LA Kings Buffalo Sabres

The LA Kings took the first matchup with the Buffalo Sabres 3-2 back on Halloween.

Tale of the Tape

Power-play:

LAK: 16.7% (26th)

BUF: 20.5% (18th)

Penalty Kill:

LAK: 75.5% (29th)

BUF: 76.3% (24th)

Faceoffs:

LAK: 52.7% (6th)

BUF: 46.2% (32nd)

Goals per game:

LAK: 2.93 (18th)

BUF: 2.70 (24th)

Goals against per game:

LAK: 2.82 (12th)

BUF: 3.55 (26th)

Top scorers:

LAK: Anze Kopitar – 15 goals, 36 assists, 51 points

BUF: Tage Thompson – 23 goals, 19 assists, 42 points

Betting Odds

The LA Kings come into this game as pretty significant favorites, courtesy of The Action Network.

Kings Odds -175
Sabres Odds +143
Over/Under 6.0
Time 10:00 am PT
TV SN, MSG-B, BSW, ESPN+

Projected Lineups

Here’s how the Kings aligned in practice on Saturday via LA Kings Insider:

Anderson-Dolan – Kopitar – Kempe
Moore – Danault – Arvidsson
Iafallo – Byfield – Brown
Athanasiou – Lizotte – Kaliyev
Grundstrom

Maatta – Moverare
Bjornfot – Durzi

Quick / Petersen

With Brendan Lemieux suffering a leg injury in Friday’s 4-3 OT win in Columbus, Andreas Athanasiou slides into his spot in the forward lines. We’ll see how Lemieux’s absence impacts what has been an extremely effective line all year.

Continuing the goalie rotation, Cal Petersen would appear to be in line for a start on Sunday. He’s faced Buffalo just once before in his career, stopping 43-of-47 shots in a Kings’ 4-3 loss in overtime back in December 2018.

Here’s how the Sabres lined up in Saturday’s practice: 

LW C RW
53 Jeff Skinner 72 Tage Thompson 89 Alex Tuch
37 Casey Mittelstadt 24 Dylan Cozens 21 Kyle Okposo
74 Rasmus Asplund 19 Peyton Krebs 71 Victor Olofsson
29 Vinnie Hinostroza 17 Mark Jankowski 15 John Hayden
96 Anders Bjork 28 Zemgus Girgensons  
LD RD G
26 Rasmus Dahlin 78 Jacob Bryson 41 Craig Anderson
8 Robert Hagg 13 Mark Pysyk 31 Dustin Tokarski
23 Mattias Samuelsson 45 Casey Fitzgerald  
4 Will Butcher 33 Colin Miller  

The Kings and Sabres get underway at a very early 10 am PT!

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