The Saturday NHL slate brings 13 total games, but one of the night-window matchups gets top billing here. Out on the West Coast, the Los Angeles Kings (1-3-1) battle the unbeaten Carolina Hurricanes (4-0-0) at 9 p.m. EST. Both sides made the playoffs last year, but only one has picked up where it left off while the other is left scrambling to salvage their poor start to the campaign.
Get ready for the action with a Kings vs. Hurricanes prediction and pick on DraftKings Sportsbook for Friday night.
Kings vs. Hurricanes prediction, preview
Carolina Hurricanes
Through the first couple of weeks, the Hurricanes are showing every bit of promise that was expected with a couple of big moves over the offseason. Nikolaj Ehlers is yet to score a point but is a +2 on the top line alongside Seth Jarvis and Sebastion Aho, who have seven and six points apiece. K’Andre Miller has also anchored a top defensive pairing with +/- of +2 himself. Contributions have come from many players, but fellow defenseman Shayne Gostibehere’s seven points are tied with Cale Makar for the most at the position, quite the development for the veteran. Overall, the Hurricanes average an NHL-best 4.75 goals while allowing just 2.00 per game, third-best of any team. That success comes despite a 14.3% rate on the power play which is bound to improve. The penalty kill sits at 92.9% and goaltender Frederik Andersen has played some solid hockey with a 2.27 GAA despite an .899 SV%, so this team looks close to elite on both ends.
Los Angeles Kings
Clearly, the Kings aren’t enjoying the same success thus far. The usual suspects like Adrian Kempe, Quinton Byfield, Kevin Fiala and Anze Kopitar are the four leaders in points, but goals have largely been tough to come by for Los Angeles. The team averages just 2.60 goals per game while allowing 3.80 behind a leaky defense and poor play from Darcy Kuemper, who’s cold start with a 3.35 GAA and .868 SV% have to raise concerns after a Vezina-caliber season last year. Defensemen Cody Ceci and Brian Dumoulin are each a -4 in terms of +/-, which is much more of a concern for the latter since he plays on the top pairing. Sure, Corey Perry is still out with an injury, but he’s not a real needle-mover at this point and the Kings are certainly feeling some early stress given how they’ve started the campaign. One might assume the offense will bounce back at some point and Kuemper can come back to life, but still… worries are mounting here in a very tough Pacific Division.
Kings vs. Hurricanes pick, best bet
DraftKings Sportsbook lists the Hurricanes as -148 road favorites on the Moneyline tonight, while the Kings enter with +124 odds. The total sits at 5.5 combined goals.
The Kings can certainly play competitive hockey, but the real question is whether they can keep up with a high-octane Hurricanes attack. No team pressures the net more than Carolina with a staggering 36.8 shot attempts per game, 3.5 more than the next-closest franchise. The Canes also allow the second-fewest shot attempts of any team at 21.5, so they’ll pepper the goaltender and lock opponents down on the blue line. The aggressive forecheck and speedy skaters may prove too much for Kuemper and the Los Angeles defensemen to handle. The Moneyline works, but the -1.5 puck line for Carolina brings a ton more value at +170 odds. Against a struggling defense and netminder, the Hurricanes should dominate this matchup, even on the road. Los Angeles just doesn’t have what it takes to match their opponent’s pace.
