Joe Patarino 
Fresh off a 6-0 win on Saturday on Dustin Brown’s night, the LA Kings are back at it on Monday, hosting the Buffalo Sabres.
Projected Lineups
LA Kings (28-18-7)
Here’s how the Kings lined up in their win over the Penguins:
Byfield – Kopitar – Kempe
Moore – Danault – Arvidsson
Fiala – Lizotte – Iafallo
Anderson-Dolan – Kupari – Kaliyev
Anderson – Doughty
Durzi – Roy
Edler – Walker
Copley
Quick
Buffalo Sabres (26-21-4)
Here’s how the Sabres’ forward lines looked in practice on Sunday:
FWIW, which might not be anything the day before the game, the Sabres have new lines:
Skinner-Cozens-Tuch
Mittelstadt-Thompson-Okposo
Asplund-Jost-Olofsson
Girgensons-Krebs-Quinn
Peterka an extra during drills.— Lance Lysowski (@LLysowski) February 12, 2023
Their defense and goaltending looked like this in their loss to Calgary on Saturday:
Samuelsson – Dahlin
Power – Jokiharju
Lyubushkin – Bryson
Luukonen
Anderson
5-on-5
Here’s how the two teams match up at 5-on-5 per Natural Stat Trick
| Team | CF% | xGF% | SCF% | HDCF% | SH% | SV% | PDO |
| Buffalo Sabres | 51.9 | 49.9 | 51.0 | 48.2 | 9.2 | 0.910 | 1.002 |
| Los Angeles Kings | 51.3 | 52.2 | 51.7 | 52.7 | 8.1 | 0.903 | 0.983 |
The Sabres are a dangerous offensive team, but they are susceptible to allowing plenty of scoring chances as well. They’ve gotten some pretty good goaltending this year from the trio of Ukka-Pekka Lukkonen, Craig Anderson, and Eric Comrie.
Special Teams
| Team | PP% | xGF% |
| Buffalo Sabres | 25.4 | 73.2 |
| Los Angeles Kings | 24.5 | 74.9 |
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 10 am ET/7 am PT may have changed since this was published.
The Kings are favored in this one, with DraftKings’ -150 the best price in the market. For Buffalo, +132 is available at BetRivers. The Sabres are a good team and one that can score in bunches. -150 is a little too much for me.
The total on the game is 6.5, with multiple books offering -125. BetRivers has the best price on the Under at +108. With the LA goaltending and the offense the two teams are capable of, it’s hard not to pull the trigger on the Over.
News & Notes
- The biggest news around the LA Kings right now is the Jakob Chychrun rumor. We’ll see if he’s an LA King by tonight.
- Buffalo has been linked to Chychrun as well, though they do not appear to be in the mix at this point.
- Craig Anderson is expected to be in goal for Buffalo on Monday.
- Adrian Kempe scored four goals on Saturday, giving him seven tallies in his last five games. His 26 goals comfortably lead the team.
- Gabriel Vilardi skated in a regular practice jersey on Sunday, but it does not sound like he is expected to play against Buffalo.
- Tage Thompson left the last game before the All-Star Break with an upper-body injury, but he was in action on Saturday and is good to go on Monday.
- The two teams met in Buffalo in December, and after an even first two periods, the Sabres erupted for six goals in the third period, winning the game 6-0.
(Main Photo Credit: NHL.com)