11/17 Preview – Kempe on New Deal + Doughty out “week-to-week”, Moverare in, D-Pairs Adjusted

TODAY’S MATCHUP: With a perfect trip on the line, the Kings visit Washington, DC for their final game on the East Coast tonight against the Capitals.

HEAD-TO-HEAD: Forward Kevin Fiala led the Kings last season with three points (2-1-3) from two games against Washington. Since he joined the Kings in 2022, Fiala leads the way in goals (4) and points (6) from six games played against the Capitals, with three of the four goals coming at Capital One Arena.

KINGS VITALS: Coming off a day off on Sunday, the Kings held a full-team morning skate today in Washington, in advance of tonight’s game.

Look for goaltender Darcy Kuemper to get the start tonight on the trip finale, playing against his former team this evening in Washington. Kuemper spent the 2022-23 and 2023-24 seasons as a member of the Capitals organization and has a lifetime record of 2-3-0 against Washington, with a .922 save percentage and a 2.44 goals-against average.

Here’s how the Kings lined up during today’s morning skate –

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

Anderson – Dumoulin
Edmundson – Clarke
Moverare – Ceci

Kuemper / Forsberg

Defenseman Drew Doughty suffered a lower-body injury in Saturday’s win over Ottawa and will not play tonight against the Capitals. Look for defenseman Jacob Moverare to play his second game of the season tonight, with the defensive pairs swapped to accommodate for having four, left-shot defensemen. Brian Dumoulin is expected to shift to the right side with Mikey Anderson, while Moverare slots in with Cody Ceci. More on those adjustments below.

CAPITALS VITALS: Washington has lost eight of its last ten games, including a 3-2 shootout defeat on Saturday against the New Jersey Devils.

Per Sammi Silber of The Hockey News, here’s how the Capitals aligned during their last game out against New Jersey –

Capitals lines vs. Devils:

Ovechkin-Strome-McMichael
Protas-Sourdif-Wilson
Beauvillier-Lapierre-Leonard
Duhaime-Dowd-Frank

Fehervary-TVR
Chychrun-Roy
Sandin-Chisholm

Thompson

— Sammi Silber (@sammisilber) November 15, 2025

Former Kings defenseman Matt Roy will play his third career game against the organization that drafted him. Roy has two assists from 18 games played this season and leads all Capitals defensemen with a +8 rating. Forward Pierre-Luc Dubois will not play for Washington, as he is currently out 3-4 months after he had surgery earlier this month.

Storyline Of The Day – Do It Without Drew
The Kings will be without defenseman Drew Doughty tonight in Washington.

Doughty blocked a shot on the inside of his left foot in the 1-0 victory over Ottawa on Saturday and did not return to the game. There was obviously initial concern that the left ankle was where Doughty suffered the long-term injury last season, which resulted in him missing a large portion of last season and not looking like himself when he did come back, but his injury here is not related to his ankle, which is good news in itself.

Doughty is ruled out on a week-to-week basis as of this morning. He’ll fly back with the Kings tonight and things will be reassessed, but that’s the current status update. The Kings are off tomorrow and Wednesday, before back-to-back games against San Jose and Boston on Thursday and Friday. So, we’ll see where things stand before those games in California.

For tonight, that means defenseman Jacob Moverare will play in Washington.

Moverare certainly won’t be 1-for-1 for Doughty, that’ll take a committee approach. He made his season debut a couple weeks ago as the Kings went with an 11/7 alignment, but he only played around three minutes in the game. He hasn’t played at all this season beyond that, so there’s some concern around sharpness, but the Kings likely can’t get away with playing him only three minutes tonight. He’ll be one of six, not one of seven, so he’ll have to play a regular shift.

Despite the lack of games, there should be some confidence in Moverare. He’s a steady player, defensively responsible and plays within himself. That’s the message. Just go out and be Jacob Moverare and the rest takes care of itself.

“We probably won’t play him 17 minutes, but we know what he can do, we’re comfortable with him in there,” Hiller said of Moverare. “There’s nobody better than him [attitude wise] that’s what he always has. He’s always bounced back from whatever time he’s been out, he’s in shape, he’s a good guy, the players enjoy being around him. When you put him in, he can do the job.”

For his part, Moverare is approaching things the way he approaches his game – simply.

Moverare is not a flashy player, nor is he a player who tries to do too much. He’s known for his reliability, positioning and hockey sense in the defensive zone and he’s capable of outletting the puck from his own end as well when he has time to make a play. He knows his game and despite feeling perhaps a bit rusty, Moverare feels confident in being able to contribute when he steps in tonight and he’s excited to get an opportunity.

“I feel really bad for Dewey, he was playing really good hockey when he went down, so I feel back but I’m really excited to get the chance to play again,” Moverare said this morning. “I’ve been working hard here when I haven’t been playing, so I just have to trust that and do my best.”

His approach thus far has been to try and treat practices like games. It’s really all he’s been able to do, is make the most of each repetition, each drill and to stay on for extra work on different areas of his game that keep him as ready to play as he can.

This isn’t completely new, Moverare has sat out before, but this is Game 20 and he’s only dressed one time. I’d have thought that perhaps a conditioning loan might have been an option when the Kings got back to Los Angeles, just to get him into some games with the AHL’s Ontario Reign. Now, he’ll be called into action at a higher level. He’s got the right mindset and he’s going to do his best to help the team get the job done in Washington.

“We haven’t had a ton of practices, it’s been more morning skates, so every time I practice, I try to go extra hard,” he added. “After morning skates, when we’ve been doing bag [skates], I just try to work hard there, because I knew eventually I’d get to play, so it’ll get me in good shape for when it happens.”

When it happens is tonight and it’ll be a big test for the Kings to find a way without Doughty. It’ll be a good opportunity for Moverare to show his worth. Two of the biggest storylines to watch out for tonight in DC.

3 To Watch For –
– While Moverare is the player checking in, Doughty being out also leads to some shuffling of the pairs. The main difference here is that the Kings lose the ability to go lefty/righty on all three pairs.

If this morning is an indication, it looks as if the Kings will move defenseman Brian Dumoulin to the right side with Mikey Anderson. That then leaves the Edmundson/Clarke pairing together, one that the Kings have really been happy with, and then a third pair with Moverare alongside Cody Ceci.

“I talked with [Dumoulin] at the beginning of the season, we knew this coming in, he’s played left and right, he’s played all over and he’s comfortable in both spots, so it shouldn’t be a difficult transition for him at all,” Hiller said this morning.

This approach kind of loads up the Top-4, while providing a steady third pairing with Moverare and Ceci, one without a ton of expectation of offensive production. That should allow Moverare to just focus on what he does well, which is defending. I’m interested to see how the minutes shake out. The Kings will likely need more from a few guys. Wouldn’t be surprised to see Anderson leaned upon heavily and they’ll need tougher minutes from Clarke as well.

– Not sure if you classify this as a five-game trip or a six-game trip, but if you go with the former, seeing as the Kings return home in between tonight’s game in Washington and Thursday’s game in San Jose, then they have the opportunity to do something they’ve only done twice in franchise history.

The Kings have posted a 5-0-0 roadtrip in the 1990-91 and 2010-11 seasons thus far in franchise history and could match that mark with a win tonight over Washington. They’re also currently on a ten-game point streak on the road, the sixth time in franchise history they’ve had a run into the double digits.

In order to do so, they’ll have to find success in a building that has proven difficult over the years. The Kings have lost three straight games at Capital One Arena, thought all three have been one-goal games. A big task ahead, as the Kings look to put the finishing touches on what has been one of the best five-game swings on the East Coast in franchise history.

– Lastly……you didn’t think we’d go the entire story without talking about Adrian Kempe, right?

Here’s his interview from this morning, will drop this into a story tomorrow morning!

Kings and Capitals, tonight at 4 PM Pacific time, 7 PM local. Big opportunity ahead before a much-awaited return home.