NHL Picks: The St. Louis Blues visit the Los Angeles Kings on Thursday in a matchup between two of the top teams in the Western Conference. The Kings are the defending Stanley Cup champs while the Blues are considered a definite contender. This is a good spot for the Blues even though they are on the road as they have been off since Saturday. Rarely do teams ever get four days off during an NHL season except for the All-Star break. Let’s look at this contest and the rest of Thursday’s NHL predictions.
St. Louis at Los Angeles
The situation definitely favors the Blues as they will be well rested but the trends do not. The Blues simply don’t have much success against the Kings. They have lost seven of the last 10 meetings overall and it has been ugly on the road in L.A. as they have dropped 9 of the last 10. They have not won a game in Los Angeles since 2011. The nine-game losing streak in L.A. includes a 3-2 loss last season. For the most part the games between the teams in L.A. have been low scoring with six unders, three overs and one push in the last ten meetings.
We’ll take a shot with the road underdog in this one and also play the game under the total.
More NHL Predictions
New Jersey at Washington – The Devils could be a live underdog a lot this season so we’ll take them at plus money in this one.
San Jose at New York Islanders – The Sharks have been a good road team through the years so we’ll take San Jose to win this one.
Carolina at New York – This one should be tight and low scoring so we’ll go under the total.
Dallas at Pittsburgh – These two teams could end up as the highest scoring teams in the league this season. We’ll play this one over the total.
Boston at Montreal (NHL Network) – The Bruins have had all kinds of trouble against their big rivals of late. We’ll take the home team.
Colorado at Ottawa – It could be a disappointing season for the Av’s and they might struggle in this one. We’ll back the home team.
I think the well-rested Blues are going to do well against the Kings this time around. I’ve only watched one Kings game so far this season, and I wasn’t at all expecting the 0-4 loss to the Sharks right after raising the Stanley Cup banner. On the other hand, I don’t have any doubts that the Kings will dominate the Oilers in tonight’s game before they take on Blues on Thursday.