Photo Credit: Alex Cave
Opening night didn’t go quite so well for the LA Kings, falling 4-3 to the Vegas Golden Knights on a late Mark Stone goal.
The good news, though, there are 81 more of these to go! Up next for the Kings is another divisional matchup against the Seattle Kraken.
Seattle will be playing the second of a back-to-back after a 5-4 overtime loss in Anaheim on Wednesday night.
Let’s take a look at the game’s odds, courtesy of BetStamp.
*Note: the odds below are for sports books offered in New York. Refer to available sports books specific to your state.
**Odds as of 9:30 am ET/6:30 am PT and may have changed since this has been published.
The Kings are favored for the second straight game, with Caesars offering the best odds at -178 (64.0% implied probability). A quick aside – you again see the value of multiple sports books. Why pay -185 or -192 when you can pay -178?
Given LA’s performance in the season opener against Vegas, it could be tough to stomach laying a price of -178. Sporting the Chrome Domes, the Kings were heavily outplayed on Tuesday, allowing 51 shots on goal while mustering just a 38.4 CF% and 38.4 xGF% at 5-on-5.
That said, if you think the hosts are going to have a bit of a chip on their shoulder after a poor performance on opening night, Caesars has the Kings at +143 to have a lead after the first period.
While nothing is confirmed, it looks like some lineup changes are coming for tonight’s game:
My guesses are:
Brandt Clarke 🔁 Sean Walker
Brendan Lemieux 🔁 Carl Grundstrom#GoKingsGo https://t.co/zra2QAoEnj— Russell Morgan (@NHLRussell) October 12, 2022
Another change that we are expecting is Cal Petersen to get the nod between the pipes for the Kings. Jonathan Quick was excellent on Tuesday, but we suspect the team is going to want to get both goalies involved early on in the season.
With Petersen’s struggles in the 2021-22 campaign – and during this preseason – combined with playing against one of the league’s worst goaltending teams last season, the Over six goals could be an attractive play. FanDuel has our best odds there at -106. Former King Martin Jones is expected to start for the Kraken in goal after Philipp Grubauer started last night. There could be a lot of rubber catching the twine in this one.
One positive for the Kings on Tuesday was the play of Gabriel Vilardi. The 23-year-old center-turned-winger brought his strong preseason play into the regular season, notching the Kings’ first goal of the 2022-23 season.
Vilardi is +400 at Caesars to score a goal (Over 0.5).
His center, Quinton Byfield, was also a bright spot. Though, he was not involved with either power play unit, so his ice time right now is limited to 5-on-5 play. Caesars has his odds at +550 to score a goal.
Lastly, for LA, it is expected that highly touted prospect Brandt Clarke will be making his NHL debut on Thursday. He is currently +800 at BetMGM to score a goal.
From a Kraken standpoint, they controlled the game in Anaheim: 60.7 CF%, 70.2 xGF% at 5-on-5, but it was again poor goaltending that let them down. If the team performs like that again on Thursday, BetRivers’ +163 (38.0% implied probability) may look attractive to you.
Seattle was very good on the power play last night, going 3-for-5. Newcomer Andre Burakovsky netted a power play goal in his Kraken debut. The former Colorado Avalanche is playing alongside Matty Beniers and Jared McCann and is +105 to record a point at our sponsor DraftKings (promo code: THPN).
Whether or not you decide to get involved, here’s hoping for a better performance from the LA Kings on Thursday.
Follow @JWPatarino on BetStamp!