Team Records:
Jets: 35 - 24 - 1 (71 pts)
Kings: 33 - 20 - 8 (74 pts)
Kings Notes:
At 399 career NHL games, forward Alex Iafallo is set to appear in his 400th career NHL game tonight and become the 24th active undrafted skater to reach such feat. Since his NHL debut, Iafallo has accumulated 79 goals and 112 assists for 191 points. Both his goal and assist totals rank fourth on the team during that time while his 191 points place fifth. Iafallo has the 11th-most points among active New York-born skaters and third-most among undrafted New York-born players all-time, sitting five shy of tying Billy Burch for second place.
Since re-entering the league prior to the 2011-12 season, the Kings are tied for the fifth-lowest goals-against average per game against the Winnipeg Jets, allowing an average of 2.65 goals per game. During that same time (2011-23), the Kings have established a goal-against per game against all opponents of 2.60 which sits second-lowest in the league behind Boston (2.45).
Following tonight's game, the Kings will travel back to Southern California to prepare for the Stanley Cup Playoffs push with a 13-game month of March. Of the team's 13 games next month, 10 will be played at Crypto.com Arena. It will mark the 11th different occasion in franchise history the Kings have hosted 10 or more games in a single month, and the first since April of 2021 (11GP, 3-8-0). Of those 10 prior instances with 10 or more home games in a single month, eight have been in the month of March.
Forward Blake Lizotte has drawn seven penalties over his last seven games, putting him at a team-leading 26 drawn penalties on the season. Since the All-Star Break, only Pittsburgh's Jake Guentzel (8), Chicago's Connor Murphy (8) and Calgary's Nazem Kadri (8) have drawn more penalties in the league than Lizotte. Lizotte is one of three skaters in the league to carry a drawn penalties-per-60 minutes rate over two with 2.01 per game, which is the third-best in the league (min. GP: 50).
The Kings are 6th in faceoff win percentage (52.7%).
The Kings power play ranks 3rd in the NHL (25.6%).
The Kings penalty kill ranks 25th in the NHL (75.4%).
Jets Notes:
The Jets are 0-2-0 going into the third game of their three-game homestand and have been outscored 9-1 in those first two games.
The Jets are 25th in faceoff win percentage (48.4%).
The Jets power play ranks 15th in the NHL (21.5%).
The Jets penalty kill ranks 2nd in the NHL (84.7%).
Who to Watch:
Forward Adrian Kempe, who is two goals shy of eclipsing the 30-goal mark for the second consecutive season (35G in 78 GP in 2021-22). Should he do so, he would be the 15th different skater in franchise history to record multiple 30-goal seasons and the first since Ziggy Palffy (2000-01, 2001-02, 2002-03).
Connor Hellebuyck, who holds a 26-18-1 record with a .923 SV% and newly acquired forward Nino Niederreiter.
