12/2 Preview – Power-Play Changes Coming Tonight + Forward Line Adjustments, Foegele Skates, Kopitar/Ovechkin

TODAY’S MATCHUP: The Kings look to make it three straight wins on home ice, as they host the Washington Capitals tonight at Crypto.com Arena.

HEAD-TO-HEAD: Forward Anze Kopitar scored the lone Kings goal when these teams met last month in Washington, one of his team-leading five goals in the month of November. Forward Kevin Fiala had the secondary assist on Kopitar’s goal, giving him seven points (4-3-7) from seven games played against Washington as a member of the Kings organization, the most on the team in that time.

KINGS VITALS: Following yesterday’s full-team practice, the Kings held an optional morning skate this morning at Toyota Sports Performance Center.

Look for goaltender Darcy Kuemper to get the start tonight against his former club. Kuemper made 23 saves on 25 shots faced in the 2-1 defeat at Capital One Arena in November, his return to Washington. Kuemper has a 2-4-0 record lifetime, with a .921 save percentage and a 2.38 goals-against average in six career appearances against the Capitals.

Based on yesterday’s practice, here’s how the Kings are expected to line up tonight against the Capitals –

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

Anderson – Edmundson
Dumoulin – Clarke
Moverare – Ceci

Kuemper
Forsberg

The forward lines are how the Kings finished Saturday’s game against Washington, which is a change from how the started the game. Look for Trevor Moore to play alongside Anze Kopitar and Adrian Kempe, with Joel Armia moving into Kempe’s spot with Kevin Fiala and Quinton Byfield. That creates a third line of Phillip Danault at center with Alex Laferriere and Andrei Kuzmenko on the wings, while the fourth line remains as is. Should any additional changes be needed, the recently extended Samuel Helenius is an option to check in up front, the lone expected healthy scratch for tonight’s game.

CAPITALS VITALS: Washington enters tonight’s game with four victories and seven wins from its last eight games, as they begin a three-game swing to California.

Per Sammi Silber of The Hockey News, here’s how the Capitals lined up during Sunday’s 4-1 win over the New York Islanders –

Caps lineup the same, so vs. NYI:

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

Fehervary-Carlson
Chychrun-Roy
Sandin-TVR

Thompson

— Sammi Silber (@sammisilber) November 30, 2025

Defenseman Matt Roy, who played 369 games with the Kings from 2019-24, scored his first career goal against the Kings in the game in Washington. Former Kings forward Nic Dowd, who has missed six consecutive games with an upper-body injury and was placed on injured reserve last week, which rules him out tonight.

Storyline Of The Day – a new aPProach
The LA Kings have really struggled on the power play. No sugarcoating that one.

It’s probably overdue, but we’ll see some adjustments starting tonight, as the Kings move away from the five-forward alignment for this first time this season.

“We’ve talked about this for a while and more than anything, the energy had to change,” Jim Hiller said. “We kept going back to the well and it just had to change.”

Yesterday in practice, defenseman Brandt Clarke skated with the top unit, along with Andrei Kuzmenko, Adrian Kempe, Kevin Fiala and Anze Kopitar.

That left a second unit with defenseman Brian Dumoulin, alongside Corey Perry and Quinton Byfield, with two additional forwards who I am not positive on, but my bet would be on Alex Laferriere and Trevor Moore, who have featured in that spot throughout the season.

For Clarke, he had a good run early last season with the top unit but the production wasn’t there. As he really came on later in the season, the five-forward unit started to thrive and it’s not been until now that Clarke moves back to the first unit. He’ll get that opportunity tonight, which comes alongside what has been an expanded role 5-on-5. Clarke has been over 20 minutes every game since Doughty has been injured and he’ll get even more of an opportunity tonight.

“We have such talented players on that unit, even just yesterday, moving the puck around, you see the skill,” Clarke said. “It’s nice, they hit you in places where you wouldn’t imagine someone could hit you, so it’s cool. Our power play hasn’t been where we want it this season, so I’m hoping to roll with them and just kind of bounce off them, they’re great players, so I just want to be a helping hand there.”

Clarke’s puck movement even last year was very good. His ability to run the point and use his options around him has always been a strength.

What was really lacking, though, was the shot threat from the center point. Clarke’s shot last season was not particularly dangerous and as such, teams really dialed in on preventing the one-timers for Kempe, who is the top shooting threat on that unit.

While he might not have a bomb of a shot, Clarke’s shot has improved and he’s more of a threat than he was last season. He scored a one-timer goal against Ottawa last week and his shot has been a point of emphasis in terms of improvement and he believes he has made some strides in that department.

“It’s all just finding holes and movement, I think I move well laterally on the blue line,” he added. “If the forward gets there with me and if I have a little bit of a lane and we have guys at the net, ready to tip it, ready to bang in a rebound, that’s going to be my first option, I want to get it there, I want to get into the dangerous areas. I think I’ve done that well with the other unit. I obviously we want to use these guys much as possible but the coaches told me, if I can get it through, get it through.”

For the second unit, Hiller shared that in talking with Dumoulin about running that unit, he learned it’ll be his first time since 2017 in Pittsburgh that he’s gotten true power-play time. But he has some of the tools. He’s poised on the puck and has the ability to pick out a pass. He’s also defensively responsible and moves well enough to keep up in a footrace to prevent defend against shorthanded rushes the other way, as well as jailbreak plays out of the box.

Regardless, Dumoulin is excited for the opportunity to get more involved offensively. He’s collected an assist in back-to-back games and has four helpers in total over his last four games. A good chance to get involved and we’ll see him there tonight.

“It’ll probably be simple up there, just distributing, I’ve played on power play before, it’s something that I don’t feel uncomfortable with,” Dumoulin said this morning. “I’m looking forward to the opportunity, I want to help out as much as I can. I know it’s not going to be a career changer, but for me, it’s just trying to help out where I can.”

Ultimately, that spot will likely be Drew Doughty’s once he returns from injury, which the Kings hope is not that far off. Between Clarke and Doughty, those are the two defensemen the Kings see as their top power-play options, in one form or another. But I don’t think the Kings could afford to wait for Doughty to return.

Dumoulin should be willing and able in that spot and looking to see how his passing and puck moving helps to support Clarke being on the top unit, while also hopefully setting up others to keep the threat high from PP2.

“100 percent [looking to be a distributor], but [also] it’s shooting pucks if I think that presents itself, that’s important, especially with Perry in front, such a good tipper, such a good screener that we want to get pucks down there for him.”

Looking forward to seeing these changes, perhaps long awaited, in tonight’s game.

3 To Watch For –
– Forward Warren Foegele joined the group today for morning skate in a non-contact red jersey.

Jim Hiller on Foegele –

“He’s getting closer. Any time they get out there and start moving like that, you start to get a little bit more excited, but he’s still got a little ways to go.” https://t.co/fU3Fwla0Ut

— Zach Dooley (@DooleyLAK) December 2, 2025

Good sign there. First time we’ve seen Foegele since his upper-body injury last week during practice. He’s missed the last two games with a day-to-day designation. We’ve seen defenseman Drew doughty on his own and while Foegele may have been on the ice as well, I hadn’t seen him until today.

Either way, as Hiller said in the quote above, it just adds a little excitement when you see an injured player hit the ice again for the first time. Won’t be tonight for Foegele, and he’s still got a bit more to do before he returns. But good to see him out there today.

– While the Kings have struggled this season in the shootout, forward Adrian Kempe’s overtime game winner last game was his third of the season, tying him with Montreal’s Cole Caufield for the most in the NHL.

Kempe has four game-winning goals in total this season, which trails only Florida’s Sam Reinhart around the NHL.

All in all, the Kings are 5-7 in games that extend beyond 60 minutes, but 4-2 in games that end in overtime specifically. Kempe’s prowess in those situations has been the biggest reason as to why.

– Lastly, tonight’s game could be the final meeting ever between Anze Kopitar and Alex Ovechkin.

You can’t build two more different Hall Of Fame level players than Kopitar and Ovechkin. One is probably the best two-way center of his generation and the other the greatest goalscorer of his generation, if not NHL history.

Nice meetup between the two players when the teams played in Washington a couple of weeks back, with defenseman John Carlson and forward Tom Wilson also joining to meep up and share respect with Kopitar.

Legendary postgame meetup pic.twitter.com/dd1NBZX6mb

— LA Kings (@LAKings) November 18, 2025

One last dance.

Kings and Capitals, as the homestand rolls on in Los Angeles. 7 PM puck drop tonight as Kopitar and Ovechkin square off for the final time in the regular season!