11/6 Preview – Perry’s Performance + Penalty Kill Progress, Staying Loose, Pinning Down the Panthers
WHO: Los Angeles Kings (6-4-4) vs. Florida Panthers (6-6-1)
WHAT: 2025 Regular-Season Game 15/82
WHEN: Thursday, November 6 @ 7:00 PM Pacific
WHERE: Crypto.com Arena – Los Angeles, CA
HOW TO FOLLOW: VIDEO: ESPN+, Disney+, Hulu – AUDIO – ESPN LA 710 AM, ESPN LA App & LA Kings App – TWITTER: @jaredshafran & @lakings
TODAY’S MATCHUP: As they approach a stretch of six straight on the road, the Kings host the two-time defending champion Florida Panthers tonight at Crypto.com Arena.
HEAD-TO-HEAD: Thursday’s contest is the first of two battles against Florida this season, with the second coming in Sunrise next month on Dec. 17. Last season, the two clubs met twice in a span of a week during January, with LA claiming the first by a 2-1 score before falling 3-0 in the Sunshine State. Samuel Helenius scored his first career NHL goal in the team’s most recent win against the Panthers, while Adrian Kempe also found the back of the net.
KINGS VITALS: After a practice day on Wednesday at TSPC, the Kings held an optional morning skate today.
Without the full group on the ice, it’s unconfirmed who will start in goal this evening, but I’d lean towards it being Anton Forsberg as Darcy Kuemper was the lone netminder who took part in the partial practice. Forsberg has excellent career splits against Florida, posting a .942 save percentage and a 2.48 goals-against average in six appearances.
No line rushes today, but posting Tuesday’s game alignment below, which continued at Wednesday’s practice –
Armia – Kopitar – Kempe
Fiala – Byfield – Laferriere
Kuzmenko – Danault – Moore
Malott – Turcotte – Perry
Helenius
Anderson – Doughty
Edmundson – Clarke
Dumoulin – Ceci
Moverare
Kuemper / Forsberg
Jim Hiller was highly complimentary of Joel Armia after Tuesday’s win, who was elevated to the team’s top line before the game. Hiller not only mentioned the assist Armia had on Adrian Kempe’s goal, but also singled out a play he made to Brian Dumoulin during a penalty kill situation. On the back end, Mikey Anderson was used in a larger role than he had been in the few prior contests, returning to his spot on the left of Drew Doughty. Hiller also pointed to Anderson as an important part of the team’s penalty kill, which went a perfect 5-for-5. More on that below.
Forward Warren Foegele remains out of the lineup and is expected to miss his fifth game tonight with an upper-body injury. Foegele was once again on the ice with the group this morning in a red no-contact practice jersey.
PANTHERS VITALS: Florida is preparing for the second contest of a four-game west coast trip, one that began with a 7-3 loss in Anaheim on Tuesday. Prior to that, they had points in three straight, including home wins over Vegas and Dallas. The reigning champs, who were able to keep most of their roster intact from last spring’s run, haven’t had the start to the season many expected and are currently at the bottom of the Eastern Conference standings with a record of 6-6-1 and 13 points through 13 games.
Florida did not hold a morning skate today. Per Rob Darragh with the Panthers, here’s how the team lined up at practice on Wednesday afternoon –
#FlaPanthers practice lines in LA:
Luostarinen – Lundell – Marchand
Verhaeghe – Rodrigues – Reinhart
Boqvist – Bennett – Samoskevich
Greer – Schwindt – Gregor
Forsling – Ekblad
Mikkola – Jones
Sebrango – Petry
Tarasov
Extras: Kunin, Balinskis
Bob not on ice
— Rob Darragh (@darraghfla) November 5, 2025
Without top forwards Aleksandr Barkov and Matthew Tkachuk, who are out of the lineup with long-term injuries, veteran forward Brad Marchand has carried the load early in the season. Marchand leads his team in scoring with 13 points (7-6-13) from 12 games played thus far this season. He brings a five-game scoring streak into tonight’s game in Los Angeles, including a goal on Tuesday in Anaheim.
No. 1 goaltender Sergei Bobrovsky was not on the ice with the group during yesterday’s practice. The 37-year-old netminder, who is now in his 16th NHL season, suffered the loss in Anaheim, allowing all seven goals against on 32 shots. In 18 career appearances against the Kings, Bobrovsky is 5-10-2 with a .908 save percentage and a 2.75 goals-against average. Daniil Tarasov, the Panthers’ 26-year-old backup netminder, has seen action in three games this season. His only prior appearance against the Kings came in March of 2023 as a member of Columbus and he was pulled after allowing four goals on 27 shots in 33:48 of action.
Storyline Of The Day – Perry’s Performance
The expectations for what Corey Perry would bring to the Kings this season at 40 years old, after he signed a one-year deal with the team on the opening day of free agency, might’ve differed depending on who you asked.
But after seeing what he’s been able to do in his first eight games while wearing an LA sweater, it doesn’t seem like you could ask for much more.
Perry is averaging a point per game, with five goals and three assists, and the team has gone 5-1-2 since he joined the lineup, securing points in all but one instance.
During a milestone night, which saw him play his 1,400th career NHL game, Perry was a big part of the victory once again, taking a stick to the nose during a power play, that turned into a 5-on-3 opportunity for the Kings. He then returned to the ice during the man-advantage and recorded the primary assist on Kevin Fiala’s strike, which padded the lead and gave the team some much-needed insurance.
“You’re bleeding, but it’s not the end of the world, you go back out there and do your job,” Perry said after the victory. “We found a way to get another one on power play, and that’s all that matters.”
Perry hasn’t logged heavy minutes since joining the lineup, but he’s factoring in at key times. Hiller elevated his role on the power play leading into Tuesday night, having him serve in a net-front capacity on the club’s five-forward top unit.
“It’s pretty incredible, the run that he’s on out of the gate here,” Hiller said. “He’s had some type of an impact in one way each and every night. I had him out there in the late minutes, and he’s just a heck of a hockey player. It’s nice to have him on our side.”
It would’ve been understandable for the attacker, who is playing a remarkable 21st NHL season, to have had trouble getting up to speed on a new team after missing the entirety of training camp. It’s nothing new for Perry to switch teams. He began his well-documented career in Anaheim and remained in Southern California for 14 seasons, but he moved on to Tampa Bay for two years prior to single seasons in Dallas, Montreal and Chicago before the most recent two with Edmonton. But at his age, the ability to have an immediate impact after suffering an injury that kept him off the ice for over a month, is even more impressive.
“We thought okay, well, at that age, you miss training camp, and we’ve seen it before from many players, it just takes a while to get up to speed,” Hiller said. “He got in there right away, I think I played him 15 minutes his first night, and he was impactful right away. Those are not normal hockey players, that’s something special that some of these guys have, and you can’t teach it, it’s a love and a passion for the game and a head for the game, it’s great to watch and be a part of.”
Just like with the other grizzled veterans on the roster, like Kopitar and Doughty, the passion for the game is on full display with Perry.
In discussing his season to this point at practice yesterday, the four-time All-Star said he hasn’t had any opportunity to reflect on hitting the 1,400-game milestone. He’s been more concerned about the upcoming schedule, including the shot he’ll have to get back at Florida tonight, the team that ended his season in the finals the last two years.
“Right now, it’s just another game,” said Perry of how he felt on Tuesday. “But you know, when it’s all said and done and your career is over, you look back at some accomplishments and some of the games you played in, and that’s the time it’ll all settle in.”
Perry then immediately turned his focus to tonight’s opponent.
“For a couple of us in here, they’ve had our number. It’s become a little bit of a rivalry. It’s always exciting when you get to play the champs of the previous season and see where you stack up. Obviously, we know they don’t have a couple other big guys, some attitude in their lineup, but they’re still a heck of a hockey team and you’ve got to be aware.”
While it hasn’t shown in his play, he’s been plenty effective, Perry has had to get used to a new routine for home games in Downtown LA. For someone who’s been in the game this long, there’s usually a routine they’ll try and stick to. And that’s been the same here for his latest team, with a few more obstacles as he looks to continue that consistency.
“It’s been interesting, trying to navigate the traffic to get to Crypto,” Perry said. “Trying to figure out when to leave, when not to leave, doing all that, how to get there. I’ve kind of figured it out. Still getting there a little early, but I’ll take that over getting there late. My routine hasn’t changed. I get to the rink early in the morning and do my thing and grab some lunch and head home.”
3 To Watch For –
– Jim Hiller said the highlight of the night for him in the Kings 3-0 win over Winnipeg on Tuesday was the penalty kill. Against an elite power play like the Jets, which came in at over 25% on the season, LA’s killers managed to discard all five of the visitor’s man-advantage opportunities.
“I thought our penalty kill was the best that it’s been tonight,” Hiller proclaimed after the game. “I thought we were more aggressive tonight than we had been. It looked a little bit more like it did last year.”
Before the 5-for-5 performance, the Kings had allowed 13 power play goals in 50 opportunities during their first 13 games of the 2025-26 season. Not ideal. Overall, the percentage is still not where they want it to be (76.4%), and they remain among the top five in the league in both total shorthanded situations and power play goals allowed. But it was certainly a step in the right direction.
After reviewing the tape and taking more time to dissect the performance, Hiller once again complemented his team’s effort when he spoke to the media on Wednesday and specifically singled out the way they prepared for what they thought Winnipeg would be trying to do when they got their chances. Their advanced scouting, led by assistant coaches DJ Smith and Derik Johnson, paid off.
“They looked back a little bit to us versus Winnipeg last season,” said Hiller of his assistants’ preparation. “They just realized we hadn’t been aggressive enough this year, and so I think they really encouraged the guys to just trust it, get moving, more aggressive, and they had us a couple times, we were able to break up some plays by the net, but I think we made it harder on them just generally.”
With that extra eye on last season’s results, which included a 3-0-0 record against the Jets, the four-man group on the ice was moving as a unit and anticipated Winnipeg’s next move, shutting down most of their attempts before the puck got into a danger area.
“We’ve been getting up around the top of the circles, and we’ve been slowing down or stopping. We just kept going in this game. So I think everybody was able to read a little bit better off than one another once that happens. In fact, there’s less reads, to be honest with you, because you just know whose guy is who and you’re going and then ultimately, if they execute, somebody’s got to break up the play at the net.”
Now, how can the group carry that over into Thursday night’s contest against Florida and continue trending in the right direction?
“You start feeling good about an area of your game, it’s more likely it’s going to carry over. We’ll get a scout in, but what we need to do, and I talked about before the game, just get a little get a little swagger in ourselves. So I’m hoping that that just carries over through all through PP, PK and our 5-on-5.”
– Looking at the other end of the ice, Hiller was also asked on Wednesday if he was concerned about where his team’s offense is coming from.
The coach has been on record of late saying he’s not concerned about the overall goal production, that his team will come around and move up from where they’re at now, in 22nd in the league rankings with an average of under three goals per game. But outside of three forwards, Kempe, Fiala and Perry, no other skaters have more than three goals from the first 14 games. More specifically, outside of Quinton Byfield’s two tallies, none of the other centers on the roster, Kopitar, Danault, Turcotte, have been able to find the back of the net.
While not ideal, there’s still a long road ahead this season.
“I don’t say it’s a concern,” Hiller replied. “I know those guys have had plenty of looks. You get this deep into the start of the season, and everyone wants to get the first one.”
What Hiller’s more aware of is that he doesn’t want his team getting away from their overall game because they’re worried about scoring, or having the thought that they haven’t scored yet enter the back of their mind. He wants them to play loosely and think more about the game that’s at stake.
“My bigger concern is, just relax. Don’t press, don’t look at that, and feel like we need to have that. We’ve gotten certain results. We can argue if those are good results or bad results so far in the season, and we know those guys will end up scoring more goals. If we were 2-12, it would probably be a bigger concern. I just want those guys just to play their game. They’re good players, they’re going to score goals, let’s not overthink this from the individual perspective.”
Certainly, another opportunity coming tonight for many of those skaters to get their first against a Panthers team that has allowed 13 goals over their last three contests and an average of 3.6 in their last five games.
– There’s no denying that the Panthers have achieved incredible success in the postseason over the past three years, making the finals each time and winning back-to-back Stanley Cup titles.
But that hasn’t phased the Kings, at least when the teams have played in Downtown LA. The Kings take a five-game home winning streak against Florida into tonight’s action, dating back to Feb. 20, 2020, outscoring the Panthers 16-12 combined in those contests.
“Florida has played the same way now since Paul [Maurice] got there,” Hiller said. “It’s a very very distinct game. They don’t change for anyone. It’s a very aggressive game. Obviously, it’s been a very successful game. We know them pretty well, we’ve all got a chance to watch them a lot.”
The Panthers have also been a team that Andrei Kuzmenko has enjoyed facing, as the forward has scored points in three straight contests against Florida, including a pair of game-winning goals and assists. His streak dates back to Oct. 21, 2023, when he was a member of the Vancouver Canucks.
“It’s going to be a hard, aggressive game,” Hiller added. “I know Anaheim got a few against them, but they don’t usually give you very much. They make you work for everything you’re going to get offensively and they’ll be in your face.”
Tonight’s game gets underway at 7 p.m., and while it can only be seen on ESPN+, it’ll have a familiar voice with John Kelly on the call alongside Cassie Campbell. Of course, you can also listen live to ESPN LA on 710 AM and the ESPN LA App with Josh Schaefer and Daryl Evans.
