Joe Patarino With playoff seeding still unsettled, the LA Kings are in Anaheim on Thursday to close out the regular season.
Projected Lineups
LA Kings (46-25-10)
The Kings shutout the Vancouver Canucks on Monday, here’s how they lined up:
Tonight's @LAKings Line Rushes –
Byfield – Kopitar – Kempe
Moore – Danault – Arvidsson
Iafallo – Lizotte – Kaliyev
Grundstrom – Kupari – Anderson-DolanAnderson – Doughty
Gavrikov – Roy
Durzi – WalkerKorpisalo
Copley— Zach Dooley (@DooleyLAK) April 11, 2023
I’d imagine there will be a change or two on Thursday. We’ll keep an eye on any updates after the team’s morning skate.
Anaheim Ducks (23-46-12)
Here’s how the Ducks skated in their 3-2 loss to Vancouver on Tuesday:
Henrique – McTavish – Terry
Vatrano – Zegras – Strome
Nesterenko – Lundestrom – Jones
Grant – Groulx – Silfverberg
Fowler – Benoit
Beaulieu – Helleson
Lacombe – Shattenkirk
Dostal
Gibson
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 |
| Los Angeles Kings | 52.2 | 52.9 | 52.8 | 54.2 | 8.1 | 0.908 | 0.990 |
| Anaheim Ducks | 42.7 | 39.9 | 41.2 | 38.9 | 7.9 | 0.912 | 0.990 |
The Anaheim Ducks have consistently been one of the worst teams in the NHL at 5-on-5 this season. If it weren’t for John Gibson, they’d already be printing the Connor Bedard jerseys.
Special Teams
| Team | PP% | PK% |
| Los Angeles Kings | 25.3 | 75.7 |
| Anaheim Ducks | 15.9 | 72.1 |
The LA power play has been without two key players, Kevin Fiala and Gabriel Vilardi, but there’s hope they will be ready for Game 1 of the Stanley Cup Playoffs.
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 11 am ET/8 am PT may have changed since the writing of this article.
The LA Kings are heavy favorites in the season finale with the best price being -222 at BetRivers while Anaheim is +192 at Caesars. The total on the game is 6.5 across the board with BetRivers and PointsBet offering the best price on the Over at -105. A number of shops are offering the Under at -110.
While the Kings no longer have home ice to play for, they do risk slipping into the Wild Card with a regulation loss to Anaheim (note: that may not be the worst thing in the world). I think LA takes care of an Anehim team who will probably have one foot on the plane to their vacation destination during this one. You can grab the Kings to win in regulation at Caesars at -154.
News & Notes
- There’s still plenty that is undecided in the Pacific Division. First place is up for grabs as Vegas has a two-point lead on the Edmonton Oilers while the Seattle Kraken trails the LA Kings by just two points. Because the Oilers and Kraken hold the tiebreakers with Vegas and LA respectively, if Seattle and Edmonton pick up two points while Vegas and LA lose in regulation, we would see those places flip. Conveniently enough, Vegas ends their season in Seattle tonight, while the Oilers visit San Jose.
- If the Kings do slip into the Wild Card spot, that opponent is still TBD as well. Right now, Dallas has a one-point lead over the Colorado Avalanche in the Central Division. Dallas has one game left (Thursday against St. Louis) while Colorado plays twice (home vs. Winnipeg Thursday and at Nashville on Friday).
- Alex Laferriere has been with the Kings this week after signing his Entry Level Contract on Sunday. At Wednesday’s practice, he took some line rushes with Anze Kopitar. I would expect him to get in the lineup against Anaheim.
- This game still matters to the Ducks as well in their efforts to finish in last place this season. At 58 points, they are in 31st place with Columbus sitting in last with 57 points. The good news for Anaheim is the Blue Jackets play twice while the Ducks’ season will end with the Kings. There may be even more Kings fans than normal in Honda Center on Thursday.
- There’s tanking and then there’s whatever Anaheim is doing. They have dropped 12 straight games heading into the season finale.
- Kevin Fiala and Gabriel Vilardi aren’t the only injured Kings the team is hoping to see get back. Alex Edler has also been out, but he did skate in a non-contact jersey on Wednesday.
- Kings fans breathed a bit of a sigh of relief on Monday when Mikey Anderson returned to the lineup. It was a very good return for him as well.
- This is a bit of a test of Todd McLellan‘s goalie rotation. Joonas Korpisalo pitched a shutout on Monday so while it is Pheonix Copley‘s turn to go Thursday, this could be an opportunity for McLellan to let Korpisalo run with the starting job into playoffs.
(Main Photo Credit: Mark J. Terrill/Associated Press)