NHL Betting Previews: Los Angeles Kings at Calgary Flames

Added on Oct 10, 2010 by Jack Thurman in

NHL

NHL hockey betting action has resumed and we’ll start looking for good value opportunities in the early part of the season. Short slate of games for Sunday, but we’ll head to Western Canada as the Calgary Flames host the Los Angeles Kings at the Pengrowth Saddledome. The Flames are 0-1 on the young season, having lost their opening contest at Edmonton. In a scheduling quirk the Kings are playing their first game of the year.

Los Angeles Kings at Calgary Flames
October 10, 2010 5:00 PM Pacific

You’ll never go broke by being a contrarian in sports betting, and the first thing we noticed about this game was the huge money imbalance with the public backing the Kings. Hard to figure out why there’s such an anti-Calgary sentiment here–maybe its due to the Flames losing their opener against Edmonton since the Oilers were the worst team in the NHL a year ago. That’s not really valid, since there’s a ton of young talent on the Edmonton team and they’ve always played the Flames tough in the ongoing ‘Battle of Alberta’.

Calgary’s offense sputters at times…well, *most* of the time but they’ll always be in contention with goaltender Mikka Kiprusoff between the pipes. He’ll occasionally have a bad streak as all goalies do but year in and year out he’s been one of the most consistent netminders in the game. We expect for him to bounce back after a substandard opening game at Edmonton where he not only gave up four goals but was ‘poster-ized’ and made to look downright foolish on the slick goal by Oilers’ rookie Jordan Eberle. We have the feeling that Eberle is going to make a lot of goalies look foolish by the end of the year.

On top of everything, the Flames have dominated the Kings in recent head to head play. Calgary won 3 of 4 a year ago and has now won 8 of the last 10 meetings against Los Angeles. That includes 5 straight wins at home with the Flames allowing a stingy 1.2 goals per game in those meetings. At a very reasonable price we’ll look for that run of success to continue for Calgary.

Bet Calgary Flames -115 over Los Angeles Kings