Los Angeles vs San Jose

Who Are They

Los Angeles

The Kings were 2nd in their division and finished the year with 97 points, 3 points ahead of the Sharks. Relying on an absolutely stellar forward group of Elias Pettersson, Connor McDavid, Evgeni Malkin and Leon Draisaitl, there are very few teams who can match offensive firepower from the front end. McDavid ran over the RHL again this year with a 107 point performance. He is the straw that stirs the drink in LA and where he goes, they go. LA’s defence is also very front loaded with Adam Fox, Mortiz Seider and K’Andre Miller leading the way. Could you find a better goalie for the playoffs than Andrei Vasilevskiy? Probably not.

San Jose

Gutsy. That’s the name of the game for these San Jose Sharks. Ryan O’Reilly, Zach Hyman, Mario Ferraro, Michael Bunting. It’s in your face, it’s clutch and grab and it’s good old hockey. Remember earlier when I asked if there a better goalie for the playoffs? Well the Sharks have Igor Shesterkin. A very worthy challenger.

Head to Head

The Sharks took three Ws against the Kings one win this year.

X Factor

I think the Kings are simply too good for the Sharks in a long playoff series. San Jose boasts RNH as their leading scorer, he would probably be 5-6 on the King’s forward depth chart. The X Factor is if Shesterkin can absolutely steal a series for San Jose.

Prediction

Kings in 5.