LA Kings at Colorado Avalanche projected lineup, odds, notes

The LA Kings visit the defending Stanley Cup Champions after Tuesday’s 4-2 win over the Vegas Golden Knights.

Projected Lineups

LA Kings (20-12-6)

Here’s how the Kings skated during practice on Wednesday:

Fiala – Kopitar – Kempe
Iafallo – Danault – Arvidsson
Anderson-Dolan – Lizotte – Vilardi
Lemieux – Byfield – Kupari
Grundstrom

Anderson – Doughty
Durzi – Roy
Edler – Walker
Spence

Quick
Copley

Colorado Avalanche (19-12-4)

Here’s how the Avs lined up in their loss to the Coyotes on Tuesday:

Game #️⃣3️⃣3️⃣#GoAvsGo pic.twitter.com/PzGZKsP8rY

— x – Colorado Avalanche (@Avalanche) December 28, 2022

As always, we’ll see how things shake out after the morning skates.

5-on-5

Here’s how the two teams match up at 5-on-5 per Natural Stat Trick

Colorado may not be their dominant self in the first half of the season but given the significance of the players out of the lineup with injuries, they’ve still played well at 5-on-5.

Special Teams

Betting Odds

Let’s look at the 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 8:30 am ET/5:30 am PT may have changed since this was published.

The Kings are road underdogs on Thursday with  Caesars, PointsBet, and WynnBet offering +135. The best price on the hosts is -145 at DraftKings. As far as the total, it’s 6 across the board with FanDuel’s -106 the best bet on the Over and BetRivers’ -103 the place to go on the Under.

I’m still not getting the warm and fuzzies with the LA Kings, despite their recent stretch of positive results. They’ve been second-best in their last few games in most 5-on-5 possession metrics and now with some injuries up front, I am hesitant to pull the trigger on them.

News & Notes

• Per Kyle Fredrickson, Nathan MacKinnon did take part in practice and is nearing his return to the Avs lineup, but it doesn’t appear it’ll be against LA on Thursday.
• The Kings will also not see Valeri Nichushkin as he reinjured his ankle.
• LA Kings Insider, Zack Dooley, noted that neither Trevor Moore nor Arthur Kaliyev skated on Wednesday. The duo hasn’t been ruled out for Thursday’s game, but at the moment it doesn’t appear likely that they’ll be in.
• Quinton Byfield made his return to the LA Kings lineup on Tuesday. He was flanked by Brendan Lemieux and Rasmus Kupari on a line that played the fewest minutes on the Kings at 5-on-5. In Byfield’s 7:22 of 5-on-5 time, he held just a 36% CF% and 33% xGF%. After a positive stint in Ontario, the Kings will be looking to him to become an impact in the team’s bottom six.
• Since the Kings returned to the West coast on December 17th, the team is an impressive 4-0-1 in those five games. They sit just four points back of the Vegas Golden Knights atop the Pacific Division.
• After seven straight games without a point, Gabriel Vilardi has a pair of goals and four points in his last five games.
• With his primary assist on Vilardi’s goal, Blake Lizotte is up to seven primary assists on the season at 5-on-5 (per Natural Stat Trick). That is good for third on the team, ahead of the likes of Anze Kopitar and Phillip Danault. Lizotte has continued to evolve as a player and has become instrumental in the team’s offense at 5-on-5.

(Main Photo Credit: NHL.com)