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Written by Mark
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Wednesday, 14 April 2010 15:00 |
NHL Hockey 4/15/10 Western Conference First Round-Game #1
Los Angeles Kings (46-27-1-8)-Vancouver Canucks (49-28-1-4)
By Mark-Thursday, April 15th 2010 10 PM EST
Line- over 5.5 +100 (small lean Los Angeles +170)
In my opinion, this has the makings of one of the better opening round matchups in the postseason and definitely has game seven potential. I don't see a great deal of difference between the two but I do see enough injuries along the blue line for Vancouver to cause concern. For a team that was loaded with defenseman at the beginning of the year, things have gotten stickey with the playoffs starting. The Canucks lost Sami Salo, Aaron Rome and Shane O'Brien the last three days of the regular season and the club is silent about the injuries and potential rotations for the opening game.
The obvious problem is protecting Luongo but it could keep the forwards playing a lot more caustiously and forcing them to help out more in the defensive zone. The domino effect is they aren't as aggressive so as not to expose their defense. The bottom line is that scoring opportunities could be limited. Their season ending 7-3 win over Calgary could be a precursor as to what we can expect; a heavy dose of the Sedin brothers on offense and hope that Luongo can survive a ton of LAK shots.
The Kings enter the postseason for the first time since 2002, which probably is not a shock to those familiar with the NHL. Their claim to fame is the team's only Stanley Cup appearance in 1994 led by the 'Great One' who put hockey on the map in a city not known for the NHL. Los Angeles tied the club record with 46 wins and were 8th in the league with 101 points so this team has credentials that says they weren't pushovers.
The Kings have a mixture of youth and veteran leadership who have been through the playoff wars so even though the franchise hasn't seen the postseason in eight years, there is playoff experience. Anze Kopitar (34 G, 47 A) will be the focus of the Vancouver defense as the Kings aren't armed with a ton of prolific scorers. That title goes to Vancouver who has six 20+ goal scorers compared to four for LA, so stopping highest scoring team in the West is the obvious problem.
Not much in the way of trends to support Los Angeles because of their long postseason drought, but Vancouver has dominated play over the past two years, winning seven of ten. I'm bucking what's happened between the two this season as LA is 1-2-1 and the under is 3-1 but I'm thinking there wasn't much separating them and the injuries get me thinking the Kings at least have a chance.
Mark's Pick: over 5.5 (lean Kings +170)
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