NHL Hockey Betting: Winnipeg Jets at Los Angeles Kings
Western Conference hockey on Saturday night as the Central Division representative Winnipeg Jets take on the Pacific Division’s Los Angeles Kings. The Jets are part of a four team pack with Nashville, St. Louis and Dallas who are struggling to catch up with the two teams at the top of the division, Chicago and Minnesota. Right now Winnipeg is in sixth place–Colorado is done for the year 16 points behind the Jets so they don’t have to worry about them. They do need to worry about Dallas (one point ahead), Nashville (two points ahead) and St. Louis (4 points ahead). They’ll need to pick off those teams before they concern themselves with the Wild and Blackhawks.
The Kings are in fifth place in a very tightly packed Pacific Division. They’re 1 point up on sixth place Vancouver, 2 points back of fourth place Calgary, 5 points back of third place Edmonton, six back of second place San Jose and 8 back of division leading Anaheim. With the exception of last place Arizona who is way off the pace the remaining six teams in the Pacific are separated by a total of 9 points and are all playing winning hockey. Should be a very exciting race going down the stretch.
The Jets will start Mike Hutchinson in net and he’s one of the reasons that Winnipeg’s goaltending has been something of a mess this year. Hutchinson has a record of 4-8-2 with a 3.30 goals against average, a 0.890 save percentage and 1 shutout. Connor Hellebuyck has been getting most of the starts in net this year. And where’s Ondrej Pavelec? He–along with his 3.5 million per year salary–are starting for the Minnesota Moose of the AHL where he’s likely the highest paid minor leaguer in hockey.
Peter Budaj will get the start for the Kings–he’s received most of the starts with Jonathan Quick sidelined. Budaj has a 19-11-3 record with a 2.10 goals against average and a 0.917 save percentage with 4 shutouts. The Kings have been a decent home team (13-6-1) but otherwise hard to figure the price on this game. The Jets have won 5 of the last 7 head to head, 2 of the last 3 at the Staples Center and have won the only meeting between the teams this year.
BET WINNIPEG JETS +150 OVER LOS ANGELES KINGS
