Two teams playing well meet on Friday night on NBCSN as the Los Angeles Kings visit the Pittsburgh Penguins. The Kings have won 7 of their last 10 games while the Penguins have won 8 of their last 10. This is not a good spot for Los Angeles as they will be playing their third game in four nights, all on the road and with no rest. It doesn’t help Los Angeles that they have to face a Pittsburgh team that was 12-3 in their first 15 home games.
At 7 p.m. ET, tune into NBCSN for live television coverage of this NHL game on Friday, December 16, 2016, at the PPG Paints Arena.
We'll have NHL odds at BookMaker.eu available for this and every game on the NHL Friday schedule.
Odds Analysis
It doesn’t get much tougher than this situation for the Kings on Friday night. Not only are they in the midst of a ridiculously long 9-game road trip, they are playing their third game in four nights and with no rest since they were in Detroit on Thursday night. The Kings were just 4-8 in their first 12 road games.
The Kings have not had much travel so far this season as before this 9-game road trip they had played only two road games since mid-November and one of those was in Anaheim. “It’s fun. It’s a little different,” Tyler Toffoli said. “We’ve been at home for so long, so going on the road is going to feel weird at first but we’ve got to start off the trip right, with a win at Buffalo, and just keep going from there.”
The Penguins have been spectacular at home going 12-3 in their first 15 home games. This is the third game of a three-game homestand for the Penguins as they routed Arizona 7-0 on Monday and hosted Boston on Wednesday.
The Penguins will be solid home favorites in this game against the Kings with the total at 5.5.
Special Teams
The Kings have been just average on offense this season scoring 2.6 goals per game which is 15th in the league and their power play has not been much help as it ranks 19th in the league at 16.5%. Los Angeles wins with defense even without top goaltender Jonathan Quick who is injured. The Kings are 9th in the league allowing just 2.5 goals per game and 1st in shots against at just 25.4. The Kings are surprisingly just 19th in the league in penalty killing at 81.1 %.
The Penguins are dominating on offense right now as they are 1st in the league in goals at 3.5 per game. They are solid on the power play at 20.2% which is 12th in the NHL. The penalty killing for Pittsburgh is still poor at 76.7% but it has been better lately.
Goalie Report
The Kings are without top goalie Jonathan Quick but backup Peter Budaj has played really well going 13-9 with a 2.18 goals against average. The Kings also have Jeff Zatkoff who is 1-4 with a 3.05 goals against average. There is definitely a chance that Zatkoff plays on Friday since this is a back-to-back for Los Angeles and because Zatkoff would be going against his former team.
The Penguins have a clear top goaltender in Matt Murray who shutout the Coyotes earlier this week. He was 11-2 with a 1.84 goals against average after that game. Marc-Andre Fleuryis just 8-8 with a 3.42 goals against average.
Free NHL Picks
The Kings have done okay recently in Pittsburgh splitting their past four games with three of the last five going under with two pushes.
The situation simply dictates a play on the Penguins as the Kings are playing with no rest. The Penguins have also been dominating teams at home this season so I have to lay the price and take Pittsburgh.
NHL Odds: Penguins 4, Kings 1
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