10/26 Preview – Frustrating Loss, Quick Turnaround + A…..Unique Start, Kopitar’s Return, B2B Prowess

TODAY’S MATCHUP: Quick turnaround for the Kings, who are in Chicago to complete their second back-to-back of the season tonight against the Blackhawks.

HEAD-TO-HEAD: Forward Alex Turcotte, an Illinois native, led the Kings scoring during the 2024-25 season series against Chicago with three points (1-2-3) from three games played, with all three coming at even strength. Since joining the Kings in 2021, forward Phillip Danault has tallied 14 points (7-7-14) from 12 games played against Chicago, the club that drafted him in the first round of the 2011 NHL Draft.

KINGS VITALS: Coming off the game last night in Nashville, the Kings did not hold a morning skate in advance of tonight’s game in Chicago.

After goaltender Darcy Kuemper got the nod yesterday in Nashville, expect to see goaltender Anton Forsberg between the pipes tonight against the Blackhawks. Forsberg has a 1-1-1 record in his early career with the Kings. During his most recent start against Chicago, playing with Ottawa, Forsberg posted a 19-save shutout, his first career shutout win over the Blackhawks.

Naturally not certain, without a morning skate, but as of now, expecting the same lineup for the Kings as we saw yesterday in Nashville, embedded below for reference –

Tonight’s @LAKings Line Rushes –

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

Dumoulin – Doughty
Edmundson – Clarke
Anderson – Ceci

Kuemper
Forsberg

— Zach Dooley (@DooleyLAK) October 25, 2025

Should the Kings opt to make any changes, forwards Jeff Malott and Samuel Helenius are options to check in for the Kings, along with defenseman Jacob Moverare.

BLACKHAWKS VITALS: Chicago enters tonight’s action with points in five straight games, extended with a 3-2 victory in Tampa Bay on Thursday evening.

Per Ben Pope of the Chicago Sun Times, here’s how the Blackhawks lined up during practice yesterday afternoon –

Blackhawks lines in practice:

Mikheyev-Bedard-Burakovsky
Teravainen-Nazar-Donato
Dach-Greene-Dickinson
Slaggert-Foligno-Lafferty

Vlasic-Rinzel
Kaiser-Crevier/Levshunov
Grzelcyk-Murphy

Bertuzzi isn’t practicing today

— Ben Pope (@BenPopeCST) October 25, 2025

Despite being one of the NHL’s youngest teams, Chicago has been one of the league’s stingiest defensively in the early goings, allowing 2.38 goals per game, tied for the fourth-best clip in the NHL. A big part in the early-season defensive success has been goaltender Spencer Knight, who ranks third in the league among qualifying goaltenders with a .937 save percentage, though goaltender Arvid Soderblom is expected to get the start tonight for the hosts, his third appearance of the season. Forward Tyler Bertuzzi is day-to-day and did not morning skate today, per Pope,

Storyline Of The Day – One They Should’ve Won
Last night’s theme was simple – missed opportunities.

The Kings had more than enough last night to win that game in regulation. It should have been the first regulation win of the season. But it wasn’t.

If you look at the numbers, the Kings set season highs in just about every 5-on-5 category. Shot attempts, shots on goal, scoring chances and high-danger chances were all either season highs or tied for a season high. In the second and third periods, here’s the breakdown at all strengths.

Shot Attempts: 51-13 Kings
Shots on Goal: 26-6 Kings
Scoring Chances: 27-8 Kings
High-Danger Chances: 14-6 Kings

And yet, those two periods saw each team score three goals, forcing a game that should have been locked down in regulation into overtime.

“If you look at the whole 65 minutes, I think we were the better team, we possessed the puck more, played the way we wanted to play, but that’s the way it goes, you just can’t break down,” defenseman Brandt Clarke said of the performance. “You have to play a full 60 minutes and even one shift off can be costly. We all had moments like that and we want to come back [in Chicago] and fix it.”

The theme for a lot of this season has been moments but last night was not about the moments. It was simple breakdowns. Nashville scored a 2-on-0 goal through a complete lapse in neutral-zone coverage. Brian Dumoulin jumped up to try and create an offensive opportunity, which was fine with four players back, but there was no coverage in his place. The Kings poorly defended an innocent enough attack late in the second period that led to a partial breakaway goal for Cole Smith, with a few culprits there. Defenseman Cody Ceci lost a netfront battle to Ryan O’Reilly to give up another, which followed Alex Turcotte’s neutral-zone turnover, while forward Quinton Byfield lost one in the corner in the third period on the game-tying goal. Outside of those chances, the Kings gave up very little in total, especially in the second and third periods. The ones they did, though, were breakdowns they couldn’t afford, resulting in avoidable goals against.

It took a game that the Kings, by just about every other standard, played very well in and turned it into a defeat. Probably the most frustrating loss so far this season as a result because it was winnable.

One part in that? The Groundhog’s Day on special teams last night.

“When you look at the game, the penalty kill has been struggling, but power play’s been going good but [in Nashville], our penalty kill does its job, and the power play couldn’t get it done,” Hiller said.

The Kings came into last night’s game very productive on the power play, just shy of 30 percent coming in, but in the closing minutes of the game, the Kings had two power-play opportunities to find the game-winning goal, including 37 seconds that carried over into overtime, yet they came up empty. Should’ve won the game right there and they didn’t.

The penalty kill, meanwhile, did its thing pretty comfortably against against a Nashville power play that has been very slow to start the season. The biggest kill of the night was in overtime, in a 4-on-3 situation, which extended the game and gave the Kings a chance in the shootout. While the Predators have struggled, a four-man unit of Stamkos, Forsberg, Marchessault and O’Reilly is pretty dangerous. Kings shut things down there.

The Kings didn’t lose the special teams battle last night but it felt like they did. Special teams was one of several of those opportunities they had to close out a very winnable game in regulation. Not the only factor. But a clear missed opportunity late to get the job done, one of many they will rue about a night that feels like a point lost, not a point gained.

3 To Watch For –
– The inability to close out last night’s game sent the Kings into overtime for the sixth time in nine games.

For reference, in the 2024 portion of last season’s schedule, the Kings went to overtime six times. Six times in three months versus six times in nine games. How rare is that? Well, very.

The LA Kings are the first team in NHL history to have 9 points in their first 9 games but have 0 regulation wins@DooleyLAK @mayorNHL

— Blake Warye (@bwaryeofblake) October 26, 2025

Kinda nuts. The Kings are collecting points, staying in the hunt. The other two teams in the league without a regulation win are Calgary and San Jose, who are a combined 2-12-3. But the Kings are not making it easy by any stretch. Entering Game 10 without a regulation win isn’t according to any plan.

– Thought Anze Kopitar moved really, really well last night.

Could see the jump in his legs very early in the game and I didn’t think he faded at all as the game went along. Very positive on that front in his first game back from a foot injury that cost him the team’s past four games.

“He definitely filled a hole for us, there’s no question,” Hiller said of Kopitar’s return. “Having him just around the team, in the locker room, but also on the ice, the faceoffs, the 3-on-4 kill at the end was a large part due to him. He’s our leader and he’s basically the beacon, I think, for all of our players. So, you always want to have him in.”

Kopitar didn’t collect a point, his first game this season without one, but he certainly was around it. His shot on goal broke Juuse Saros’ stick seconds before Adrian Kempe’s game-opening goal, which was scored while he was still without a stick. A practical assist, if you will. Kopitar was back on PP1 and probably had the best two chances the Kings had there all night from Grade-A locations. Just couldn’t get it to go.

Overall, though, you first look for the skating coming off a foot injury. I thought on that front, Kopitar really excelled and his line looked very comfortable with him back on it.

Something we’ll continue to monitor, as he goes back-to-back tonight and manages things going forward. But a positive reintegration, for sure.

– Second back-to-back of the season tonight for the Kings, with the first a 6-5 win over Vegas back in Game 2.

With the 2023-24 season being an outlier, the Kings have ranked inside the NHL’s Top-7 in terms of points-per-game on the second half of a back-to-back set in 2021-22, 2022-23 and 2024-25. Last season, the Kings collected an average of 1.36 points-per-game in those situations, the fifth-best mark in the NHL. The Kings will play 16 back-to-backs this year, two up from last year’s total, the most they’ve had since the 2021-22 campaign, which was also a schedule based around Olympic participation. More condensed, more back-to-backs.

Getting results in those games, as the Kings have done a good job of in recent years, could be a big factor when all is said and done.

Kings and Blackhawks, a 4 PM Pacific puck drop from Chicago as the trip rolls on. Quick turn, watch the legs, but Kings should be motivated after letting last night’s game slip away.