LA Kings Start Road Trip At St. Louis Blues

The NHL was abuzz with controversy at the end of action Wednesday night as the Los Angeles Kings defeated the Columbus Blue Jackets in controversial fashion. Drew Doughty scored with 0.4 seconds left on the clock to give the Kings the 3-2 win; but after the game went final, the league realized that the Staples Center clock had stopped running for a full second at 1.8.

The goal should not have counted, and the league is investigating the situation.

The rest of the Western Conference can’t be too happy with the apparent clock malfunction, but the Los Angeles Kings will gladly take their two points and run as they prepare for a six-game road trip that starts this Friday night at 8:00 p.m. (ET) in St. Louis against the Blues.

With two of the top three defenses in the NHL clashing in this one – LA ranks third with 2.1 goals against per game, St. Louis is first with 2.0 – expect goals to be at a premium. The Kings (25-16-10) and the Blues (29-13-7) have both trended heavily towards the ‘under’ this season, and the ‘under’ is 4-0-1 in their last five meetings.

St. Louis had won seven straight games against the Kings coming into this season, but Los Angeles is 2-0 against St. Louis so far this campaign. This game could play a huge role in playoff seeding down the stretch.

Also out west, the Chicago Blackhawks visit the Calgary Flames Friday night at 9:00 p.m. (ET). Chicago (29-15-7) will be playing the final game of its Western Canada swing after skating in Vancouver on Tuesday night and Edmonton on Thursday. While Chicago is trying to keep up with St. Louis and Detroit in the Central Division race, Calgary (23-22-6) is just trying to climb back into the playoff hunt. The Flames are just 5-7-2 (5-9 on the moneyline) over their last 14 games.

The Ottawa Senators hope to get things back on track Friday when they host the New York Islanders at 7:30 p.m. (ET). Ottawa (27-20-6) had been red hot, putting together a 10-1-1 stretch from the end of December to the middle of January, but the Senators are now mired in a four-game losing streak.

New York (20-22-7) appears to be out of playoff contention at this point, but is a respectable 4-1-1 over its last six games. Included in those four wins were nice road underdog payouts of +168 in a 3-0 win at Washington and +170 in a 4-1 win at Philadelphia.

Rounding out Friday’s NHL betting slate are the Winnipeg Jets (23-22-6) at Florida Panthers (23-15-11) at 7:30 p.m. (ET) and the Columbus Blue Jackets (13-32-6) at Anaheim Ducks (19-24-7) at 10:00 p.m. (ET). The victory over Washington on Wednesday night was just the third in the last 10 games for the Panthers, but still good enough to move Florida back on top of the Southeast Division.