LA Kings vs St. Louis Blues projected lineups, odds, notes

The LA Kings wrap up their seven-game homestand on Sunday night as they welcome the St. Louis Blues to Crypto.com Arena.

Projected Lineups

LA Kings (42-20-10)

Here’s how the Kings lined up in their 4-1 win over Winnipeg on Saturday:

Tonight's @LAKings Line Rushes –

Byfield – Kopitar – Kempe
Moore – Danault – Arvidsson
Iafallo – Lizotte – Vilardi
Grundstrom – Kupari – MacEwen

Anderson – Doughty
Gavrikov – Roy
Edler – Walker

Korpisalo
Copley

— Zach Dooley (@DooleyLAK) March 25, 2023

St. Louis Blues (33-33-6)

The Blues also played Saturday night, winning 6-3 in Anaheim. Here’s how they lined up:

#stlblues projected lineup vs. Anaheim tonight:

Neighbours-Thomas-Kyrou⁰Saad-Buchnevich-Kapanen⁰Blais-Schenn-Vrana⁰Toropchenko-Walker-Pitlick

Leddy-Parayko⁰Scandella-Faulk⁰Krug-Bortuzzo

Binnington

— Jeremy Rutherford (@jprutherford) March 25, 2023

5-on-5

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

There isn’t much to say here. The Kings are a significantly better team than St. Louis, and that’s even more true in the last 25 games. The Blues are a bottom-five team in most of those metrics above at 5-on-5.

Special Teams

The Kings have scored power play goals in back-to-back games, as one of Viktor Arvidsson‘s two goals on Saturday came with the man advantage. However, the team has allowed a power play goal against in three straight games.

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 9:30 am ET/6:30 am PT may have changed since the writing of this article.

As expected, the Kings are heavily favored in this one. BetRivers has the best price on the Kings at -222, while DraftKings is offering +190 on the visiting Blues. The total on the game is 6.5, with BetRivers offering the Over at -102 while multiple shops have the Under at -110.

This is a game that the LA Kings would have lost earlier in the season. Having such a strong run of games only to lay an egg against an inferior team. However, this has been a different Kings team these past couple of months. I think they come out hot off the jump and comfortably take care of St. Louis. I’m comfortable laying -222 and would also play the Kings in regulation (-149 at Caesars).

News & Notes

• Joonas Korpisalo started on Saturday and played well, but the rotation will continue on Sunday with Pheonix Copley between the pipes. The 1A-1B setup is working right now for the Kings.
• Speaking of goaltenders, Jordan Binnington returned against Anaheim after his two-game suspension. It’ll most likely be Joel Hofer or Thomas Greiss (who backed up Binnington in Anaheim) against the Kings.
• Alex Edler has played quite well of late for LA, but he’s sometimes been rested on back-to-backs. We could see Jordan Spence play alongside Sean Walker on the third pair.
• Arvidsson has spent time on the top power play unit recently with the injuries to Gabriel Vilardi and Kevin Fiala. Over his past nine games, the Swedish winger has four goals and five assists, including three goals and an assist in his last two games.
• Speaking of Vilardi, he returned to action on Saturday. He had a quiet night, not registering a point, hit, or shot on goal in 13:30 of ice time.
• Blake Lizotte received a match penalty and a game misconduct for his dangerous cross-check to the face of Josh Morrissey. As of this writing, there has been no update from the league, but it wouldn’t be a surprise to see him get some sort of supplemental discipline.
• The LA Kings have points in 11 straight games (9-0-2), tying a franchise record. They can end the homestand with three consecutive wins and an overall record of 5-0-2 with a win against the Blues.
• The Kings’ last regulation loss came on February 26th at Madison Square Garden against the Rangers. Perhaps ironically, that was the last time we saw Jonathan Quick in an LA Kings uniform.
• Since returning to St. Louis in the Vladimir Tarasenko trade, Sammy Blais has been very good. In 21 games, he has eight goals and five assists. He had no goals and five assists in his 40 games with the New York Rangers this season.
• Similarly, Jakub Vrana played his tenth game since being acquired from the Detroit Red Wings on March 3rd. He has six goals and two assists during that stretch.
• With Vegas’ 4-3 overtime win against Edmonton on Saturday night, the Kings are four games behind Vegas for the top spot in the Pacific Division (with one game in hand). LA has a three-point cushion on the 3rd place Oilers (the Kings also have one game in hand on Edmonton).