Kings vs. Blues Odds, Prediction, Betting Preview: St. Louis Favored To Sweep Season Series

Kings vs. Blues Odds

For the third time in 10 days, the Los Angeles Kings and the St. Louis Blues will square off on Wednesday night at Staples Center. The Blues won back-to-back meetings on their home ice in late October, 7-3 and 3-0.

Will the tables turn as the two teams wrap up their season series in Los Angeles? Despite better recent results for the Kings, the road team is the deserving favorite for this featured game on TNT.

Kings Surviving Without Injured Doughty

After the two losses in St. Louis, the Kings' record for the year slipped to 1-4-1. But despite a pair of significant injuries on the back end, the club has played well since returning home, with a one-goal loss to Winnipeg and comfortable wins over Montreal and Buffalo.

Key defensemen Drew Doughty and Sean Walker both set to miss significant time due to injury. So far, the defense and penalty kill have held up pretty well, with journeyman Matt Roy and youngsters Tobias Bjornfot and Mikey Anderson being asked to shoulder much of the load.

The Kings had been helped by good goaltending from both Jonathan Quick and Cal Petersen. Over their last three games, the Kings have given up 13.22 high-danger scoring chances per 60 minutes at 5-on-5 (26th overall) and 28.14 total scoring chances against per 60 (19th), but averaged just 2.33 goals against.

Offensively, the Kings have been just so-so in terms of output, especially considering they're leading the league with an average of 35.8 shots per game. That has translated to just 2.67 goals per game, 20th overall, although Anze Kopitar has stayed productive with 13 points through nine games and Alex Iafallo has five points so far on his homestand.

Up front, the Kings are expected to be missing Viktor Arvidsson and Gabe Vilardi, who have been in Covid protocol. Lias Andersson was moved up to play on the top line with Kopitar and Dustin Brown partway through Sunday's win over Buffalo and started in the same position against the Blues.

Blues Coming Off Successful Homestand

After picking up two home wins against Los Angeles, the Blues dropped a 4-3 decision to Colorado — their first loss of the year — before finishing out their homestand with a 1-0 win over Chicago on Saturday. They'll be well rested when they start a four-game road trip in L.A. on Wednesday, but also continue to have Covid issues.

Brandon Saad will return to the lineup after missing the last four games, but Ryan O'Reilly remains in Covid protocol and has now been joined by forward Kyle Clifford and goaltender Ville Husso, who will be unavailable. Netminder Joel Hofer has been recalled, and while Blues also play Thursday in San Jose, it's expected that rock-solid starter Jordan Binnington will get the nod in Los Angeles.

Even with their roster challenges, the Blues have been excellent at both ends of the ice this season. They lead the league with 4.14 goals scored per game, a full two goals a game more than they've given up. Their special teams have been outstanding — second overall on both the power play and the penalty kill. In their 7-3 win over the Kings on Oct. 23, four power-play goals were the difference in the game.

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Kings vs. Blues Pick

The Kings are learning how to get along without Doughty. Still, it's hard to expect the team's patchwork defense to stand up as well against a high-octane group like Blues as it did against the less-threatening Canadiens and Sabres last week.

At -130, DraftKings is giving St. Louis a 56.52% chance of picking up the road win, which is decent value — especially with a scorer like Saad returning to the lineup.

Nothing fancy here; take the favorite to sweep the season series.

Pick: Blues (-130, play to -150)