The Kings are back home to close out the homestand, and the timing feels urgent. It’s still early in the season, but the problems have piled up fast: inconsistent results, a spot near the bottom of the standings, and too many nights where one issue seems to lead straight into the next.
The roster makeover from GM Ken Holland has not solved the biggest hole. Los Angeles still looks thin down the middle, and that absence is showing up every night.
The wings bring depth, but the top-six center situation remains unresolved, and the blue line has not been reshaped enough to cover the gaps. Even when the Kings limit dangerous looks, the damage seems to come quickly when those chances do arrive.
Add in some untimely goaltending and this group has already been pushed into a corner.
Head coach Peter Laviolette knows the response has to come soon. The season is young enough for a turnaround, but the burden is on the players to make it happen.
Calgary arrives in Los Angeles after a 3-1 loss to New York on Wednesday. The Flames were already in the air when the FAA issued the ground stop, so they continued their trip as planned.
There are a few notable numbers from Thursday night worth keeping in mind. Kevin Fiala picked up his 300th career assist in his season debut, making him the third Swiss-born skater in NHL history to reach that mark, joining Roman Josi and Mark Streit. Artemi Panarin can hit a separate milestone on Saturday; if he gets on the scoresheet, he would become the fourth Kings player in the last 20 years to reach 20 points within the first 18 games of a season, following Anze Kopitar, Adrian Kempe and Ryan Smyth.
Alex Laferriere also made a little history of his own with 10 hits Thursday, a new career high. Since hits began being tracked in 2007-08, only Dustin Brown and Robyn Regehr have had more double-digit hit games for the Kings. And Darcy Kuemper reached his 500th career regular-season NHL game, becoming the 10th active goalie to do it and the seventh Saskatchewan-born netminder in league history to hit that number.
As for the lineup, the Kings are projected to go with Panarin, Laferriere and Kempe on the top line, followed by Fiala, Byfield and Zuccarello. Moore, Haula and Armia are slotted together on the third unit, with Lee, Laughton and Perry rounding out the forward group.
On defense, the projected pairings are Gustafsson with Clarke, Dumoulin with Doughty, and Anderson with Edmundson. Forsberg is expected in goal, with Kuemper listed behind him.
Likely scratches are Helenius, Turcotte and Ceci.
Calgary’s projected lineup has Farabee, Backlund and Coronato on the top line, with Gridin, Pospisil and Strome next. Suniev, Frost and Sharangovich are listed on the third unit, followed by Othmann, Castagna and Klapka. On defense, the Flames are projected to use Hanley and Nemec, Middleton and Whitecloud, and Kuznetsov and Parekh, with Cooley in net.
Puck drop is set for 7:00 pm Pacific Time, with the game airing locally on ABTV. A Kings radio feed is also available on the ESPN LA app.
In Other News...
Kings Home-Ice Slide Feels Worse After Another Frustrating Loss
The Kings home-ice problems took another hit with a 5-2 loss to the Islanders, a result that added to the frustration around a team trying to find any kind of traction in its own building. New York struck first and kept control from there, while Los Angeles had to chase the game after goals from Trevor Moore and Quinton Byfield briefly gave the crowd something to latch onto.
Victor Eklund and Simon Holmstrom answered for the Islanders, and the late empty-netter put the finishing touch on a night the Kings would rather forget. Even with a couple of decent moments offensively, the bigger issue was the lack of sustained push at home, where every setback seems to carry a little more weight as the losses keep piling up. [Read more 🡒]
Kings Are Drifting Toward A Decision Fans Wont Want To Face
The early-season picture around Los Angeles has grown increasingly uneasy, with the Kings sitting at 5-10-2 and hovering near the bottom of the Western Conference. Injuries have played a role, the roster has some aging pieces, and the overall look has been more survival mode than steady climb, even as the club waits for key players to work back into the lineup and for the goaltending to settle down.
What makes the situation tricky is that the Kings are not just fighting for points right now, they are also drifting toward a midseason crossroads. If the results do not improve and the health picture does not brighten, the front office may have to start weighing whether this group can still make a real push, or whether the season has already reached the point where uncomfortable roster decisions become part of the conversation. [Read more 🡒]
Kings Frustration Is Growing For One Reason They Still Havent Fixed
Kevin Fiala was back in the Los Angeles lineup after nine months away because of injury, and he made an immediate impact with an assist in a 5-2 loss to the New York Islanders. Even with that boost, the Kings came away with their third straight defeat, a slide that has left them 5-10-2 and searching for answers as the early-season frustration keeps building.
The bigger concern is not just the losses themselves, but the way they keep happening. Players and coach Peter Laviolette have pointed to execution mistakes and inconsistency as the common thread, and until those issues start getting cleaned up, the return of a key forward can only do so much to steady things. [Read more 🡒]