Inside The 2026-27 LA Kings Schedule!

Always a fun day to put games to paper.

The schedule this season will mark the return to 84 games around the NHL, the first time since the 1993-94 season. If you’d like to think about just how long that’s been, Dave Taylor played 33 games for the Kings that season. So yeah, it’s been a minute.

To adjust accordingly, we’ll see a couple of changes in terms of the formatting.

With the addition of the extra two games, there is no longer any disparity within the Pacific Division. Both extra games will be played within the division, which means I’ll be guaranteed two separate trips to Edmonton every single season. Party hats on. The Kings will now play four games against every team in the Pacific Division – two at home, two on the road. That accounts for 28 of the 84 games on the schedule. Eliminates the yearly guess at which teams the Kings will randomly see one less time, aka the humble request to keep two games in Vancouver on the calendar.

Against the Central Division, the Kings will play each team three times. The Kings will see four Central Division teams twice at home, once on the road and the inverse as well. This season, the Kings will visit Chicago, Colorado, Minnesota and Nashville twice, while hosting Dallas, St. Louis, Utah and Winnipeg twice each. I’ll take that trade off. In total, that brings the count of games up to 52 against teams from the Western Conference schedule, between the Pacific and Central Divisions.

The final 32 games will be played against teams from the Eastern Conference, with one game at home and one on the road against all 16 teams. Very consistent with what we’ve always seen. We’ll see Sidney Crosby, Alexander Ovechkin and at Crypto.com Arena once apiece and the Kings will lose their annual game in Buffalo as has become the case over the years.

It all gets underway for the Kings with a playoff rematch in Denver against the Colorado Avalanche. The Kings will open on the road against a team from the Western Conference for the first time since 2019, just the second road opener overall in that span. Drew Doughty and Adrian Kempe are the only two players on the roster who played in that game, as the Kings scored five times in Edmonton but somehow did not win. Next up is the first game within the division, as the Kings visit San Jose to conclude their first week on the calendar.

Unlike last season, the Kings will play three divisional games in their first five on the schedule, including the first game of the season against the Edmonton Oilers on home ice. As always, the divisional schedule is slanted towards the final weeks of the season, with eight of the final 11 games played against Pacific Division opposition, but it is more balanced this year than in years past. Outside of October February, the Kings have at least three divisional games in every other month.

The Kings will take on Anaheim – featuring the $18 million-dollar man – in a home-and-home set around Thanksgiving, with an afternoon tilt at Honda Center on November 27, following by a rematch the following night at Crypto.com Arena. The Kings will also host the Ducks on March 1 before a late-season tilt in Anaheim on April 6, which could carry some real implications.

This year’s schedule also sees a return to more of a normal flow. There is no more r̶o̶o̶m̶ ̶o̶n̶ ̶t̶h̶e̶ ̶c̶a̶l̶e̶n̶d̶a̶r̶ ̶f̶o̶r̶ ̶l̶e̶n̶g̶t̶h̶y̶,̶ ̶i̶n̶-̶s̶e̶a̶s̶o̶n̶ ̶t̶r̶o̶p̶i̶c̶a̶l̶ ̶v̶a̶c̶a̶t̶i̶o̶n̶s̶ ̶ 4 Nations Faceoff and there is no break for the Winter Olympics. The Kings will get one eight-day break, beginning on January 31, but that’s about all there is on the schedule this season. It’s a long roadtrip heading into that break, with five games away from Los Angeles and a short, two-game trip coming out of the break in Dallas and St. Louis. The NHL All-Star Game will be hosted by the New York Islanders on February 6, at the end of that break, before the schedule resumes a couple of days later on February 8.

In terms of a few games to keep an eye on, I’ve certainly got December 30 versus Toronto on the calendar, as former Kings Head Coach Jim Hiller returns to Los Angeles on the visiting bench. Former Kings Interim Head Coach D.J. Smith returns with Edmonton on October 13. Former Kings forward Warren Foegele will play at Crypto.com Arena with Ottawa on October 29, while Andrei Kuzmenko returns on November 7 with the Pittsburgh Penguins. Cue the harmonicas.

By Day Of The Week
– Saturdays are King in Los Angeles. The Kings play 14 Saturday home games throughout the course of the schedule, which is one more than last year and by far the most active day of the week on the schedule. The Kings will play at least two Saturday home games in every month of the season besides March and April. Get ready to spend your weekends at Crypto…..unless you want to come on Friday or Sunday, that is. Then, you’re out of luck. The Kings only play four Sunday games in any city – just one in Los Angeles on March 7 – and just one Friday home game on March 5.
– The remaining schedule is pretty evenly split, when looking at the home games. The Kings will play eight Wednesday games at home, in addition to seven games on Thursdays, six games and five games on Mondays. The lack of Fridays is unsurprising – that’s always been a Lakers gameday – and the even distribution isn’t all that surprising otherwise, minus maybe feeling like there are fewer Thursdays than in the past.
– In terms of the road schedule, Saturdays reign supreme there as well. The Kings have 11 Saturday games on the road. When you look at the calendar overall, starting on October 3 and ending on April 10, the Kings only have three Saturdays without a game and one of them is the NHL All-Star Game on February 6. Saving my college football viewings for another lifetime.
– The biggest difference with road games is that the Kings do play five Friday games on the road and for whatever reason, they play 10 times on Tuesdays. Tipsy Tuesday in St. Louis goes hard. The remainder of the road schedule has four Mondays, two Wednesdays and seven games on Thursdays, on top of the two Sundays mentioned above.

By Month
– Right off the top – the Kings will play their first ever regular-season game in North America during the month of September. The Kings have played two September regular-season games in franchise history, both coming in London against the Anaheim Ducks in 2007. The season opener versus Colorado will be the first game played in the United States in that month, though likely not the last with the new league calendar and schedule length.
– Two additional games really isn’t that much, but three months here have 14+ games – 15 in two of the three – and that feels like a lot. There’s no monster like there was in January of last season but there are fewer lighter months, minus November. February looks lighter, but with the first eight days off and a shorter month as it is, it’s busier than you think.
– In fact, the Kings will play 31 games in 62 days to close out the season. That’s one every other day. Last season was more compact at times, with the Olympic Break really squeezing the schedule together in certain moments. From the time the team returns from break on February 8 through Game 84 on April 10, it’s going to be quite congested, with a ton of games to play.
– The busiest month in Los Angeles will be March. The Kings are slated to play nine home games in March, including games on March 1 and March 31. What’s funny is that the Kings have two seven-game homestands on the calendar but neither fall during their busiest month of games in Los Angeles. The month begins with four straight at home, with a three-game stand in the middle and two in a row to close things out.
– The Kings will actually travel the most in the season’s first month, in October, with eight games away from home. The Kings have two games on the road to begin the season and a five-game trip, which begins in Washington and ends in Chicago, with a game in Vegas in between.

Trips & Stands
– The longest stand of games is not one stand at all, but rather two stands. The first set of seven straight games at home comes early in the season. Starting on October 29. The Kings will play seven consecutive games in Los Angeles, spanning 18 days in total. There are several multi-day breaks in the calendar there and a lot of time at home. Two Sundays off and four games against teams from the Eastern Conference.
– The Kings will once again host seven consecutive games later in the season, beginning on December 30 versus Toronto. None of the seven games are within the Pacific Division and five of the seven come against teams from the Eastern Conference. The seven games will be played in a span of 15 days, with fewer breaks and fewer days off in between games keeping things more compact.
– The longest roadtrip of the season is technically seven games. Beginning on January 23, the Kings hit the road for five straight games, including stops in Nashville, Florida, Tampa Bay, Philadelphia and Carolina. Then, following an eight-day break for the NHL All-Star Game, the Kings will play two additional road games – in Dallas and St. Louis – ending the seven-game trip.
– The Kings also have three additional stretches with five straight games on the road. They head East for the first time on October 20, beginning a five-game roadtrip in Washington. In November, the Kings kick off a five-game trip in Boston on November 18, which ends in Anaheim on November 27, with three days off after the game in Montreal on November 23. Finally, the Kings will play five straight away from home beginning on December 15 in Detroit, a stop which carries the team into the NHL’s holiday break, following the final game in Minnesota on December 22.

Start Times
– Matinees! The Kings will play three matinee start times at home, looking at games that begin before 4 PM. The Kings host Buffalo on Halloween at 1 PM, Chicago on February 13 at 3 PM and Colorado on March 13 at 12:30 PM.
– On the road, the Kings will play four afternoon games, beginning with a 3:30 PM puck drop in New Jersey in October. The Kings will also play matinees in Anaheim and Edmonton, with the Black Friday tilt in Anaheim becoming a schedule staple.
– Other than the two afternoon games mentioned, Saturday home games will alternate between 6 PM, 7 PM and 7:30 PM start times. The Kings will begin seven Saturday home games at 6 PM, with three at 7 PM and two at 7:30 PM.
– In terms of weeknight start times, the bulk of the home schedule will see games start at 7 PM. The first two weeknight home games – October 6 and 13 – will kick off at 7:30 PM, before the bulk of the remainder of the schedule starts at 7 PM, with the only exception being 3/29 vs. VAN (6:30 PM).
– Also, one random one – how about that 9 PM start time local in Calgary on January 16. Paging an Insider from the bullpen to take that trip on.

Odds & Ends
– Looking at back-to-backs, the Kings will have their first of the season on October 26 and October 27, on the road versus New York and Chicago. In total, the Kings will play ten sets of back-to-back games this season.
– Breaking the games down, seven of those nine back-to-backs will come between two away games in two different cities. The Kings will also play three back-to-backs with an away game first, followed by a home game the next night, with games in Anaheim, San Jose and Colorado the night before coming home.
– The nine back-to-backs are five fewer than last season and the fewest they’ve had since the shortened, 2020-21 campaign.
– The Kings will have three-day breaks around both Thanksgiving and Christmas. The holiday break in the NHL has traditionally been static – December 24, 25 and 26. This year, the Kings will play on December 26 but December 23 will be a day off. There are always three days off around the holidays and this season, they are just shifted. Additionally, the Kings are off on Thanksgiving, as well as the Tuesday and Wednesday prior.
– For the first time in what feels like a long time, the Kings will not play on New Year’s Eve or New Year’s Day. The Kings host Toronto on December 30 and New Jersey on January 2. Happy Holidays.