Over the past two weeks, LA coach Jim Hiller has seen his Kings team go from playing consistently inconsistent hockey to producing their best stretch of the young season. It’s been a whirlwind for players, coaches, and fans. Regardless of whether you call it mojo, confidence, or swagger — whatever ‘it’ is, the Kings have it right now.
Coming off back-to-back road victories, they return home Thursday night to put their new secret sauce to the test against a Pacific Division team; somewhat of a rarity thus far in 2024-25. Over 14 games played, LA has only faced five such opponents, producing a 3-2-0 record. Beginning tonight with Vancouver, half of the next 10 games played by LA will be against Division teams.
More importantly, in facing the Canucks, Hiller’s squad is meeting up with a team projected to finish ahead of them in the regular season standings. Like a pair of earlier games against Vegas, this will be an early season measuring stick game, one that will help answer the question, ‘Who are these Kings, really?’
If LA is to stay unbeaten in regulation at home, the key likely begins with keeping Brock Boeser off the scoreboard. Now that may seem simple, but there are no words to describe how big of a thorn Boeser has been in the Kings side. In just 20 career games against LA, the Vancouver forward has 17 goals along with 6 assists. Diving in a little deeper, in the last 18 head-to-head matchups, Boeser has recorded at least a point in all but one.
Even so, the Kings should be feeling quite good about themselves overall as puck drop approaches. An 8-3-3 start is rather impressive, even more so with the absence of Drew Doughty (which will continue being part of the narrative until at least mid-December).
One significant lineup question for tonight is, ‘Who will play LW1?’ With Alex Turcotte expected to sit this one out, Hiller has several options at his disposal, including placing Andre Lee there (like he did to start vs. the Wild) or going with Kevin Fiala (who was moved there mid-game). Akil Thomas is another option, as we suggested in Tuesday’s pregame article, because it minimizes the number of changes to his other three lines.
Darcy Kuemper is expected to get the nod in net. We’ll also assume Vladislav Gavrikov and Jodan Spence essentially flip spots, given Hiller’s recent comments about aligning his defensive pairs based upon a variety of factors, including matchups on home ice.
Unrelated to tonight’s game, Arthur Kaliyev has resumed skating. This fits right within the 6-8 week timeline originally given for his return by GM Rob Blake (full comments here). The injury took place on Sept. 20 and the broken collarbone was repaired via surgery a few days later. Thus, it’s been about seven weeks. He’ll need some time to ramp his conditioning and timing back up before making a full return. Of course, there is also the possibility that Kaliyev gets an AHL conditioning assignment before he sees game action with the Kings, so we’re still likely a ways off from Hiller having to worry about where (and when) he’ll slot back in.
Statistically Speaking
— Dating back to March 2018, Kuemper has nine wins in 11 games against the Canucks.
— Los Angeles has found great success when playing Vancouver at home, with an all-time record of 70-44-16-5. They also enter tonight with a seven-game points streak against the Canucks, going 5-0-2 over that span.
— Gavrikov leads the NHL among defensemen who average 20:00 of time on ice (TOI) per game, along with a rating of plus-10
— Finally, we have a fun stat to track this season. Our MM graphics team had an almost uncanny ability to randomly select a player for our daily lineup article last year, and then said player would seem to score a goal. Thus far in 2024-25, the Kings have played 14 games, and the player featured has scored seven times, for a 50% conversion rate. A goal from XXXXXXX today would push it up to 53%.
Kings Projected Lineup vs. Canucks
If there are any key changes during pregame warmups, this article will be updated.
Lee – Kopitar – Kempe
Fiala – Danault – Moore
Foegele – Byfield – Laferriere
Jeannot – Lewis – Thomas
Anderson – Gavrikov
Edmundson – Clarke
Englund – Spence
Kuemper (starter)
Rittich
Likely scratches: (F) Turcotte (D) Burroughs, Jones
Key Game Info
Puck drop is set for 1:00 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 Brandt Clarke for this game. 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
Vancouver is coming off a 5-1 victory over Anaheim on Tuesday. Here’s how they lined up for that contest:
DeBrusk – Miller – Boeser
Suter – Pettersson – Garland
Heinen – Blueger – Sherwood
Höglander – Räty – Sprong
Hughes – Hronek
Soucy – Myers
Brännström – Desharnais
Lankinen
On This Day in Kings History
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