Two teams with no love for one another that are only separated by 339 miles will go head-to-head as the San Jose Sharks take on the Los Angeles Kings. Join us for our NHL odds series where our Sharks-Kings prediction and pick will be revealed.
While the Sharks have been prone to shoot themselves in the feet with a 10-16-5 record thus far, they have been able to rack up back-to-back wins for the first time in a month. With a gritty 3-2 victory over Arizona on Tuesday, San Jose has some new-found swagger to work with entering play tonight.
As for the Kings, LA has also fallen on some hard times of late but are fresh off of a decisive and impressive win over the Eastern Conference point leaders in the Boston Bruins by a final score of 3-2 in a shootout. On paper, Los Angeles does have a better record than San Jose at 16-12-5 and also have 12 more points than their divisional counterparts.
Here are the Sharks-Kings NHL odds, courtesy of FanDuel
NHL Odds: Sharks-Kings Odds
San Jose Sharks: +1.5 (-192)
Los Angeles Kings: -1.5 (+154)
Over: 6 (-120)
Under: 6 (-104)
Why The Sharks Could Cover The Spread
Clearly, the start to the 2022-2023 regular season has been a tough pill to swallow for Sharks fans, but they have at least looked like an entirely different team over the course of the last two games they have played. Not to mention, San Jose may be getting some of their top players back from injury just in time for tonight's action.
Not at full strength for the past several games, the return of guys like defenseman Mario Ferraro should do wonders for a Sharks squad that is surrendering a whopping 3.64 goals per game. Ferraro last saw action nearly three weeks ago when he took a puck off of his lower body against the Kings. So far, Ferraro is second on the team in ice-time with an average of 22:49 per contest.
Other than the fact that the Sharks should benefit from some fresh bodies and not having played in four days, do they have what it takes to continue their stellar play on both sides of the ice? As it stands, San Jose has outscored their last two opponents 9-3 en route to victories, but the larger sample size on the season is no doubt concerning. Through the team's first 31 games played, they only score 3.06 goals a game and have been even worse on defense, With that being said, it is hard to argue against the fact that the outcome of this one will come down to goalie James Reimer who is expected to get the start tonight. Reimer has compiled shaky numbers across the board and will need to come out with a solid outing to help out his team in a big way.
Why The Kings Could Cover The Spread
On paper, the numbers and statistics suggest that the Kings are the better team, but what makes hockey so great is the unpredictable nature that it provides each time out on the ice. Despite only posting a 3-3 record in their last six games overall, Los Angeles has to be feeling good about themselves on how they competed within the entirety of regulation and beyond versus the Bruins.
No question, a repeated effort like the one they gave on Thursday would be a good place to start for the Kings to cover the spread. Even though they were outshot and outhit throughout the night, it was the unfathomable play of goalie Pheonix Copley that left Boston stunned. By the time the final horn blew, Copley had saved 33 of 35 shots that were sent his way. Expected to make his third-straight start in net, Copley will continue to be a major headline in the hockey world after the 30-year-old was called up from the team's AHL affiliate on Dec. 1st. Believe it or not, Copley had not seen NHL action in more than six years prior to being inserted into the starting lineup.
Outside of Copley stringing together an outstanding start, don't sleep on this offense's ability to take care of business. With that being said, the Kings will most likely try to scheme up a way to get left-winger Kevin Fiala plenty of chances to make some magic with the puck in his possession. At the moment, Fiala leads the team in assists and points. The former first-round pick back in 2014, he was a large part of LA's offense with a pair of assists in the win.
Final Sharks-Kings Prediction & Pick
As unreliable as both these squads are when it comes to covering the spread, there is a better chance that the Sharks come into Los Angeles and keep this one close based on how they have performed during their last six periods of play.
Final Sharks-Kings Prediction & Pick: Sharks +1.5 (-192)
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