Los Angeles Kings at San Jose Sharks
Los Angeles has now lost five in a row and have just four wins in their last 16 games. The problem is goal scoring: L.A. has just 26 goals in their last 16 games and it doesn’t matter how much you possess the puck or how good your goalies are, a team that averages 1.6 goals for/game will not find very much success in the win column. It won’t get any easier tonight as the Kings are 1-7-1 away from home in their nine road games since Christmas and go to San Jose where the Sharks have two regulation losses all year.
This Sharks team has managed quite well without Logan Couture and Tomas Hertl, and they are now riding a six-game winning streak that suddenly looks less impressive when you see Florida, Washington, Tampa Bay, Calgary, Winnipeg and Minnesota has their opponents. This team has tightened things up defensively, giving up just three power play goals against in their last 12 games and allowing under 30 shots on goal in five straight games.
The Sharks aren’t exactly shooting out the lights on this win streak with 16 goals in those six games but they are playing in a manner that doesn’t require 3-plus goals a game. You don’t need to score four goals a game to go on a winning streak, but you also can’t be Los Angeles and score under two goals a game for an extended period. The Sharks have found balance, the Kings have not.
I would worry about Kings players tonight because the lineup blender will probably come out if they struggle early. I’ll pick a few San Jose skaters but I worry about a low-scoring game so I won’t be too heavily invested in this team.
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Top RW Value |
Top LW Value |
Top C Value |
Top D Value |
Bargain Bin |
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(LAK) $6482 |
Matt Nieto $6264 |
Joe Thornton |
(SJS) |
Dwight King |
Good luck!
