The Los Angles Kings will head up to the State of Hockey as they look to face off against the Minnesota Wild tonight. This will be the third meeting between these two teams this season as the total goals have gone under 5.5 in both of the prior two matchups. Who will come away on top in this matchup? It’s time to find out as we continue our NHL odds series with a Kings-Wild prediction and pick.
Here are the Kings-Wild NHL Odds, Courtesy of FanDuel
NHL Odds: Kings-Wild Odds
Los Angeles Kings: +1.5 (-164) (+155 ML)
Minnesota Wild: -1.5 (+136) (-188 ML)
Over: 6 (+106)
Under: 6 (-130)
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Why The Kings Can Cover The Spread/Win
The Los Angeles Kings enter this contest after a 3-2 loss to Edmonton on Thursday, allowing the Oilers to jump ahead of the Kings in the standings by four points now. These low-scoring games can mainly be credited to goaltender Cal Petersen, who has allowed three or fewer goals in three straight games. He'll likely get another start tonight as he is averaging 2.70 goals against per game with a .902 save percentage on the season. The Kings' defense has been excellent in front of him as well as they look to continue their run tonight against a tough and unpredictable Wild offense.
Why The Wild Can Cover The Spread/Win
The Minnesota Wild have seen their fair share of low-scoring games recently, where seven of their past 11 have gone under 5.5 goals. Much like the Kings, these low-scoring efforts are credited to outstanding goaltending from newcomer and future Hall of Famer, Marc-Andre Fleury. He's projected to get the start between the pipes tonight as he has allowed only two or fewer goals in three of his four starts since coming to Minnesota. Since he's been traded from Chicago, Fleury is also posting a stellar .930 save percentage. He'll look to keep up the great goaltending behind Minnesota's criminally underrated defense tonight and get two more points to their total on the season.
Final Kings-Wild Prediction & Pick
Here's the issue with this game: I love the under. However, apparently so does everyone else since the odds are now down to -130 (which is honestly shocking that an over/under line gets that low; typically oddsmakers would just move the line half a point and the odds go back down). Because of that, I'd prefer to move the line myself up to 6.5 and stay with the under, but the odds then fall even more to -158. So I'm going to gamble a little bit here and take the under at 5.5 total goals since that brings the odds up to +112. Both teams are defensively sound, and both goaltenders are trying to win games for their squad, so I think it can be a profitable bet here.
To be honest, I'm only going to put half of a unit on that play just because I never like taking the under in general, and there's not a safety net of a push with this. But the value is there, so let's ride.
Final Kings-Wild Prediction and Pick: Alternate Total – Under 5.5 (+112)
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