NHL Hockey Betting: Los Angeles Kings at San Jose Sharks

The Canada-less Stanley Cup playoffs continue on Wednesday night as one of the more intriguing series goes to Game Four. The San Jose Sharks and Los Angeles Kings have played three games decided by a single goal and at this point San Jose leads 2-1. The series is also following the form we expected it to–the Sharks won both games at the Staples Center and lost at home.

Despite the assurances of the Sharks’ coaching staff and players I’m not really sold on their claim that the problem that ailed them at home earlier in the season has been fixed. Sure, it was a one goal loss to the Kings in an overtime game last time out. But the local media and their fans aren’t convinced that the ‘home problem’ has been solved. For those of you just joining us here’s the deal–the San Jose Sharks had the best road record in the league this year going 28-10-3 away from home. That’s one win better on the road than the Washington Capitals whom you’re no doubt aware had a pretty good regular season. At home, it’s the diametric opposite–the Sharks are 18-20-3 and have a record similar to most of the lottery teams. Calgary and Edmonton had better records at home this year than San Jose.

At one point, Los Angeles had a rep of being almost unbeatable at home and miserable on the road. They’ve straightened that out and are now nice and balanced in their home/away profile. At home they went 25-10-6 during the regular season and 22-16-3 on the road. Their decent home record might not matter in this series, however, as the Sharks are a freak show team that doesn’t lose on the road. Until we see a reason to do otherwise we’re going to follow the form that we pointed out at the beginning of this series–play the road teams. That will have us against San Jose and their miserable home record and have us on the Sharks and their formidable road record. It’ll also get us a little bit of line value as this game is priced like it was a normal NHL game with the home team favored.

BET LOS ANGELES KINGS +110 OVER SAN JOSE SHARKS