Los Angeles Kings vs. Minnesota Wild: Prediction, Preview, Picks & Odds - 2/21/2023

Time: 8 p.m. ET

Venue: Xcel Energy Center, St. Paul, MN

Where to watch: BSWI, BSN, BSW

DraftKings: Wild -130, Kings +110

FanDuel: Wild -130, Kings +108

BetMGM: Wild -130, Kings +110

Caesars: Wild -130, Kings +110

Kings: 32-18-7

Wild: 30-21-5

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To give you an idea about how wide open the Western Conference is to this point, look no further than the two teams facing each other in Minnesota on Tuesday. The Los Angeles Kings and the Minnesota Wild both have legitimate claims to being the top team in the Western Conference. Both teams, who will face each other in Saint Paul on Tuesday, can both lay a claim as to why they should win the Western Conference and why they should be able to be celebrated for such an accomplishment.

 

Of course none of that has actually happened yet, but I do look at it from the standpoint of both teams are in need of some serious upgrades. They are making a decent living trying to catch the Vegas golden Knights for first place in the Western Conference. They are doing a fine job being able to whatever it is that you're trying to do with this current point in time.

 

And honestly, it's not like I have much analysis to give for this game because Minnesota is struggling heavily right now and they are not looking like a team that is capable of hanging on to some serious bangers.

 

Los Angeles has gone 7-2-1 in its last ten games and has won four in a row with the latest being that very weird 6-5 overtime victory over the Arizona Coyotes at home last weekend. If you will recall, Los Angeles was leading 5-1 in that game before the coyotes came back to win. Not the best defensive showing for needing Jakob Chychrun, but I've seen weirder trade showcases than that one surprisingly.

 

"It just goes to show that we got a lot of work to do. The championship quality or caliber teams don't do that," Los Angeles coach Todd McLellan said.

 

Los Angeles has been one of the hotter teams in the league for the better part of a month and they are still very much capable of passing Vegas for the top spot in the Pacific division should things go its way.

 

Minnesota would love to get that kind of consistency knowing that they are still a very good team that should win any game that it plays. But Minnesota has only gone 5-4-1 in its last 10 games and is just now finding ways to win at home. It started with an overtime win over the Dallas Stars and now it is translated to winning 4-3 against the Nashville Predators over the weekend.

 

"When we're up 3-1 there with less than 10 minutes to go and they come back to 3-3, it's always mentally tough there," Minnesota goalie Filip Gustavsson said. (Ryan Hartman) came through there. "It's a huge relief that we don't have to play overtime again."

 

This game is very important for standings purposes, and the case can be made that it will be a huge game at any point of the year. But this seem in order to keep up with the rest of the Western Conference, they are absolutely going to need bigger games from their bigger players.

 

Given the uncertainty in goal for both of these teams, I can very much see the over being a huge play here especially since both are coming off and over over the last few games. This seems like a perfect time to take the home team. Wild 5, Kings 4

Kings are 9-6 off a home win this season.

Kings are 10-5 after scoring 5 goals or more last game this season.

Wild are 48-29 after two straight division games the last 3 seasons.

Kings:

Quinton Byfield -- Anze Kopitar -- Adrian Kempe

Trevor Moore -- Phillip Danault -- Viktor Arvidsson

Kevin Fiala -- Blake Lizotte -- Alex Iafallo

Gabriel Vilardi -- Rasmus Kupari -- Arthur Kaliyev

Mikey Anderson -- Drew Doughty

Sean Durzi -- Matt Roy

Tobias Bjornfot -- Sean Walker

Jonathan Quick

Wild:

Kirill Kaprizov -- Ryan Hartman -- Mats Zuccarello

Adam Beckman -- Joel Eriksson Ek -- Matt Boldy

Jordan Greenway -- Frederick Gaudreau -- Brandon Duhaime

Mason Shaw -- Connor Dewar -- Ryan Reaves

Jake Middleton -- Jared Spurgeon

Jonas Brodin -- Matt Dumba

Jon Merrill -- Alex Goligoski

Filip Gustavsson