The Kings are finally putting more of their regulars into the mix tonight, and that makes this preseason matchup with Utah feel a little more like a real dress rehearsal.
With Los Angeles already a quarter of the way through its exhibition slate, Peter Laviolette and his staff are still sorting out the shape of the roster. The regular season is coming fast, too: in just a week, the Kings will head to Colorado to open the 2026-27 campaign. But first comes a home preseason game at Crypto.com Arena, one of the rare chances this year for the team to go through a normal game day in its own building.
That matters because so many of these preseason games have been played away from home in recent years, with the Kings taking the ice in places like Australia and Quebec City while construction continued at their arena. Tonight gives fans and players something closer to the usual routine.
The lineup should look more familiar, even if it still won’t be the full opening-night group. The Kings plan to split their veteran group between tonight and tomorrow’s game against Anaheim, with Corey Perry and Mats Zuccarello both out day-to-day. For the Mammoth game, several players expected to be on the roster out of camp are set to dress.
Andre Lee is one of the names worth watching closely. He has stood out early in camp and is expected to get meaningful minutes tonight, with a possible look on the top power play unit. That special teams setup is notable in itself, with Lee appearing on PP1 alongside Quinton Byfield and Adrian Kempe, while the second unit features a mix that includes Kenny Connors, Ward, Liam Lefebvre, Koehn Ziemmer, and others.
The young forwards keep making this camp interesting. Lefebvre, a 2026 second-round pick, survived Monday’s first round of cuts and is expected to play tonight, which is not a small thing for a first-year prospect. Connors and Ziemmer are also in line for another chance to show what they can do after turning heads at the Rookie Faceoff in San Jose and building off their work with AHL Ontario last season.
Connors has kept his focus simple.
“The vibe right now is to just keep pushing,” Connors told Mayor’s Manor. “Keep playing hard, keep my head down, keep working, nothing else. Just keep focused.”
He’s also carrying momentum from Saturday’s preseason game in Ontario, where he made a nice play to set up a goal by Andre Lee.
“The coaches are great at doing what helps me be prepared for the next game,” Connors added.
When asked about not getting much time to prepare before preseason rosters are set, he didn’t sound bothered at all.
“I don’t need it,” he said, with his perfect mix of confidence and competiveness. “Let’s go!”
Ziemmer, meanwhile, says he’s come into camp with something to prove after a rough rookie season with the Reign.
“I think I’ve done a good job of showing my game; it’s grown a lot since last year,” he shared this week. “I’ve felt good in camp thus far.
I thought the first preseason game went well for me. I played a little bit hesitant - but, overall, I thought I had a good showing.”
Even with the comfort of playing at Toyota Arena last year, he knows preseason hockey brings its own pressure.
“Just knowing where everything is, getting in there, being so familiar with it from last year, that makes it easier for sure,” began Ziemmer. “But there’s definitely a different mindset going into an NHL preseason game. You have a lot on the line there.”
And he isn’t trying to overcomplicate it.
“I’m just taking it day by day,” he continued. “I’m just here to play hockey.”
The projected Kings group for tonight has Panarin, Byfield, and Kempe together up front, followed by Lee, Connors, and Lefebvre; Wright, Helenius, and Ward; and Ziemmer, Pinelli, and Chromiak. On defense, the pairings are Anderson with Clarke, Edmundson with Kirsanov, and Woolley with Ceci. Darcy Kuemper is expected to start in goal, with Portillo backing him up.
Because this is a preseason game, there are a few things to remember. NHL teams usually do not ice their full opening-night roster this early, and they still have to satisfy the preseason Veteran Rule, which requires at least eight veteran skaters to dress. For Los Angeles, Henry Brzustewicz is the only player who counts toward that requirement as a recent first-round pick.
Puck drop is set for 7:00 pm Pacific Time. The game can be streamed locally on SLVR and on the Kings website, with no national cable or satellite feed available since it is not being carried on ABTV.
NHL rules also keep preseason streams inside the local market. On Samsung TV or through Amazon Prime’s Live TV tab under sports, SLVR is where local viewers can find it.
Utah comes in after a 4-1 loss to Colorado in its preseason opener on Sunday. Their lineup that night featured Crouse, Trocheck, and Yamamoto up front, with Carcone, Desnoyers, and Butt on the second line, Roy, Rooney, and Tanev on the third, and McCartney, Smith, and Borikov on the fourth. On defense, it was DeSimone with Marino, Biber with Lamoureux, and Duda with Pšenička, with Cossa in goal.
And there’s also a bit of Kings history tied to this date. On September 22, 2005, Adam Deadmarsh officially announced his retirement after nine NHL seasons. In three seasons with Los Angeles, he scored 46 goals and 85 points in 114 regular season games, plus 10 points in 17 playoff games.
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