3/26 Preview - Kings @ Canucks

WHO: Los Angeles Kings (28-25-18) @ Vancouver Canucks (21-41-8)

WHAT: 2025-26 Regular-Season Game 72/82

WHEN: Thursday, March 26 @ 7:00 PM Pacific

WHERE: Rogers Arena – Vancouver, BC

HOW TO FOLLOW: VIDEO: FanDuel Sports Network – AUDIO – ESPN LA 710, ESPN LA App & LA Kings App – TWITTER: @dooleylak & @lakings

TODAY’S MATCHUP: The Kings conclude their three-game roadtrip tonight in Vancouver, with their first visit to British Colmubia of the season.

HEAD-TO-HEAD: Forwards Anze Kopitar and Adrian Kempe scored in a 2-1 win over Vancouver back in November. Kempe, who scored the overtime game-winning goal, has ten points (5-5-8) over his last ten played versus Vancouver. Kopitar has eight points (3-5-8) over his last eight games played versus Vancouver and has 62 career points against the Canucks, his sixth-most against an NHL franchise.

KINGS VITALS: After a full-team practice yesterday in Vancouver, the Kings went with an optional morning skate today at Rogers Arena.

Goaltender Darcy Kuemper did not take the morning skate today, which makes him tonight’s projected starter between the pipes versus the Canucks. Kuemper has more career appearances against Vancouver than any other team and has delivered a 14-7-2 record with a .922 save percentage and a 2.26 goals-against average.

The Kings are not expected to make any lineup changes, though that could change based on a couple of game-time decisions. Should that be required, forwards Alex Turcotte and Taylor Ward are options to check into the lineup, as is defenseman Jacob Moverare.

For reference, here is last game’s Los Angeles lineup in Calgary –

CANUCKS VITALS: Vancouver sits in last place in the NHL this season and enters tonight’s action with a three-game losing streak.

Vancouver forward Brock Boeser has scored as well as just about anyone against the Kings throughout his career. Boeser has 17 goals in 24 games and since his first goal, no player in the NHL has buried more versus Los Angeles.

Per Brendan Bachelor of the Canucks radio broadcast team, here’s how tonight’s opponent lined up last time out versus Anaheim –

Storyline Of The Day – Right On Q

We’re witnessing what is likely Quinton Byfield’s best hockey of the season.

Byfield has three multi-point games in his last five played. On Tuesday in Calgary, Byfield nearly carried his team to victory, as he scored both goals in a 3-2 shootout defeat. Both goals gave the Kings a lead they could not hold onto. That came one game after he had a goal and an assist in Utah, among other chances to create even more.

Utah was arguably Byfield’s best game of the season to date, perhaps until he played in Calgary. Two-game stretch, as good as he’s been.

“He’s played really well, he’s been our best player,” Smith said of Byfield. “He’s checking, he’s above the puck, he’s scoring. It looks like every night he’s dangerous and he continues to be skating. He’s playing on all sides of the puck. It’s as good as I’ve seen him play.”

When asked about what made the Utah game so impactful from his centerman, Smith laid out four areas he felt Byfield excelled – emotion, speed, both sides of the puck and winning hockey.

Then came the Calgary game, when we saw what has long been the missing ingredient in Byfield game and that’s the finish. Using his speed to create chances, without sacrificing defensively Byfield created. That part isn’t revolutionary. What’s new is finishing them with authority.

On his first goal, Byfield connected with Joel Armia for a breakaway in transition. In speaking with him during the first intermission, Byfield said that he wanted the puck earlier but Armia called him off, pushing him to get more speed. The pass was timed perfectly over the blueline, with Byfield gaining a step and finishing with a silky-smooth backhanded goal.

The second goal was again in transition, as his linemates – Alex Laferriere and Trevor Moore – each made nice plays in their own zone to spring Byfield the other way. He flew down the ice on another breakaway and this time he snapped his shot inside the far post and in. Two confident finishes from a player who is exuding it right now.

“He’s confident right now and he’s flying out there,” Moore added. “It’s nice. You can just put a puck into an area and let him skate onto it, it’s been really good.”

It’s games like that that we’ve been waiting on. Games that have always felt very doable for a player with such a special combination of speed and size. When Byfield is skating like he has of late, he’s an incredibly difficult player to contain. There obviously have not been nearly enough games of this ilk this season. To stack two in a row, though, is encouraging.

With just 11 games remaining in the 2025-26 regular season, having Byfield be the player who is dragging the team forward is a good thing. There’s no Anze Kopitar on the depth chart next season. Whether it’s Byfield or someone else, the Kings need more production from their centers than they’ve gotten this season. It can’t all fall on Byfield and his offensive struggles for much of the year show he’s still got room to grow. But it’s clearly in there to play at this level.

“He’s an incredible player and such a good guy too, so happy to see him succeed when he’s scoring like that,” Laferriere said. “I think when he’s playing like that, I get to play with him, so it makes my life a lot easier and he creates so much room for me and Mooresie. He’s just such a dynamic player and he can take over games.”

If he can continue to deliver these types of games on a more consistent basis, with the chemistry he has shown with his current linemates, his late-season surge can be a bright spot on a stretch run that has not gone according to plan. Byfield is one of a few guys here who can continue to help change that.

Two games in a row, he’s been the best player on the ice. Seeing that on a more regular basis is what needs to come next.

3 To Watch For –

- Should the Kings get out to a lead this evening, they would certainly do well to build on it. I mean, duh. But it was a major point of emphasis in Calgary on Tuesday.

They took the lead twice last time, on Byfield’s goals, and twice lost that lead. With an insurance goal, they likely win that game. But it never came. After Calgary tied the game, both 1-1 and 2-2, the Kings pushed. But that was too late.

“We’ve got to find a way to put teams away earlier here,” forward Trevor Moore said. “We don’t want to be in coin toss games every night. 11 games left here, we’re going to do our best to get that going.”

Very similar to what Joel Edmundson and Alex Laferriere had to say immediately after the game. Both spoke about not sitting back, not getting content when leading. It’s not that the Kings played poorly up 2-1, but they left the game open for too long. Even at 2-1, the game felt firmly in control but then came two penalties late in the third period. 5-on-3 goal, tie game, overtime, shootout, loss.

That doesn’t happen with an insurance goal along the way. Or it doesn’t matter. Yeah, the penalties were poor game management and yeah, the Kings had a chance to clear but Drew Doughty was unable to get it all the way down the ice. An insurance goal, though, and those plays aren’t nearly as important or as relevant.

“I’d like to see us go after the next one and I’d like to see us play the same game all night,” Smith added. “In our heads, for whatever reason, we get up and then we kind of sit back a little bit. I’d like to see us push for 60 minutes and then more onto the next team. Play with the confidence that you can make a play and make the other team defend you.”

They certainly can work on that area. You’d like to think they’ll be leading again tonight. If so, it’s a night when they would do well to increase the margin for error a bit.

- In terms of tonight’s lineup, I think we’re beyond the point of smaller moves being the reason for a win or a loss.

The Kings need to rely on their top players to get the job done in moments like this. I’m not expecting any changes here tonight, but there are a couple of injury situations to monitor.

As has been the case, forward Adrian Kempe will continue to be a game-time decision, to be made after warmups. Could be the case the rest of the way, unless the Kings fade from playoff contention. Kempe has a lower-body injury and has not practiced or taken a morning skate since the injury. He missed the game against the New York Rangers but has played each game otherwise.

Defenseman Drew Doughty did not practice yesterday, given a maintenance day, but is expected to play tonight against Vancouver.

Forwards Alex Turcotte and Taylor Ward were both on the outside looking in against Calgary but both players have played well enough in recent showings. I actually think Turcotte elevates his game in a fourth-line role, so maybe he gets another shot there tonight or down the line, while Ward has typically delivered good energy and underrated skill when he’s been in the lineup.

D.J. Smith said that the fourth line of Ward with Samuel Helenius and Jeff Malott was originally broken up due to injury-related reasons, which could mean either Ward or Malott is battling through something, with those guys both sitting out in Utah. It’s that time of the year, but it’s an area to monitor when it comes to those types of decisions.

Not quite sure if either Turcotte or Ward gets a shot, but both have played hungry when given the chance. Would expect that, and then some, if either gets into the lineup tonight.

- Lastly, and I include this as a footnote here because it came in a loss, but I wanted to bring up one of the best shootout goals I’ve seen in a long time.

Artemi Panarin continues to find ways to impress with the puck on his stick and his shootout goal in Calgary is just the latest example. Panarin looked to have run out of room against Flames netminder Dustin Wolf, but with the lower portion of the net covered, at a tight angle, Panarin lofted the puck in the air, chipping it over Wolf and in, Pavel Datsyuk style. The combination of skill and composure, in that moment, to pull that off was staggering.

“The guy has a tremendous skillset,” Smith said of Panarin. “He gave us a chance. At the end of the day, he’s been really good for us. You look at the boxscore every night, it’s a goal, a goal and an assist, an assist, he just finds a way to put one in the net every night.”

Panarin is one of the best shootout players in NHL history, at 58.0 percent lifetime. That’s the third best conversion rate since the shootout was introduced in 2005 among players with at least 20 shootout goals. Knowing this team, there will be more shootouts, so it’s nice to have Panarin on this side of the ice.

Kings and Canucks, as a three-game trip comes to an end tonight in Vancouver. 7 PM puck drop at Rogers Arena before a seven-game homestand begins this weekend.