The St. Louis Blues will try to find some consistency when they host the Los Angeles Kings in a meeting of West Division rivals on Saturday. While St. Louis looks to take care of business on their home-ice, the Kings will look to build on their most recent outing after picking up their first win of the season the last time out. Let’s get straight to our LA Kings vs St. Louis Blues betting preview.
If you’re ready to find out if St. Louis is the sportsbook betting pick at home in this affair or whether the Kings are the better online betting pick to get it done on the road, let’s get to my expert analysis and prediction on this matchup right now. First though, let’s take a look at all of the NHL odds for all of tonight’s matchups.
Los Angeles Kings (1-1-2) at St. Louis Blues (2-1-1)
When: Saturday, January 23, 2021 at 8:00 PM ET
Where: Enterprise Center, St. Louis, MO
TV: ESPN+
Kings Looking to Build On Impressive Win
Los Angeles lost three straight to open the 2020-21 season, but managed to get its first win of the season by getting past Colorado 4-2 on Thursday night by scoring a pair of goals in the second and third periods.
Adrian Kempe, Blake Lizotte, Gabriel Vilardi and Drew Doughty all lit the lamp in the win while goalie Jonathan Quick turned back 24 of Colorado’s 26 shots to seal the deal. LA ranks 13th in scoring (3.0 gpg), but 22nd in goals allowed (3.3 gpg). The Kings are 4-0 ATS and 3-1 O/U but will play its first road game of the season in this matchup.
Blues Looking For Consistency
St. Louis won it all two years ago and was an elite title contender last season that recorded the most victories of any team in the Western Conference. The Blues come into this matchup looking to find some consistency after alternating wins and losses over its first four games this season.
The Blues were on the wrong end of a narrow 2-1 shootout loss against San Jose on Wednesday night. Brayden Schenn scored the only goal of the game for St. Louis in the second period, but Sharks net-mider Martin Jones turned back 22 of 23 shots to get the win. The Blues are ranked 23rd in scoring (2.5 gpg) and an uninspiring 24th in goals allowed (3.5 gpg).
Expert Analysis and Prediction
While St. Louis is off to a bit of a shaky start, the Blues are still the better and more cohesive team in this matchup, not to mention St. Louis is playing at home. The Kings have gone 6-0 in their last 6 games following a win and 4-1 in their last 5 games against a team with a winning record, but LA is also 17-41 in its last 58 road games.
While the road team in this rivalry has gone 5-2 in the last seven meetings, the Kings are 4-9 in the last 13 meetings. St. Louis needs to pick up their play at the defensive end of the ice and that’s just what I expect the Blues to do in this matchup.
With the Under going 15-6-5 in the last 26 meetings between these two, I’m going with St. Louis for the relatively low-scoring win.
LA Kings vs St. Louis Blues Betting Pick: St. Louis 3 LA Kings 2
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