Don’t get too comfortable, the Kings won’t be home very much this month. However, with three games in four nights beginning on Wednesday, this will be among the busiest stretch of Kings games at Crypto.com Arena in several years.
It also brings a brief reprieve from what feels like LA’s hockey team playing outside of Southern California nearly all season. They’ve already had four road trips of at least five games through 50 contests completed this season — that’s nearly half of their 2024-25 schedule to date. From here forward, though, that narrative will quickly fade away, as coach Jim Hiller’s squad will play a home-heavy stretch throughout March and April. For many of the 32 games remaining, players will be sleeping in their own beds.
What about this month? Well, it’s a little wonky. Beginning Sunday, the league is on hiatus for two weeks. Thus, these next three games are crucial to ride off into the break with some much-needed momentum.
Despite a fairly rough January, Hiller likely is preaching optimism right now. Not only are the Kings coming off a near offensive explosion in Carolina last Saturday (a 4-2 victory by LA), they’ve also been dominant at home all season. A large portion of their Pacific Division standing can be attributed to a stellar 15-3-1 record when playing on home ice. Currently sitting in third place, the Kings also have four games in hand on second place Vegas.
Tonight, the Montreal Canadiens arrive in town for a rare SoCal appearance. On the lineup front, yesterday’s practice alignment did not indicate any changes for this contest. Drew Doughty will be playing his first home game this season, just without his typical defensive partner, who remains sidelined.
Mikey Anderson has been skating on his own of late yet will need a little more time before he returns to game action. While Hiller didn’t specifically say it was a finger injury on Thursday, he did confirm our earlier report that surgery won’t be required — “It’s going to have to heal through treatments, relatively naturally, which is positive,” said LA’s bench boss.
Even so, perhaps the most interesting thing Hiller revealed had to do with his potential future D-pairs. When he was asked if it was fair to assume Doughty and Anderson will eventually be reunited, the answer was rather surprising.
“We don’t know that for sure,” Hiller quickly replied. “It’s too early for that, I would say.”
Well, that could be something to keep an eye on down the road.
Statistically Speaking
— Quinton Byfield has scored five points (2G, 3A) in four career games against the Montreal Canadiens, dating back to March 2, 2023.
— Adrian Kempe is slated to skate in his 600th career game tonight, and has three points (1G, 2A) over his last two meetings vs. Montreal.
— An interesting tidbit on Doughty facing the Canadiens. This will be his first game vs. Montreal since scoring the game-winning goal against them all the way back in Dec. 2021.
Kings Projected Lineup vs. Canadiens
If there are any key changes during pregame warmups, this article will be updated.
Turcotte – Kopitar – Kempe
Foegele – Danault – Moore
Fiala – Byfield – Laferriere
Jeannot – Lewis – Thomas
Gavrikov – Doughty
Edmundson – Clarke
Moverare – Spence
Kuemper (starter)
Rittich
Likely scratches: (F) N/A and (D) Anderson, Burroughs, Englund
Key Game Info
Puck drop is set for 7:30 pm Pacific Time and will be televised locally by FanDuel Sports Network. Additionally, a Kings radio feed is available on the ESPN LA app (which is the new home for Kings radio this season, they’ve moved off of the iHeart platform).
More on the ongoing TV situation here.
For those live in attendance, the LA Kings Booster Club will offer their popular ‘Puck for a Buck’ contest — featuring Jonathan Quick for this game (in honor of his recent 400th NHL victory). Just $1 could win you an autographed puck from an NHL star. Visit their table outside sections 317-318 on the upper concourse for more information.
Across the Ice
Montreal is coming off a 4-3 victory over San Jose on Tuesday. Here is how they lined up for that contest:
Caufield – Suzuki – Slafkovsky
Newhook – Dach – Anderson
Laine – Evans – Armia
Beck – Dvorak – Gallagher
Hutson – Matheson
Struble – Carrier
Xhekaj – Savard
Montembeault
On This Day in Kings History
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