Detroit vs Los Angeles Prediction 28 January 2025

🔊 Will the "Red Wings" extend their winning streak? Detroit continues to chase a spot in the Eastern Conference playoff bracket and has recently succeeded in this endeavor. The club has won two games in a row, but the gap from the eighth spot still looks significant. Los Angeles, on the other hand, is experiencing clear difficulties in achieving acceptable results and is gradually sinking lower in the Western Conference standings.

📊 Head-to-head

In the current regular season, the opponents have met once. In mid-November, the "Kings" convincingly prevailed on their home ice in California (4:1). Essentially, there was no contest then. The current visitors immediately took the initiative and scored two unanswered goals in the first period, after which they calmly brought the game to the desired result. The biggest contribution to his team's success was made by Los Angeles forward Adrian Kempe. The Swede scored a goal and provided an assist. The forward is currently in excellent form and has scored points in four of the last five matches.

🔴 Detroit

Todd McLellan's team is starting a new winning streak. After a series of failures, the club is once again trying to make up for lost ground and grab its chances to qualify for the Stanley Cup playoffs. Within three days, the "Red Wings" defeated direct competitors in the playoff zone battle, Montreal (4:2) and Tampa (2:0). The team clearly started paying much more attention to cohesive and effective defensive actions. If they manage to maintain this focus further, their chances of improving their tournament position will definitely increase.

👑 Los Angeles

The "Kings" have completely slid into a full-fledged playing crisis. In the last seven matches, the club suffered six defeats, only beating Vancouver (5:1) and Florida (2:1). However, these local successes did not affect the overall extremely negative trend. The team continues to drop lower in the Western Conference standings and is almost on the brink of the playoff bracket. The former margin of safety is gone. Jim Hiller's team needs to put in maximum effort to break the current streak of failures as soon as possible.

🔗 Probable Lineups

Detroit: Talbot - Chiarot, Seider - Kasper, Larkin, Raymond

Los Angeles: Kuemper - Gavrikov, Anderson - Kempe, Kopitar, Turcotte

🥅 Goalkeepers

Detroit's goalie Cam Talbot had one of the best matches of his career. In the game against Tampa, the Canadian made no mistakes, handled the pressure from the star-studded Lightning offense, and saved all 28 shots on his goal. This performance marked his second consecutive victory. Before that, he confidently outplayed Montreal (93.1%). Recently, the veteran has had almost no outright failures.

Los Angeles goalkeeper Darcy Kuemper continues to alternate between excellent matches and outright poor ones. For instance, after success in the game with Florida (96.4%), he couldn't handle the pressure from Columbus players (87.5%). Nevertheless, the Canadian lost only two games out of the last four. It's safe to say that the "Kings'" problems are not at the last line.

📝 Editor's Prediction

Yes, the "Kings" are in a full-fledged playing crisis and struggle to achieve minimal success. However, in matchups against the "Red Wings," they often look much more preferable. In 8 out of the last 9 head-to-head meetings, Detroit did not win in regulation time. The tournament situation for the visitors worsens each week, and it's vital for them to break their losing streak now. The trend directly points to their ability to do so in the upcoming game. Our key bet is Los Angeles will not lose.