Los Angeles Kings at Colorado Avalanche NHL Predictions

• Tuesday, February 21st, 2012

  By  Blade Armstrong

  

  The Colorado Avalanche may be in the NHL Western Conference playoff race but they also have no margin for error and will have a tough assignment when they host the resurgent Los Angeles Kings in a key matchup on Wednesday for NHL predictions that has major post season implications. The game will be featured on the NBC Sports Network.

  Kings of Defense

  The Kings feature a team that is well coached and balanced but will be facing a desperate and hard fighting Avalanche team. Los Angeles ranked 3rd in the NHL for goals against as Jonathan Quick has emerged as one of the game’s top goaltenders. The problem for LA has been their disappointing and anemic offense that ranked a poor 30th in the league for goal scoring. The Kings have gone over the total in less than 10 percent of their road games as a result of this style of play. With forwards such as Anze Kopitar and Dustin Brown the goal scoring drought has been a major disappointment for the Kings and has caught handicappers off guard with their NHL predictions.

  Mediocrity Personified

  The Avalanche ranked in the bottom half of the NHL for both goal scoring and goals against. Their one bright spot has been goaltender John-Sebastian Giguere who was the hero of the 2007 Anaheim Ducks Stanley Cup championship team. He is also about the only “name” player on a franchise that used to be stocked with them. Somebody named Ryan O’Reilly was the Avs leading scorer and yet was far less than 1 point per game and not even at 20 goals on the season.

  Trends

  The Avalanche have gotten the money in their last 3 games against the Kings with the last 4 head to head meetings failing to go over the total. Although the Kings lost their last game at Colorado they had won their previous 3 visits to the Pepsi Center as 12 of their last 16 games in Denver have gone over the total.

  NHL Predictions

  Los Angeles has the better balance and will have a better price as a road team than if this game was in LA. The Kings are the solid choice in this one. Be sure to follow BetDSI on Twitter for up to the minute information updates!