Vancouver Canucks @ Los Angeles Kings
In this match up we have two teams with the same numbers, but in a different order: LA Kings is 4-1 at home, Vancouver is 1-4 away. So, we can get an easy conclusion. The first are good at home so far, the others still have to find how to face road games.
Los Angeles is making an impressive season so far. At home they only lost their first game of the season. Even with that game, they have 5.2 goals scored at home. Impressive for a team that started the season with a label saying "no playoff contenders".
Vancouver lost the last game at home against the Detroit Red Wings, result of an awful third period. In their road games, they usually struggle a lot, allowing 3.40 goals per game, and scoring only 2. Thus this itself gives us almost an average difference of a puck line.
Today Raycroft will start for the Canucks, something that gives me no confidence on their defense. Luong allowed 5 goals against the Red Wings, but was playing pretty well, and those 5 goals were a consequence of a bad team game. Quick will start for the Kings and so far, he has been one of the keys of the success path of his team.
For this game, I can understand why the Kings are a little bit the favorites, since they are on a B2B game. It can be hard, but all their games have been hard, as they are a team to kill. Their home advantage this season seems something big, and the confidence of the team should be enough to face a team with lots of injuries, struggles a lot away, and comes from a bad loss.
Pick: Los Angeles Kings PL -1.5 +200 (3.00) The Greek
A believe this game already started (this Daylight Saving Time hiatus is "killing" me), if that is the case, my apologies:
Detroit Red Wings @ Edmonton Oilers
Now, there is the right moment to take Oilers. There are few reasons to take this one. First of all, we've got here a huge odds value. The home dog is 5-2-0-1 at home. The last game was at home and a defeat after a 2 road trip with no wins. So, they've got to take this game seriously, specially after zero goals scored in the last 2 games. And I believe this team can turn things around. It is not the kind of team to letdown their arms. After the last game loss, they will give their supporters a good game. I think the fact that Khabibulin will be the goaltender, will help the team, as he alternates his performances between bad and good ones. And today, it's a day for a good performance, like we has done so long this season, at home. At home, Edmonton is more powerful at offense, but their advantage is in making difficult to opponents to score.
Detroit is coming from a win, an away win! 5-4 at Vancouver, for a team that is disappointing every one, is a good win. However, this team is not the first good win they've got, but after those wins they usually get back to a poor game. Maybe the fact that they have a old roster, can explain it. They give all they can in one game and need a week to recovery (pretty bad :evil

. Yet, the truth is that we can explain this team: every time we believe that they will start their engines and start to play good hockey and win games, they come and prove us that we were wrong. The bigger problem is they can't defend when playing away. Even on their only win on the road on their last game, they allowed 4 goals to Vancouver. To help it, they will put their backup goalie in the nets, Howard. They expect that he will give good luck, however I think this will be a mistake, as this team needs a strong goalie, mentally speaking.
Pick: Edmonton Oilers ML +146 (2.46) 5Dimes