Adrian Kempe’s return from injury gave the Kings exactly the kind of jolt they needed Wednesday night, and Los Angeles turned it into a lopsided 7-2 win over San Jose. The hat trick was the headline, but the full night belonged to a Kings offense that piled up goals in waves and cashed both the moneyline and puck line in the process.
Kempe finished with three goals and an assist after missing Saturday’s loss to Buffalo. It was his fifth NHL hat trick, and it helped push Los Angeles to 5-7-2 while giving the club its second win in three games. The Kings also rewarded the supplied -170 moneyline price and covered -1.5 at +154, with a five-goal margin that made the spread look comfortable early and often.
Los Angeles set the tone immediately with three first-period goals. Kempe scored at 1:23, struck again at 16:09, and Quinton Byfield added a power-play goal at 18:38 to send the Kings to the intermission ahead 3-0.
The scoring kept coming after that. Macklin Celebrini answered on the power play early in the second, Erik Haula restored the three-goal cushion, and Kempe finished his hat trick at 15:51.
Joel Armia then made it 6-1 early in the third.
San Jose got a second power-play goal from Ivar Stenberg before Byfield closed the scoring with another man-advantage tally. Byfield ended with two goals, while Artemi Panarin had four assists.
Darcy Kuemper made 30 saves for Los Angeles, which scored three power-play goals overall. Yaroslav Askarov stopped 20 shots for the Sharks, who fell to 7-9-1 and have now lost three straight and five of their last six.
Florida’s 5-3 win over Chicago also paid off across the board for bettors, and Sandis Vilmanis was at the center of it. He posted two goals and two assists for his first career multipoint game, while Sam Reinhart added a goal and two assists as the Panthers won for the fourth time in five games.
The Panthers delivered on the supplied -242 moneyline and also covered -1.5 at +102, finishing with the two-goal margin needed for that bet. Eight combined goals sent the game over the listed 6.0 total.
Carter Verhaeghe added a goal and an assist, Seth Jones also scored, and Jacob Markstrom finished with 17 saves. Florida got goals from four different players, with Vilmanis accounting for two of the five.
Frank Nazar scored twice for Chicago, Roman Kantserov added the other goal, and Connor Bedard picked up two assists. Spencer Knight stopped 25 shots against his former team but dropped to 0-4-0 in those matchups. Chicago’s skid reached four games, and the Blackhawks are 0-3-1 in that stretch.
Ottawa’s 2-1 comeback over Buffalo was the night’s lone under result, and it came with a late swing. Michael Amadio scored the winner with 3:09 left, finishing off a Senators rally that began when Shane Pinto tied the game after Buffalo took a 1-0 lead into the third period.
The Senators cashed at the supplied +112 moneyline price, and the three-goal final stayed under 6.5. Peyton Krebs opened the scoring at 14:00 of the second period off assists from Tage Thompson and Zach Benson.
Pinto tied it at 11:33 of the third with help from Philip Tomasino and Thomas Chabot, then Amadio finished it at 16:51 with Tim Stützle and Fabian Zetterlund assisting. Ottawa outshot Buffalo 30-24, Samuel Ersson made 23 saves, and Colten Ellis stopped 28 for the Sabres.
Seattle’s night ended with a win, but not a cover. Matty Beniers scored 55 seconds into overtime to lift the Kraken past Calgary 2-1, giving Seattle the outright result at the supplied approximate -180 moneyline while leaving the -1.5 at +180 short. Joey Daccord made 25 saves as Seattle improved to 9-5-1, while Dustin Wolf stopped 27 shots for Calgary, which fell to 7-8-1.
Yegor Sharangovich gave the Flames a first-period lead, and Berkly Catton tied it in the second while extending his point streak to seven games. Neither side scored in the third before Beniers ended it early in overtime.
The win came after Seattle’s 6-2 loss at Calgary on October 30, 2026, and it handed the Flames their first overtime loss of the season. Seattle hosts the New York Rangers on Saturday, and Calgary hosts Anaheim on Friday.
In Other News...
Reign Let Another Lead Slip In Brutal One-Goal Loss
Ontario had this one in hand more than once at Toyota Arena, but the Reign could not turn either lead into a win and ended up on the wrong side of a 3-2 overtime loss to San Jose. Carter George made 23 saves for Ontario, while Eric Comrie stopped 22 for the Barracuda in a game that kept swinging back and forth before the final break.
The frustrating part for Ontario was how familiar the script felt: a lead, a response, then another lead, then another answer. San Jose kept finding a way to level things up, and the Reign were left chasing the result after overtime began, a tough finish for a team that had chances to close it out and instead watched the points slip away in a hurry. [Read more 🡒]
Kings Top-Six Need Could Force A Massive Decision On Core Talent
The Kings are still looking for a way to add more punch to their top six, and that need has pushed them back into a familiar kind of trade conversation. According to recent reporting, Los Angeles has at least explored whether there is a path to bring in offense from Vancouver, with the idea of reshaping the forward group if the right opportunity presents itself.
What makes the discussion tricky is the cost of doing business when both teams have reasons to be careful. Analysts David Pagnotta and Jeff Marek have pointed to the appeal of a move like this, but also the hesitation on each side, since the Canucks are weighing their own long-term direction and the Kings would be dealing from the heart of their core. For now, it remains exactly that, a possibility being revisited rather than a deal on the finish line. [Read more 🡒]
Kings Suddenly Have A Penalty Kill Problem They Can't Ignore
The penalty kill has turned into an early-season headache for the Kings, and it is not the sort of issue a team can simply skate past. Los Angeles has struggled badly while down a man, with the unit showing a noticeable drop in effectiveness after changes in both personnel and coaching staff, leaving the Kings searching for answers in a part of the game that usually has to be dependable.
Joel Armia has stood out as the most effective forward on the kill, but the overall results have still lagged behind what the Kings need. Darcy Kuemper and Anton Forsberg have both posted below-average save percentages in shorthanded situations, and the pressure keeps building as the Kings try to sort out a problem that is already costing them valuable momentum. [Read more 🡒]