NHL Picks: Kings will top Canadiens in potential Stanley Cup preview – CBSSports.com
Welcome to the NHL Daily Picks where hockey writers Adam Gretz and Chris Peters make their selections for all of the day’s games.
Los Angeles Kings at Montreal Canadiens, 7:30 p.m. ET
Two of the NHL’s best teams will be facing off on Thursday night when the Los Angeles Kings visit the Montreal Canadiens in a matchup that we could be seeing in a best-of-seven series in June.
After a down year in 2014-15 that saw the Kings fall short of the postseason, they are starting to have the same championship look that they had in 2011-2012 and 2013-2014 when they went on to win the Stanley Cup. They dominate possession and play a smothering shut down defensive game, and even though they could probably use a bit of an upgrade offensively, we have yet to see Anze Kopitar and Marian Gaborik at their most productive. Even with them playing at their current levels offensively the Kings still have the second best record in the Western Conference and one of the top records in the league.
The Canadiens meanwhile are still at the top of the Eastern Conference standings even though they have spent the majority of the season playing without their top player, starting goaltender Carey Price. The way Montreal played a year ago it never would have been able to overcome having Price for just 12 of the first 32 games of the season. But Michel Therrien has his team playing a slightly more aggressive style this season offensively and it’s resulted in the Canadiens shooting up the goal scoring leaderboard and taking some of the pressure off of their goaltenders.
Backup goalie Mike Condon has played pretty well in Price’s absence this season, but he and the Canadiens have hit a bit of a slump over the past couple of weeks.
Montreal enters play on Thursday having won just two of its past eight games with Condon managing only a .900 save percentage during that stretch. The recent slump isn’t entirely on him, though. The Canadiens have scored more than two goals just once over that stretch (one of their two wins), something that was far more common for them a year ago when Price would routinely steal games no matter how little offensive support he received.
-A game against the Kings, a team that is 7-1-2 in their past 10 game and has allowed more than two goals just twice over that stretch, isn’t exactly the cure for a scoring slump. Pick: Los Angeles Kings 4, Montreal Canadiens 2
The rest of Thursday’s picks
Buffalo Sabres 3, Anaheim Ducks 2
New Jersey Devils 2, Florida Panthers 0
Philadelphia Flyers 4, Vancouver Canucks 3
San Jose Sharks 5, Toronto Maple Leafs 2
St. Louis Blues 3, Nashville Predators 2
New York Rangers 4, Minnesota Wild 2
Chicago Blackhawks 5, Edmonton Oilers 3
Dallas Stars 6, Calgary Flames 3
New York Islanders 4, Colorado Avalanche 3
Arizona Coyotes 4, Columbus Blue Jackets 1
The Los Angeles Kings visit the Montreal Canadiens on Thursday night. (USATSI)
This entry passed through the Full-Text RSS service – if this is your content and you’re reading it on someone else’s site, please read the FAQ at fivefilters.org/content-only/faq.php#publishers.
