11/11 Preview – The Start Of Something, x2 + Kuzmenko Back on PP1, Hiller on Doughty, Montreal Contingent

TODAY’S MATCHUP: Coming off the 3-2 victory over Pittsburgh on Sunday, the Kings continue on their roadtrip tonight in Montreal, the first of three straight games against Canadian opposition.

HEAD-TO-HEAD: Montreal has been a friendly home to forward Adrian Kempe, who has five goals and eight points in seven career games played at Bell Centre. Three of those goals were game-winning goals and since the 2017-18 season, no player in the NHL has scored more GWG’s than Kempe in this building. Additionally, forward Quinton Byfield has four points (2-2-4) over his first two career games played in Montreal. Since he entered the league, Byfield has eight points (2-6-8) from five career games played against the Canadiens, along with a +7 rating.

KINGS VITALS: The Kings held a full-team morning skate today, after an off-ice workout yesterday in Montreal.

Coming off another strong performance, look for goaltender Darcy Kuemper to get the nod between the pipes in this evening’s game at Bell Centre. In 12 career appearances against Montreal, Kuemper has a 6-3-1 record, with a .897 save percentage and a 2.68 goals-against average.

The Kings made a few in-game adjustments in Pittsburgh, but reverted back to the original alignment during today’s morning skate in Montreal, shown below –

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

Anderson – Doughty
Edmundson – Clarke
Dumoulin – Ceci

Kuemper / Forsberg

The Kings shuffled their lines around mid-game in Pittsburgh, with forward Warren Foegele moving up alongside Anze Kopitar and Adrian Kempe and forward Corey Perry moving to a line with Trevor Moore and Phillip Danault. However, the rushes this morning indicated no changes from how the Kings started that game, with the same set of 12 forwards aligned today as they were to begin the game in Pittsburgh.

CANADIENS VITALS: Montreal is currently on a four-game homestand, which began with a 6-2 victory over Utah on Saturday.

Per Stu Cowan of the Montreal Gazette, here’s how the Canadiens lined up last time out against the Mammoth –

Lineups for #Habs vs. Utah Mammoth pic.twitter.com/lkl8YgLbGW

— Stu Cowan (@StuCowan1) November 9, 2025

Montreal forward Cole Caufield ranks second in the NHL with 12 goals scored so far this season, behind only Colorado’s Nathan MacKinnon. Caufield was the only Montreal player with multiple points against the Kings last season, as he collected two assists from the two head-to-head matchups.

Storyline Of The Day – Start Of Something?
Darcy Kuemper phrased it interestingly after the win over Pittsburgh.

He said that a trip-opening win like the Kings got over Pittsburgh can allow a team to play freely on the trip. A loss perhaps goes the other way, but in securing the two points, it opens things up a bit.

“If you go on the road and lose the first one, you can kind of get behind yourself and force things, you feel like you’re not going to win the rest of the roadtrip,” forward Alex Laferriere said, agreeing with Kuemper. “If you win that first one, you kind of bring that motivation to the next one, that this could be a really good trip for us, be a building block in our season for us.”

The Kings are a team that could afford to play a bit more freely on the whole. With the up and down start, it’s been hard to find any kind of footing early in the season. The one time it felt like they were able to was the five-game trip in October, as they won four of five games, with a couple of more consistent showings. This trip is even more important, as the inconsistent results returned when the games moved back to Los Angeles.

Winning Game 1 was a very good start in that area.

“After the last trip we had, we definitely want to have the same experience on this roadtrip,” defenseman Joel Edmundson added. “To get that first one, even bigger it’s against a good team, so it gives us some confidence coming into Montreal tonight, against another good team.”

For the Kings, it needs to start with, well, the start. The third period on Sunday was excellent, one of the more impressive efforts of the season to find a way back to get the two points. But you also have to think about why it was needed.

Against Montreal, a wishy-washy opening 40 minutes will likely not have the Kings in a position to comeback. They have to deliver that same, third-period showing right off the opening puck drop tonight against the Canadiens.

“You have to start the game like that, so let’s take the winning feeling, the positive momentum from the third where we played a little bit more how we want to play, and bring it into [tonight], which we’re not going have a chance to ease our way into it,” Hiller said. “They’re a high-powered team and you’ve got to be able to get going right from the drop of the puck.”

Easy to say it, harder to do it. Has been for the Kings, at least.

They’ve scored just 11 goals in the first period this season, the fewest of any period, and the ninth fewest in the first period around the NHL. They’re tied for seventh in the NHL in goals scored on the road, though, which provides a boost. They’re trying to replicate last trip’s success and got a good boost from Sunday’s win against the Penguins.

3 To Watch For –
– On forward Andrei Kuzmenko, he played a season-low 7:50 against Pittsburgh.

At today’s morning skate, Kuzmenko was back on the top power-play unit, with Quinton Byfield moving to the second group.

“He’s back on what we call the number-one power play unit, we feel that’s his greatest strength, that gets him going in his overall game,” Jim Hiller said this morning. “We’ll try to get him some more touches there and see if that can translate.”

For Kuzmenko, he spoke a lot last season about the belief shown in him by Hiller and the coaching staff, in not moving him down in the lineup when he wasn’t scoring. Hiller said that he and Kuzmenko have had a number of conversations, so this isn’t just blindsiding him without communication. He admitted it’s hard to manage those things and to have those conversations, but sometimes they’re necessary. The PP minutes should help him get more involved in the game and hopefully translate to even strength as well.

“We were in a different situation in our season, here, we’ve talked about it, we’re still trying to find our way a little bit, get our footing,” Hiller added. “You try to be as patient as you can with certain players in certain spots, but until we really get going, driving and sort it out, some decisions have to be made, but I’ve talked to him a lot about it.”

– Lot of talk about Kevin Fiala, Darcy Kuemper and Corey Perry after the Pittsburgh game. And rightfully so. But I asked Jim Hiller if he could pinpoint anyone under the radar who played well against the Penguins and he highlighted defenseman Drew Doughty.

“If I had to say one guy, I would say Drew. I thought he was really competitive, especially in the third period, locking down that lead, that’s the moments he likes to be out there and thrive and I thought he did a really good job of that.”

Doughty collected the primary assist on Fiala’s game-winning goal, good pass up the right wing. Doughty played 8:17 in the third period, including a near two-minute shift late in the game to help seal the deal. A strong third period helped to make up for being on the ice for one in the first period.

– Lastly, it’s a Montreal reunion up in here.

Joel Armia, Phillip Danault, Joel Edmundson and Corey Perry were all a part of the Canadiens squad that reached the Stanley Cup Final in 2021. Armia was the longest-tenured member of that group, having played in Montreal from 2018-25, while Danault played here from 2016-21, when he signed with Los Angeles as a free agent. Edmundson spent three seasons with the Canadiens, while Perry was there only for the 2020-21 campaign.

“It’s cool, especially because the team that all four of us were on went to the Final, so it was a pretty special year for us,” Edmundson said of coming back. “Unfortunately it was COVID, so we couldn’t sell this place out, or enjoy Montreal, but we had a great time together. We always love coming back here. I got to catch up with some old teammates yesterday and I think some of the guys did too.”

Rare you see such a large contingent return like this, but lots of reunions, some bigger than others, in tonight’s game.

With tonight being Armia’s first game back in Montreal, I’d expect a nice ovation and recognition at some point during the game to celebrate Armia’s tenure here as a well-liked player. Should be a nice moment for him.

Kings and Habs. Second of five on the East Coast here as the Kings look to keep things rolling away from home!