Overview
The St Louis Blues visit the Staples Center in sunny Los Angeles Thursday where they take on the Kings. This is the second game of a back to back with the Blues winning the first game 5-2. Even though the Blues won the last game they have not had much success versus the Kings over the past few seasons winning just 4 of the last 19 meetings overall and they have also lost the last 10 straight meetings played in LA.
Head to head Trends
Blues are 4-15 in the last 19 meetings.
Blues are 0-10 in the last 10 meetings in Los Angeles.
Los Angeles Kings (-135)
The LA Kings are 4th in the Pacific Division with 36 points 11 points behind the 1st place Anaheim Ducks. The Kings had a pretty good start to the season winning 6 of their first 8 games but they have struggled to put much of anything together since losing 15 of their last 24 games. When you look a bit closer at the Kings you see why they have struggled over that 24 game span and it’s because they don’t play very well on the road and 15 of those 24 games where on the road. The Kings are averaging 2.6 goals per game on offense and 2.4 goals per game on defense overall but their home numbers are much better averaging 2.5 goals per game on offense and just 1.6 goals per game on defense.
Los Angeles Kings Trends
Kings are 68-31 in their last 99 home games.
Kings are 8-1 in their last 9 in the second game of a home-and-home situation.
St Louis Blues (+125)
The St Louis Blues are 2nd in the Central Division with 44 points just 1 point behind the 1st place Chicago Blackhawks. The Blues might have had a bit of a slow start winning just 2 of their first 6 games this season but they have certainly made up for it winning 19 of their last 25 games since. The Blues have a good offense averaging 3.0 goals per game but their defense is their main strength allowing just 2.3 goals per game.
St Louis Blues Trends
Blues are 19-7 in their last 26 overall.
Blues are 3-11 in their last 14 road games vs. a team with a home winning % of greater than .600.
I like the LA Kings over the Blues in this one. There’s a couple reasons I like the Kings in this game. The first is they are just a really good home team and the second is this is the second game of a back to back in which they lost the first game so usually teams play with a little extra motivation in the second game after losing the 1st game.
Free Pick: Los Angeles Kings -135
