11/20 Preview – New Forward Lines in San Jose + “Changes” on the PP, Clarke on Icetime in WSH, Doughty to IR

TODAY’S MATCHUP: The Kings begin a stretch of eight consecutive games in the State of California with tonight’s game in San Jose.

HEAD-TO-HEAD: Forward Corey Perry and defenseman Brandt Clarke each collected a goal and an assist in a 4-3 victory over San Jose last month, with Clarke burying the game-winning goal. Perry has 31 career goals and 59 career point against the Sharks, his most in both categories against any NHL opponent. Clarke is a point-per-game (6 points in 6 games played) in his career against San Jose, tied for his highest offensive output against any NHL opponent.

KINGS VITALS: The Kings held a full-team skate yesterday in El Segundo before flying to San Jose, choosing to hold an optional morning skate today at SAP Center.

Coming off his first shutout as a member of the Kings, goaltender Anton Forsberg will get the start tonight against the Sharks. Forsberg stopped all 18 shots he faced in his last start against Ottawa, as he improved his record to 3-2-1 on the season. Forsberg has four career appearances against San Jose, with a 1-0-1 record, a .933 save percentage and a 2.36 goals against average.

Based on the last two days, here’s tonight’s projected Kings lineup tonight in San Jose –

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

Anderson – Dumoulin
Edmundson – Clarke
Moverare – Ceci

Forsberg
Copley

The Kings have recalled goaltender Pheonix Copley to backup Forsberg tonight, with goaltender Darcy Kuemper remaining in Los Angeles to prepare for tomorrow’s start against Boston. Should the Kings deviate from the above alignment, forwards Jeff Malott and Samuel Helenius are options to check in up front. More on the lines below, which is a change from what we saw on the recent five-game trip.

SHARKS VITALS: San Jose opened a four-game homestand on Tuesday with a 3-2 overtime victory over Utah.

Per Max Miller of NHL.com, here’s how the Sharks lined up last time out against the Mammoth –

#SJSharks lines during warmup:
Kurashev-Celebrini-Smith
Eklund-Wennberg-Graf
Gaudette-Dellandrea-Toffoli
Goodrow-Ostapchuk-Reaves

Orlov-Leddy
Ferraro-Mukhamadullin
Dickinson-Desharnais

— Max Miller (@Real_Max_Miller) November 19, 2025

Forward Macklin Celebrini had a hat trick in the win over Utah as he became the third player in the NHL this season to reach 30 points. Sharks forward Alexander Wennberg had a multi-point night when these teams met earlier this season, as he collected a goal and an assist. Since he joined the Sharks organization, Wennberg has six points (2-4-6) from five games played versus the Kings, including four points in three games played at SAP Center.

Storyline Of The Day – A New Look
It’ll look a little bit different up front tonight for the LA Kings, with an improved offensive output the desired outcome.

“We’d always like to create more offense,” Head Coach Jim Hiller said. “I think that’s where the opportunity lies with our team. We’re playing pretty close to our identity, but I think not unlike last year, there’s room for us to score a little bit more. Individually, you would look at the numbers and say some of these guys are going to start breaking out sooner or later and that’ll help us.”

In search of offense against Washington on Monday, Hiller mixed and matched the lines a bit.

He turned to a line he’s often used when trying to come from behind in a game, as he moved forward Adrian Kempe to the right side with Quinton Byfield and Kevin Fiala. Hiller confirmed yesterday that line would remain intact tonight against San Jose, the first time this season they’ve started a game together.

“Maybe a shake up is good for everybody,” Kempe said. “I’m excited to play with them, they’re two great players, create a lot of offense, highly skilled. Hopefully I can bring some of my assets to them and we’ll create some offense.”

The trickle-down effect means a second line of Anze Kopitar between Trevor Moore and Andrei Kuzmenko. Kopitar has gotten things going a bit as of late and he’ll be flanked with two players who are capable of putting the puck in the net on his wing, even if it hasn’t gone their way at times this season offensively. Moore and Kuzmenko each have a 30-goal season to their name over the past three years, but they’ve each scored just three times so far this season.

For Kuzmenko, he’s making his return to the lineup after being out for three games as a healthy scratch. Hiller noted he’s had “many” conversations with Kuzmenko during his time out of action. He called the situation a “reset” for him, as did Ken Holland, coming off a stretch when he just didn’t quite have the same offensive impact as he did when he joined the team at last season’s Trade Deadline. It’s in there, though, for a very gifted offensive player who is capable of making a difference.

“Just do his thing,” Hiller said of what he’s looking for from Kuzmenko. “He was a little bit of a victim of circumstance. He wasn’t off to a great start, but it wasn’t like he was so bad we had to get him out of the lineup. Malott was going good, we thought going into Toronto, get some energy from Malott again. He just has to play. We know what Kuzy can do and he just has to play.”

For Moore, it’s a rare separation from Phillip Danault, his regular linemate. The two have typically been joined at the hip in the middle six, but Moore agreed with Kempe that things can get “a little bit stale” sometimes and it can be good to shake things up. The Foegele/Danault/Moore line was huge for the Kings last year but hasn’t found the same success so far this season, at least offensively. Maybe this helps.

“Change is good sometimes, and I’ll get a chance to go with Kopi, which is exciting,” Moore said. “It shouldn’t change [my game], I just want to play my game and let those guy do what they do, hopefully add a forechecking element, get pucks back for them and muck it up a little bit.”

The remainder of the lineup will see forward Alex Laferriere move onto a line with Danault and forward Warren Foegele and a fourth line with Joel Armia joining Alex Turcotte and Corey Perry. I like adding Laferriere, who has started to really find his game, onto Danault’s line. Laferriere is versatile and he can score with anyone. Maybe his game helps that line. The fourth line is back to what was drawn up at the start of the season. It’s a line that’s only really played one game together in Nashville but combined to score twice in just shy of seven minutes at 5-on-5 against the Predators.

With just one goal in each of the last two games as a team, line shuffling makes some sense. Adding Kuzmenko back into the lineup makes sense too. Lots to like about the ideas here and we’ll see how they shake out tonight against the Sharks.

3 To Watch For –
– On the power-play front, Holland said yesterday that Hiller and coaching staff are “looking into a few changes.”

In terms of personnel, forward Andrei Kuzmenko will move back onto the top unit, replacing Quinton Byfield with that group. That moves Byfield onto the second unit, which will also feature Trevor Moore.

Not sure on the exact configurations, but Kuzmenko going back on the top unit makes sense for his game. He’s really got to be there to be at his best and he’s a game breaker there when he’s on his game. I believe that the top unit will continue to have five forwards, so that means Brandt Clarke sticks with the second unit.

The changes don’t necessarily have to mean personnel. Could be driven through concepts as well, with a change in approach, different shot selection or desired set plays. We’ll see how that unit looks. They did score last time out against Washington, with Anze Kopitar burying off a successful rush attack, but that continues the theme of goals off the rush, but a lack of in-zone production. Kuzmenko is more of an in-zone threat and should help, if the reset opportunity helped get him back on track. See how that unit goes tonight in San Jose.

– Brandt Clarke played 22:53 against Washington last time out, a season-high in minutes, the second highest total of his NHL career.

A lot of that came down to game flow. When you look at the backend for the Kings, with Drew Doughty out, there isn’t a ton of puck movement to be found. More stay at home blueliners, more defensive-first defensemen. When protecting a lead, that’s great. When chasing a goal, the Kings will need to really rely on Clarke back there to eat minutes. At times, he paired with Adrian Kempe, who has shown the versatility to be able to move back there.

“I didn’t feel any different, I didn’t feel gassed, in the third, I think I had over 10 minutes and it didn’t feel like it dragged on me by any means, I was just in the flow of play and I was ready for my next shift,” Clarke said. “I’m a competitor. We’re down a goal, I want to be out there and help the team. I think that’s where my mindset was. Unfortunately we couldn’t pull it off, but I felt good and I was happy with my performance.”

The Kings need others to step up without Doughty and Clarke should be one of those players. His puck movement will be even more important and while Brian Dumoulin is comfortable on the right side, there should be a little bit more for Clarke to eat as well. Good signs for a younger player who has taken his game forward this season.

– Lastly, in an expected transaction, the Kings officially placed defenseman Drew Doughty on Injured Reserve this morning.

An IR designation means a mandatory seven days out of action and with Doughty on a week-to-week timeline, that won’t be an issue. Holland said yesterday he is hopeful that Doughty’s timeline is in the 2-3 week range, though nothing definitive there.

The move created flexibility for the Kings to recall Copley. The Kings had 23 players on the active roster with Doughty and with the desire to manage Kuemper’s workload, they decided to bring Copley to San Jose to spare Kuemper a flight and a morning skate. Thus, they needed a spot and the easy solution was to place Doughty on IR today. With that designation, the Kings would retain flexibility to potentially recall a defenseman if needed down the road, with Copley likely to return to the Ontario Reign tomorrow, as they host the Bakersfield Condors late that evening.

Kings and Sharks, technically the conclusion of a six-game trip, tonight at SAP Center. Puck drops at 7 before a long-awaited true return to Los Angeles!