Ah, the classic showdown again: the Los Angeles Kings against... Utah? Now there's a matchup you don't see every day. This one's got all the makings of a classic hockey duel, folks, with some interesting factors at play.
The Kings have been showing some serious backbone in the crease with keeper Darcy Kuemper leading the charge, racking up a very respectable 1024 saves this season, and an impressive 93.6% save percentage in the last month. David Rittich, the second choice between the pipes, isn't too shabby either with a last-month save percentage of 89.7%. At the other end of the rink, Utah has Karel Vejmelka, whose numbers are solid but can't quite match Kuemper's recent stats, and Jaxson Stauber whose recent performance could rightfully raise a few eyebrows.
As for the guys throwing punches up front, Los Angeles has some serious skills in Anze Kopitar, Adrian Kempe and Quinton Byfield. Kopitar's last season numbers are pretty impressive and Byfield's been hot recently. Oh, can't forget about Warren Foegele, who's having a pretty decent season so far. Utah's front line, on the other hand, is led by Nick Schmaltz, Clayton Keller and Logan Cooley. Their numbers are good, but they just can't seem to keep up with their Kings counterparts.
If history repeats itself (and why wouldn't it, it's just the annoying kind of thing history likes to do), Utah are going to have tough sledding. The Kings have been having a field day against them, with two victories in their recent meet-ups. The Kings are also looking better on their regular season record, and their recent results haven’t been bad either.
In spite of Utah’s recent victory against Calgary, their performance against other teams has been a bit, shall we say, inconsistent. To put it mildly. This is hockey we're talking about, though, as unpredictable as a cat on a hot tin roof, so anything could happen.
Still, keeping in mind that I'm not Nostradamus or that octopus that predicts football matches, I'd put my money on the Kings.
Albert’s Prediction: Los Angeles Kings by 2
