The Rangers have scored four goals in each of their past two games—and lost both. That makes Monday’s meeting with the Kings an interesting test of New York’s status as a modest favorite: can its scoring keep carrying the load, or will Los Angeles find enough offense to take advantage of the Rangers’ recent trouble keeping pucks out? The goalie performances behind these teams offer sharply different clues.
New York’s goals haven’t been enough
The latest DraftKings moneyline makes New York a -135 favorite, with Los Angeles at +114. The Rangers’ 7-5-1 record looks considerably better than the Kings’ 2-5-2, but New York is just 5-5 across its last 10 games. Its latest losses came despite scoring four against Toronto and another four against Ottawa.
In Saturday’s 7-4 loss to Ottawa, J.T. Miller, Alexis Lafreniere and Pavel Dorofeyev were among New York’s scorers. The goals are coming from several places; lately, that production hasn’t been enough to offset what’s happening at the other end.
Dylan Garand, the expected Rangers goalie, allowed five goals in each of his last two appearances. Across his five most recent appearances this season, he has an .869 save percentage. That stretch also includes outings with one and two goals allowed, so there’s a better version of his recent play than the last two starts suggest.
Can the Kings make that vulnerability count?
Los Angeles hasn’t consistently supplied the scoring needed to exploit a struggling goalie. The Kings have scored just once in five of their last seven games, including Saturday’s 3-1 loss to New Jersey. Their road wins over Washington and the Islanders immediately before that loss show some improvement, but the attack remains the central concern.
Darcy Kuemper offers a stronger recent foundation in net. The expected Kings goalie has a .924 save percentage across his five most recent appearances this season. He stopped 30 of 32 shots against Washington and 41 of 43 against the Islanders. Those performances give Los Angeles a credible way to stay competitive while asking its scoring to do a little more.
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A 5.5 total meets conflicting scoring patterns
The posted total is 5.5 goals, and the teams bring very different histories to it: six of the Kings’ nine games this season have gone Under, while eight of the Rangers’ 13 have gone Over. Those results came against their respective betting totals, not one fixed threshold.
Our shot projections call for roughly 28 shots for Los Angeles and 25 for New York—a modest shooting-volume outlook rather than a barrage. That and Kuemper’s recent results temper the scoring case. Garand’s last two outings and New York’s continued goal production pull the other way. At 5.5, the useful question is whether the Kings can contribute more than the single goal they’ve so often managed lately.
New York has the clearer recent scoring case, but its price deserves to be weighed against the instability in net. Los Angeles has a plausible path through Kuemper and opportunities to test Garand; its repeated low-scoring nights are the main obstacle. Whether the Kings can turn that opening into a better offensive night matters to both the Rangers’ favorite status and the outlook at 5.5.
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