Heading into a road trip that will take them up to the Christmas break, the LA Kings aren’t just the hottest team in the Pacific Division or even the Western Conference, they find themselves as the hottest team in the NHL right now. Winners of five straight games, things are staring to have a similar feeling to about this time one year ago.
After flying out of the gates and rocketing up the league’s standings to open 2023-24, it was a game in Long Island that essentially broke the Kings. While a lone hit by Andres Lee on Vladislav Gavrikov isn’t what eventually led to the dismissal of then-coach Todd McLellan, it was certainly the beginning of that ball of string starting to unravel.
This year’s team is rather different, though, despite any obvious comparisons to December 2023. Their coach is different, the goalies are different, and roster composition has also changed sharply.
While preparing to spend the next 15 days away from home, Jim Hiller’s squad is carrying as much momentum as they’ve had all season – coming off wins that include some heavy hitters in Winnipeg, Dallas, and Minnesota. Now, they’ll look to take their dominant play at home and transfer it to the road. First up on LA’s to-do list is the New York Islanders on Tuesday night.
One key that should aid the Kings over this tough stretch is their improving penalty kill. Over the first quarter of the season, the Kings were largely in the bottom third of the league on special teams. While the power play is still a work in progress, the PK has been improving of late, and is now 15th overall in the NHL at 79.8% coming into play tonight.
Another bit of good news is the return of Darcy Kuemper in goal for the Kings. He looked great in his first game back from injury on Saturday and is expected to be called upon regularly moving forward. Despite this opportunity to give David Rittich some breathers after a grueling couple of weeks, it does at least beg the question…
Regardless of who is in net, indications are Hiller will continue to utilize an 11+7 configuration for the time being, as referenced during our article from Sunday discussing what’s going on with Andre Lee.
At that time, we also noted Arthur Kaliyev was headed to AHL Ontario this week. That’s now official, as his conditioning assignment was announced earlier today.
Statistically Speaking
— Anze Kopitar is just one of six skaters with at least 25 games played this season with zero penalty minutes.
— Since joining the Kings, Trevor Moore has six points in five contests against the Islanders.
— Alex Laferriere is currently tied for the team lead in game-winning goals (4).
— The Kings are 22-29-5-3 against the Islanders all time on the road.
Kings Projected Lineup vs. Islanders
If there are any key changes during pregame warmups, this article will be updated.
Moore – Kopitar – Kempe
Foegele – Byfield – Jeannot
Fiala – Danault – Laferriere
Turcotte – Helenius
Anderson – Gavrikov
Edmundson – Clarke
Moverare – Spence
Burroughs
Kuemper (starter)
Rittich
Likely scratches: (F) Thomas (D) Englund
Injured Reserve: Jones, Lewis
Key Game Info
Puck drop is set for 4:30 pm Pacific Time and will be televised locally by FanDuel Sports. 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.
Across the Ice
New York is coming off a 4-2 victory over Ottawa on Sunday. Here’s how they lined up for that contest:
Tsyplakov – Horvat – Pageau
Lee – Nelson – Palmieri
Holmstrom – Cizikas – Wahlstrom
Martin – MacLean – Engvall
George – Dobson
Romanov – Pulock
Cholowski – Mayfield
Sorokin
On This Day in Kings History
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