KINGS The Los Angeles Kings are coming off their first win of the season on Thursday - a 4-2 victory against the Colorado Avalanche.
Los Angeles is 1-1-2 through four games this season.
The Kings finished seventh in the Pacific Division last season with a 29-35-6 record (64 points), and their rebuild is ongoing under General Manager Rob Blake. The club added a big piece to the organization by selecting Quinton Byfield with the second overall pick in the 2020 NHL Draft. Byfield, a 6-foot-4, 215-pound center that posted 143 points in 109 career OHL games, could make his NHL debut this season. One other key addition over the offseason is defenseman Olli Maata, who joins the team after spending last season in Chicago.
Jeff Carter, Dustin Brown, Anze Kopitar, Drew Doughty and Jonathan Quick makeup the veteran group that keeps the Kings from being a team to sleep on.
"They're playing better, they're playing hard, they're aggressive," Berube said of the Kings. "It's going to be a hard game. They're an up-and-coming team, they still have some very good players from the old Stanley Cup teams. It will be a hard game. Every game is hard."