The Los Angeles Kings and San Jose Sharks will meet up tonight in Game 1 of the First Round of the NHL Playoffs. The game is scheduled for a 10:30 p.m. start time and it will be televised nationally on NBC Sports Network. Currently the odds for the game have San Jose favored to get the win.
These two rivals should make for a pretty solid opening round series to the playoffs. The Los Angeles Kings went 3-1-1 against the San Jose Sharks this season. Yet, they also one once in those three games by more than a single goal. This should be an intense, long series on the West Coast and hopefully NHL fans will pay attention to it.
Last year the Kings knocked out the Sharks in Game 7 of the second round. Four years ago when these teams also met in the post season the Sharks knocked out the Kings in six games. Home ice advantage could prove to be a big shift in this game tonight. If San Jose wins and is able to hold home ice advantage, they will feel much better about going to LA for the third and fourth games of the series. But if the Kings can come through with a victory in either of the first two games of the season this series could get very interesting.
Joe Pavelski had a huge year, scoring 41 goals for the Sharks this season to lead the team. He also had a team-high 79 points on the year. San Jose is a team that can score a lot of goals, ranking sixth best in the league at just under 3.0 goals per contest. They are very solid on the penalty kill as well, ranking sixth best in the NHL at an 84.9 percent clip. Those two categories have helped San Jose get to 51 wins on the season.
Los Angeles was not a team that scored a lot of goals this season, averaging just 2.4 per game this year, which ranks 26th best in the league. Yet, they too were solid on the penalty kill, ranking 11th best in the NHL at 83.1 percent. They also have one of the best goalies in hockey in Jonathan Quick, who won 27 games this year and has a 2.07 goals against average while holding a .915 save percentage.
Anze Kopitar led the team with 29 goals while Jeff Carter added 27 this season.
San Jose goalie Antti Niemi made 39 wins and a 2.39 goals against average stand up this season.
In tonight's game we will see two veteran clubs that don't like each other going at it. Los Angeles is a team we think can make some noise in the playoffs and between clubs that both had 100 points on the season, we don't think there's a big gap between these two. We like Quick to have a monster game and get a win for the Kings here tonight.
Free Pick: Los Angeles 3, San Jose 1
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