Vitals, Betting Odds, and Projected Lineups vs 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.

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!