11/1 Preview – Special Teams Gotta Be Special + Moore/Foegele Latest, Laferriere’s Versatility, Turcotte’s “best game” to date, Burroughs on waivers

TODAY’S MATCHUP: The Kings continue on a four-game homestand tonight, as they host the New Jersey Devils in a Saturday-evening showdown.

HEAD-TO-HEAD: Forward Phillip Danault and defenseman Mikey Anderson led the Kings last season with two assists each versus New Jersey. For Danault, he leads the Kings over the last two seasons with five points (3-2-5) from four games played against the Devils, including a hat trick in March of 2024 at Crypto.com Arena, as the Kings skated to a 5-1 victory over New Jersey.

KINGS VITALS: After a short but full practice yesterday, the Kings did not hold a morning skate in advance of tonight’s game.

Without the skate, unsure who will get the nod in net tonight. Should the Kings go back to Darcy Kuemper, he has some strange career splits versus New Jersey, with a record of just 1-5-4 but a very solid .921 save percentage and a 2.34 goals-against average. Should Anton Forsberg get the nod, he has a lifetime record of 3-3-1 against New Jersey, with a .903 save percentage and a 3.17 goals-against average.

No skate, so naturally no line rushes today, but posting yesterday’s practice alignment below –

Kuzmenko – Kopitar – Kempe
Fiala – Byfield – Armia
Moore – Danault – Laferriere
Malott – Turcotte – Perry

Dumoulin – Doughty
Edmundson – Clarke
Anderson – Ceci

Forsberg / Kuemper

Expecting forward Trevor Moore back in tonight, after he missed yesterday’s game due to personal reasons, likely in place of defenseman Jacob Moverare, who made his season debut on Thursday. Forward Warren Foegele is expected to miss his third-straight game tonight with an upper-body injury.

DEVILS VITALS: New Jersey is currently 0-2-0 on a four-game Western roadtrip, after dropping games in Colorado and San Jose earlier this week.

Per New Jersey team reporter Amanda Stein, here’s how the Devils lined up on Thursday against the Sharks –

Changes indeed for #NJDevils — though we will have to see how things might change again with Brown not on the ice today.

Each forward line has been tweaked.

And if today is any indication, it looks like Cholowski will draw in with Nemec while Casey will be an extra tomorrow. https://t.co/UR5toSEjM7 pic.twitter.com/3slJGtbCLu

— Amanda Stein (@amandacstein) October 31, 2025

The Devils are led, unsurprisingly, by forward Jack Hughes. Hughes is currently tied for the NHL lead with nine goals so far this season, while his 15 points lead the Devils in scoring. Hughes scored his first career goal against the Kings last season, bringing his career totals to nine points (1-8-9) in nine career games played versus Los Angeles.

Storyline Of The Day – Special Teams Gotta Be Special
“You can see where the issue lies. That’s pretty clear for us, where the issue lies.”

That was Head Coach Jim Hiller, speaking after Thursday’s 4-3 shootout loss against Detroit. It was a game in which the Kings once again found themselves on the wrong side of the special-teams battle, scoring while shorthanded but conceding twice against the Red Wings power play, without scoring themselves.

Despite a fairly productive start to the season, the Kings have fallen below 20 percent on the man advantage, entering the day 21st in the NHL at 18.2 percent. The penalty kill, a huge strength a season ago, also ranks 21st in the NHL at 74.2 percent. Add it up and you get 92.2 percent. For that metric, in terms of PP + PK, the Kings ranked 22nd in the NHL. You’d expect a league average to be around 100, since every PPG results in a corresponding PPG against. The Kings are comfortable below that mark.

Right now, they just are not delivering.

What’s difficult to assess, though, is it’s not the same thing every night. The Kings power play hasn’t looked like it did towards the end of last season, but despite that, it was productive for a bit. In looking back, of the six power-play goals scored this season, two have come 5-on-3, one was 4-on-3 and one came off the rush. Goals against Minnesota and Carolina were both well executed but they’ve been few and far between. In 5-on-4 situations, no team has fewer goals than the Kings do. Has to change.

Hiller felt that last night’s game was a step in the right direction, and it was. Tons of chances – including a season high in high-danger chances – though no goals.

“Power play, I thought was pretty good,” Hiller said of the Detroit game. “I mean, we probably had 7,8,9 chances on a power play tonight, I know Kevin [had a number] and then he breaks a stick, so one of those has just got to go. That’s just really, in the end, comes down to the difference in the game.”

For now, any changes won’t include personnel. The Kings are planning to stick with the five-forward approach for the time being. 20 games is often a fair litmus test. Keeping the personnel consistent, for now, I think is fine. If it persists, though, they’ll have to look to make some adjustments, especially with more options this year than last. Corey Perry has had a strong start at the netfront, Brandt Clarke’s form offensively has been good and Drew Doughty offers a shoot-first threat up top. A few options for that unit, if the scoring struggles persist.

Last season, a very, very effective penalty kill covered up what was 60 games of a struggling power play. This season, hasn’t quite been the case.

The kill feels, overall, better than the number. But the number is the number and the number saw two goals against on Thursday, even if one shouldn’t have counted. It just feels like they can’t establish any sustained momentum. A couple of games go unpunished and then it’s two goals against in a one-goal game. Defenseman Mikey Anderson pointed to the Kings geetting the timely kills and there’s some truth to that. Some of the bigger kills this season have come late in the third periods of one-goal games. It’s the bigger picture, though, where the Kings are conceding too often 5-on-4, with Anderson pointing to one-off breakdowns that ruin longer stretches of execution.

Goaltender Darcy Kuemper feels that, overall, the kill has been better than the number, moving closer to where the Kings want it to be.

“I think overall, it’s been pretty good as of late, the last game, obviously, we gave up two but I think we’re finding our way out there with it a lot better,” Kuemper said. “Yesterday they made a nice one timer play, and then one that was very close to being high stick. Sometimes it’s not going to be perfect, the result, but I think overall, we’re getting back to where we want to be with it.”

Ultimately, this is an area that needs to improve, plain and simple, in terms of results. After a slow start 5-on-5, the Kings have rebounded and are on the right side of 50 percent in terms of goal share. Special teams, though, remain inconsistent. Against a New Jersey team that ranks inside the league’s Top-10 in both PP and PK, it’s especially important in getting a result this evening.

3 To Watch For –
– Alex Laferriere has been everywhere this season.

We’re 13 games in and he has played all three forward positions on all four forward lines. Some driven by his own performance, some by injuries and availability elsewhere. But he’s been very versatile, which is always welcomed by a coach.

“He’s established as that type of a player,” Hiller said. “Tt’s well documented I’ve put Laf in the middle a fair amount, just to be able to make him be able to do anything we’ve needed at different times. Sometimes he’s on the power play, this year he’s on the penalty kill, he’s been all over the place, but he’s a valuable player. He’s only going to get better, lots of room to grow.”

Laferriere could probably look at it in one of two ways. Could get frustrated that the movement has impeded his chemistry and consistency, but that’s not how he’s viewing it. He sees it as a positive that he’s been trusted in so many different roles, in all situations.

He sees it as earned the trust to be a guy who can plug and play just about anywhere in the lineup.

“I think for me, I look at it as a positive thing, I look at it that the coaches trust me out there in any situation and playing anywhere,” he said yesterday. “I like to pride myself on the fact that I can play anywhere, wherever he needs me to play, so I think I just try and do that. I think for me, just try and go out there and do my best, no matter what.”

Love the approach. He’s got a bit of that Alex Iafallo trait in him, that I think he could play just about anywhere in the lineup, with any two players, and contribute, but has a bit more of a scoring touch. Could see him with the Moore/Danault duo tonight, if yesterday’s practice is an indication.

– Speaking of guys who have that versatility in their game, Jim Hiller felt that Alex Turcotte played his best game of the season on Thursday.

“I would say that Turc had his best game of the year, I felt,” Hiller said. “I thought Turc was really skating a lot, you saw him at the end play a little bit with Kopi and Juice again, hadn’t done that in a while. So that was the guy for me I think that really jumped out.”

312 forwards have played at least 100 minutes this season at 5-on-5. Turcotte ranks ninth in terms of percentage of shot attempts controlled. The Kings have not quite hit last season’s numbers in terms of controlling the puck, but with Turcotte on the ice, they’ve done it quite regularly. Turcotte’s play is a big part in improving the team around the margins this season. He’s playing at a level that merits a larger role going forward. Continued play at this level will see him earn it.

– Lastly, the Kings placed defenseman Kyle Burroughs on waivers this morning, per Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman.

Burroughs is finally just about back from the upper-body injury he sustained during training camp. He’s been out since September 30 and recently returned to full-contact participation on the recent trip. If he clears waivers, he would be eligible to be assigned to the AHL’s Ontario Reign as early as tomorrow, but that is not necessarily required, though the option is there.

Game 2 of 4 on the current homestand here as the Kings host New Jersey, in search of the two points which eluded them on Thursday. 6 PM tonight in DTLA, see you there!