Overview
The Calgary Flames visit the Staples Center in sunny LA Thursday where they take on division rivals the LA Kings. The Flames have played the Kings tough over the past couple seasons winning 6 of the last 8 meetings overall including the last 4 straight in LA which is a little surprising considering the Kings have been a pretty good team over that time.
Head to Head Trends
Flames are 4-0 in the last 4 meetings.
Under is 9-2 in the last 11 meetings in Los Angeles.
LA Kings (-160)
The LA Kings are 5th in the Pacific Division with 58 points 17 points back of the 1st place Anaheim Ducks and are currently 5 points out of the final playoff spot. The Kings have had their struggles this season especially on the road where they have won just 7 of 25 games so they’re probably glad that 5 of their next 7 games will be at home in LA. The Kings have an ok offense averaging 2.7 goals per game but their defense is a little below averaging allowing 2.7 goals per game although at home they are much much better allowing just 2.3 goals per game.
LA Kings Trends
Kings are 4-10 in their last 14 overall.
Kings are 13-5 in their last 18 home games following a road trip of 7 or more days.
Calgary Flames (+140)
The Calgary Flames are 4th in the Pacific Division with 63 points and are currently sitting in the final playoff spot. This has been a great season for the Flames especially after their poor performance last season but I really have my doubts of they can maintain it for the rest of the season.
The Flames currently have a 10.45 shooting percentage which is probably too high to maintain and they will probably finish the season closer to 10%. If they were to finish the season with a 10% shooting percentage which is still very high I think there has only been like 5 teams over the past few seasons to finish a full season with a shooting percent over 10. So over the last third of the season they would need about a 9.5 shooting percent which would lower their goals per game from 2.83 down to 2.57 and I think that’s probably the best case scenario it could be much worse like what has happened to the Maple Leafs over the past month or so.
Calgary Flames Trends
Flames are 6-1 in their last 7 road games.
Flames are 24-50 in their last 74 road games vs. a team with a winning home record.
Conclusion
I like the LA Kings over the Flames in this one. The Kings play pretty good at home so I obviously like that but I also think the Flames will go into a prolonged scoring slump sometime over the last couple months of the season so I think they will be a good team to just fade in general.
Free Pick: LA Kings -160
