10:07 pm
March 29

Kings @ Golden Knights

Who will WIN this matchup?

Los Angeles Kings (13-13-6)

@ Vegas Golden Knights (23-8-1)

 

Starting Goalies:

Jonathan Quick (LAK): Unconfirmed

Robin Lehner (VGK):  Likely

 

Current odds:

Los Angeles Kings: (+190)

Vegas Golden Knights: (-220)

 

Off track a bit over the last week-plus, the Vegas Golden Knights will get another crack at the team that bumped them into their recent wobble. After a five-game winning streak and victories in 11 of 13 games, the Golden Knights are just 2-2-0 over their last four in a slip of performance that started with a 3-1 road defeat March 21 to the Los Angeles Kings. That defeat came in the second of two games the teams split in Los Angeles, with another two-game set to open at Las Vegas on Monday.

The Golden Knights will enter Monday’s game following a spirited duel atop the West Division standings with the Colorado Avalanche. In the opener of back-to-back games at Colorado on Thursday, the Golden Knights fell 5-1 to the Avalanche to forge a tie atop the division.

In the rematch Saturday, the Golden Knights delivered their response as Max Pacioretty scored just shy of two minutes into the extra period to give the Golden Knights a 3-2 victory and move them back on top of the division by a single point.

Pacioretty also had an assist on Alec Martinez’s first-period goal and now has four overtime goals this season. He has a team-leading 18 goals and is two shy of 300 for his career.

There was no carry-over momentum for the Kings after they defeated the Golden Knights a little more than a week ago. The Kings’ Sean Walker had the opening goal in that victory and had an assist on Jeff Carter’s third-period clincher.

From there, though, the Kings went on to lose a pair of games at San Jose, including a 4-2 decision on Wednesday. The Sharks are one of two teams beneath the Kings in the West standings, and Los Angeles could have used a pair of positive results to bolster its playoff chances.

Los Angeles is in sixth place in the division, five points behind the fourth-place St. Louis Blues, who currently hold the final playoff spot in the West.

The Kings did get some help for their offense, acquiring forward Brendan Lemieux in a trade Saturday with the New York Rangers. Los Angeles gave up a fourth-round pick in this year’s draft. Lemieux had two goals and five assists in 31 games for the Rangers and was a junior league teammate with current Kings forwards Gabriel Vilardi and Andreas Athanasiou.

7/10
Confidence
StreakSmarter Pick
Vegas Golden Knights