Quick Starts in Los Angeles Against the Struggling Kings

New York started the road trip in disappointing fashion by being defeated 5-1 by the shorthanded Golden Knights in Vegas. They will have to be a goldfish as they take on the Los Angeles Kings (10:30PM on MSG).

Rangers	Rankings	Kings
28-14-2	Record	21-13-8
5th	League Rank	17th
13th	Goals For	14th
10th	Goals Against	3rd
2nd	Power play	16th
8th	Penalty Kill	1st

Rangers vs Kings

The Rangers will continue their four-game road trip with a meeting against the Los Angeles Kings. The headline entering the game is Jonathan Quick getting his second career start against his former team and his first in Crypto.com Arena as a member of the visiting team. Quick played the Kings in Madison Square Garden on December 10th and was victorious by the score of 4-1. Quick made 25 saves on 26 shots against his former team. The 37-year-old started against the Ducks just five days later making 29 saves. But since that game against Anaheim back in mid-December, Quick has lost each of his last four starts (0-3-1) and the Connecticut native has allowed at least three goals in each of those games.

The Kings enter this game on a downward spiral. The Rangers haven’t been at their best as they are 4-5-1 in their last ten games, including a four-game road skid. But the Kings have been even worse with a record of 1-5-4 in their last ten games. With one win in their previous ten games, the Kings have now won as many games as they have lost including overtime defeats this season.

The Rangers saw Phoenix Copley in their first meeting, but Copley has since had surgery on his ACL and will miss the rest of the season for the Kings. Former Ranger Cam Talbot is expected to get the nod for the Kings. Talbot is 14-11-5 with a .915 save percentage on the season.

The Kings have a trio of forwards who lead the way on offense. Captain Anze Kopitar has 39 points on the season as does his linemate Adrian Kempe. Kevin Fiala on the second line has 38 points on the season. These three guys are all great playmakers and can make something happen out of nothing. But leading the Kings in goals is Fiala’s linemate Trevor Moore who has 20 goals on the season for a new career high. Moore’s highest goal scoring season was 17 back in the 2021-2022 season. He also finished with a career 48 points that season. Moore is on pace to finish near 40 goals and around 60 points for a new career high.

Two players to keep an eye on are Alexis Lafreniere from New York, and Quinton Byfield from Los Angeles. Lafreniere and Byfield were the number one and two overall selections in the 2020 NHL Draft. Neither have been the player each team was hoping for thus far into their careers, but both are showing clear signs of improvements and each are having their best seasons to date. Byfield has 30 points in 42 games and he has already set career highs in goals, assists, and points. Lafreniere has 26 points in 44 games and he is on pace to break his career high in all three categories too. The Quebec native is looking to break the 50 point plateau for the first time in his career.

The Kings enter the game with the best penalty kill percentage in the NHL. But it was the Rangers power-play that was one of the difference makers against the Kings in December. New York cashed in on two of their five power-plays including a power-play goal from Jonny Brodzinski. The other difference maker was the Blueshirts depth chipping in with another two goals from Jimmy Vesey and Will Cuylle.

Artemi Panarin enters the game red hot for New York. Panarin has points in twelve of the past 13 games and he has only failed to record a point one time in the new year. The Russian winger will be looking to extend his point streak to four games on Saturday night.

In other Rangers news, Nick Bonino and Erik Gustafsson will both be out of the lineup. Gustafsson is currently day-to-day with head coach Peter Laviolette telling the media that he could return at some point on this road trip. Zac Jones will enter the lineup in place of Gustafsson with Jacob Trouba on the second power-play unit. Tyler Pitlick will return to the lineup after being out of the lineup due to injury. He’ll take the place of Bonino who leads the league in block shots by over 20 of the next closest forward Auston Matthews.

The bet of the night – New York created a lot of chances in the opening of the first period against Vegas, but ultimately were not able to cash in. The Rangers managed just one goal and Vincent Trocheck did not get a point which put us in a two-game skid on bets. And as crazy as it sounds, the bet of the night is to go right back to the well with Vincent Trocheck recording a point. Trocheck hasn’t had back-to-back games with no points since December 22nd and 23rd in a back-to-back. Since then Trocheck has had four games with no points but has answered the following game with a point. And in the four-games following a pointless game, Trocheck has responded with multiple points on two of those occasions. A $5 bet on Draftkings will win $7.85 for a profit of $2.85. If you are feeling more adventurous, Trocheck to record two points on FanDuel will give you odds at +330 which would payout $21.50 for a profit of $16.50 on a $5 bet.

Current record: 15-11

Current Money Total (Based on $5 bets) – We are up $30.70 on the season