NHL Betting Free Picks: Los Angeles @ Vancouver
Added on Apr 15, 2010 by Jack Thurman in
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Sportsbooks will have a greater focus on NHL betting tonight with the NBA off until the playoffs begin this weekend. We’ll take a look at a Western Conference game between the Vancouver Canucks and Los Angeles Kings for the online betting matchup. The #3 seeded Canucks host the #6 seeded Kings at GM Place to open their first round series, one of three series getting underway tonight.
Los Angeles Kings at Vancouver Canucks
April 15, 7:05 PM Pacific
We’ve pegged the Kings as one of our first round series upset plays, and we’ll back them to get off to a good start in game one. If Wednesday night’s results set a tone for the first round, its a good sign as all four underdogs won with San Jose and Pittsburgh upset at -200 or higher. At a fundamental level, its important to keep in mind that despite the seedings there’s simply not much separating these teams qualitatively. Vancouver got the third seed by virtue of winning their division, finishing with 103 points. Los Angeles was in the brutal Pacific Division finishing third behind San Jose with…101 points, two less than Vancouver. So why is Vancouver a -225 or higher favorite in the series? Good question. The Canucks are very strong on their GM Place home ice (30-8-3) but the Kings are solid on the road (24-14-3). In terms of the series, the Canucks play on the road is a serious question mark–Vancouver is the only team in the West and one of only three teams in the league to make the playoffs with a losing mark away from home.
The Kings are a team full of ‘grinders’, which may be the reason they’re somewhat under the radar here. That style, however, is precisely what wins games during the playoffs. Even one area where at first glance that Canucks have a huge edge–their goaltending–is somewhat deceiving. Roberto Luongo is a workhorse who stops a ton of shots night after night, but L.A.’s Jonathan Quick has a marginally better goals against average. That brings up another issue with the Canucks–they’ve got a tendency to stand around and watch Luongo work on defense and he faces way too many shots for a team at this level. To his credit, he’s a goalie who plays his best with a heavy workload but in theory that’s a prescription for postseason disaster. We’ll go with the ‘grinders’ to steal game one and get an upset victory in the first round.
Bet Los Angeles +165 over Vancouver (Game 1)
Bet Los Angeles +200 over Vancouver (Series)
