The Week That Was
After a two-week NHL hockey hiatus due to the midseason 4 Nations Face-Off, the Kings resumed game play over the weekend on Saturday. Kicking off the unofficial second half of the season with a promising win over the Utah Hockey Club, the regulation victory pushed the team’s point streak to five games. Still sitting pretty in third in the Pacific Division at 30-17-7 with 67 points, the Kings trail the Edmonton Oilers in the standings by five points with the games in hand and are four points ahead of the fourth place Vancouver Canucks, also with three games in hand.
Game Recaps:
Notable News From The Week That Was:
- Quinton Byfield’s strong Monday against the Vegas Golden Knights earned himself the team’s top scoring honors for the week. Behind a career high four-point night (0-4=4), Byfield notched five assists on the week.
- Adrian Kempe remains as the Kings top goalscorer after adding another goal this past week. Kempe currently has 26 goals on the season, leading a streaking Kevin Fiala by two goals for the team lead.
- Adrian Kempe also remains as the Kings lead point-getter with 49 points (26-23=49) in 58 games this season.
- The Kings power play went 2-for-12 in the four games. The Kings power play now ranks 30th (15.3%).
- The Kings penalty kill went 6-for-9 across the four games. Their penalty kill now sits at 81.1%, good for ninth in the NHL.
The Week That Is
Entering the week having played the fewest home games in the NHL this season (27), the Kings, who returned home from Las Vegas late last night won’t be going anywhere for the next six days. Set to host a trio of home games this week, the Kings will close out three season series’s against the New York Islanders, Washington Capitals and Nashville Predators.
Beginning with the New York Islanders on Tuesday night, the Kings will face the Long Island franchise that is currently barely hanging on to playoff hopes. Just four points out of the second Wild Card spot in the Eastern Conference, the Islanders will have to jump five teams to make it to the postseason for a third consecutive season. At 29-27-7, if the Islanders want to make the playoffs they’ll have to do without longtime, 12-year former Islander Brock Nelson who they traded to the Colorado Avalanche at last week’s trade deadline. Traded for Oliver Kylington, prospect Calum Ritchie, a conditional round 1 pick in the 2026 draft and a conditional round 3 pick in the 2027 draft, the Islanders, who are already without star Mathew Barzal potentially for the remainder of the season (kneecap) will now have to lean on leading point-getter and captain Anders Lee even more. Lee, a Minnesota native, has 44 points (20-24=44) and three points in his last five games (1-2=3) heading into Tuesday’s tilt against the Kings. With the Kings coming off a six-goal performance against the Vegas Golden Knights, they’ll next be tasked with having to get the puck past the red hot goalie Ilya Sorokin. Entering Tuesday, Sorokin has won four of his last five starts and carries a .933 save percentage in those games. Dating back to Sorokin’s last three starts against the Kings, the Russian has not given up more than two goals in any game, so a low scoring battle Tuesday would be no surprise.
Two nights later, the Kings will welcome in the Eastern Conference’s top team, the Washington Capitals. Currently tied with the Winnipeg Jets for the most points in the NHL at 92, the 42-14-8 Capitals are led by no other than Alex Ovechkin, who is closing in on breaking Wayne Gretzky’s all-time goal record of 894. Entering the week just eight goals shy of Gretzky’s record (886), Ovechkin, 39, has 50 points (33-17=50) in 48 games this season and has found the back of the net seven times in the last eight games. Ovechkin will enter Thursday having recorded 12 goals and 23 points (12-11=23) in 27 career games against the Kings. With the record the Capitals have, it hasn’t only been Ovechkin producing for the team based in the nation’s capital. Having a bounce back year this season is former King Pierre-Luc Dubois. After a 40-point season with the Kings last season, Dubois has notched 54 points (16-38=54) in 64 games with his new team. Another reason for the Washington’s success has been another first-year Capital, goalie Logan Thompson. Traded from the Golden Knights in last year’s offseason for a pair of third-round draft picks, Thompson is 27-4-5 and has the NHL’s fourth best save percentage (.917%) and third best goals against average (2.31). Having defeated the Kings 3-1 on December 22nd, the Kings will aim to even the season series come Thursday.
Last on the schedule for this week is the underachieving Nashville Predators. Coming off of a playoff appearance last season, the Predators this season are currently 24-32-7 and 29th in the NHL standings. Playing better hockey as of late at 6-4-0 in their last 10 games, the roster the Kings see will likely be very different than the one they saw in Nashville last time these two teams met on December 21st. Partly due to trades and partly due to injury, the Predators will be without Tommy Novak, Luke Schenn, Gustav Nyquist Jeremy Lauzon, Mark Jankowski, Alexandre Carrier come Saturday and with Roman Josi (injury) currently on IR, his status for the game is still up in the air. As for who is playing, Steven Stamkos has been the Predators hottest skater as of late. In his last three games, Stamkos has four goals and four assists, including a hat trick this past Saturday. On the season, Stamkos has 41 points (21-20=41) in 63 games. This will be series deciding game between the two clubs as each team has a regulation win in their first two meetings.
Upcoming games and events this week:
- 3/11 vs.New York Islanders @ 7:30 PM (FanDuel Sports Network West)
- 3/13 vs. Washington Capitals @ 7:30 (FanDuel Sports Network West)
- 3/9 vs. Nashville Predators @ 5:00 PM (KCAL)
All Kings games can be heard on the ESPN LA App.
