of The Day: Los Angeles Kings at San Jose Sharks
A great Western Conference matchup is the bottom game on the betting board tonight but easily the top contest in terms of matchup quality. The San Jose Sharks and Los Angeles Kings are a couple of franchises that really don’t like each other and have been battling come playoff time for years. Actually, this matchup would have been even better had it happened a week ago–the Sharks were undefeated at that point but have since lost two straight games. They’re also dealing with a spate of injuries, most significantly to forward Logan Couture who’ll miss the next six weeks or so with a broken leg. Many of the other injuries are minor but that won’t help the Sharks tonight or for the next few days. The Sharks have now lost two straight, though it’s hard to downgrade any team for losing games at the Islanders and Rangers.
Los Angeles started the season in dismal form but have won two straight at home against Minnesota and Colorado. The big problem isn’t defense and goaltender Jonathan Quick looks as good as ever. The issue is scoring and when a team has 6 goals in 5 games there’s a problem. It’s a credit to their tough defense and superb goaltending that they’ve even won two games. They’ve had all sorts of other dumb things happen–like missing two practices due to power outages and ice issues. The Kings’ fans have taken to blaming unctuous pop singer Taylor Swift–or, more appropriately–a banner hanging in the Staples Center to commemmorate her run of sold out performances. The banner was a gift from LA Lakers’ star Kobe Bryant but Kings fans have taken a disliking to it and some have started to blame the team’s bad play on the ‘Taylor Swift Curse’. Taylor Swift definitely isn’t causing the Kings’ offensive problems but that doesn’t mean they shouldn’t take the banner down. The likes of Taylor Swift shouldn’t have anything to do with the great game of hockey.
San Jose has been getting great goaltending from former Kings’ backup Martin Jones. And despite the Kings really having the number of the Sharks in recent years their lack of offense has been downright frightening. We’ll back the Sharks in this matchup.
BET SAN JOSE SHARKS -110 OVER LOS ANGELES KINGS