Kings Canucks Betting – Canucks’ Second Chance Begins Against Kings In Opening Round

The Vancouver Canucks fought through 82 regular season games in order to get to the bottom of the best online sportsbook playoff ladder. A return to the top and chance at the Stanley Cup finals will be a long and tough journey once again for the defending Western conference championships, but this time around the Canucks will have the necessary experience to understand what it will take to get there. The road will begin with the Los Angeles Kings, a team that is looking to rebound from a minor disappointment of its own following consecutive overtime losses to the San Jose Sharks that cost them the chance to clinch the Pacific division title. Those two defeats were the perfect illustration of the kind of season it has been for the Kings, but after falling from third to eighth in the conference standings, they won’t have much time to think about what went wrong.

The focus for the Kings will be on putting it all together in time to have a shot against the Canucks, which are coming off their second Presidents trophy title in as many seasons. Los Angeles added Jeff Carter at the trade deadline after bringing in Mike Richards and Simon Gagne in the offseason, but the trio of former Philadelphia Flyers hasn’t been able to provide the expected offensive punch. What all three of those players do have is playoff experience from their days in Philadelphia, which will be crucial to the team’s success overall. The Kings will also need an elite effort from netminder Jonathan Quick, who is the main reason they were even able to lock down a spot in the Elite Eight. Quick led the NHL in shutouts with 10, finished second in goals against average with a 1.95 mark, and was Los Angeles’ most consistent performer all year.

While the Kings will undoubtedly have the sports betting edge in goaltending based on what we saw from Quick this season, the Canucks have an Olympic Gold medalist in Roberto Luongo, and a No. 1 netminder playing a backup role in Corey Schneider. Luongo and Schneider combined for the fourth-best goals against average this season, and the fact that Vancouver finished in the top-five in both goals for and goals against really is an incredible feat. The Canucks will be without Daniel Sedin early on in the series due to the concussion-like symptoms that he has dealt with, and while a superstar of that talent is irreplaceable, there are a lot of quality pieces on that team capable of playing a bigger role.

One of the key betting matchups in this series will be how the Los Angeles penalty-kill fares against the Canucks’ fourth-ranked powerplay, with warriors like Willie Mitchell, Rob Scuderi, and Matt Greene going up against the Sedin twins and Ryan Kesler. The Kings won’t have time to dread the situation they got themselves in after failing to finish third, and while they have enough talent to give Vancouver a good test without Daniel Sedin at full health, the Canucks are too talented and experienced not to at least get to the second round.