11/21 Preview – Penalty Kill Leading The Way + Goaltending Splits, Back-To-Backs, Sturm Back in LA

TODAY’S MATCHUP: The Kings have finally returned to Los Angeles, as they conclude a back-to-back set by hosting Boston Bruins in their first home game in 15 days.

HEAD-TO-HEAD: Forward Quinton Byfield led the Kings last season with three points (1-2-3) from the two games played against the Bruins. Defenseman Brandt Clarke has played three career games against Boston and has totaled four points (1-3-4), including an overtime game-winning goal during the 2023-24 season.

KINGS VITALS: The Kings did not hold a morning skate today, coming off the 4-3 shootout loss yesterday evening in San Jose.

Goaltender Darcy Kuemper will get the start tonight against Boston, after goaltender Anton Forsberg played last night in San Jose. Kuemper has been back to his best so far this month, with a .921 save percentage and a 1.86 goals-against average thus far in November. He has a lifetime record of 3-7-1 against the Bruins, with a .897 save percentage and a 2.78 goals-against average.

No skate today to confirm, but here’s a projection for tonight, based on how the Kings lined up last night in San Jose, with the goaltending change taken into account –

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

Anderson – Dumoulin
Edmundson – Clarke
Moverare – Ceci

Kuemper
Forsberg

The Kings will make the change in net, with Kuemper starting tonight, Forsberg backing up and Pheonix Copley re-assigned to the AHL’s Ontario Reign. Should the Kings seek any additional changes, forwards Jeff Malott and Samuel Helenius would be options to check back into the lineup. Jim Hiller will speak to the media at Crypto.com Arena in advance of tonight’s game to confirm any potential changes.

BRUINS VITALS: Boston is in the midst of a three-game California swing, which they began with a 4-3 defeat in Anaheim on Wednesday evening.

Per Belle Fraser of BostonBruins.com, here’s how tonight’s opponent lined up last time out against the Ducks –

Bruins warmup lines:

Geekie-Khusnutdinov-Pastrnak
Steeves-Zacha-Blümel
Jeannot-Minten-Kastelic
Viel-Kuraly-Eyssimont

Zadorov-Aspirot
H. Lindholm-Jokiharju
Lohrei-Peeke

Korpisalo
Swayman

— Belle Fraser (@bellefraser1) November 20, 2025

Former Kings forward Viktor Arvidsson will miss tonight’s game with a lower-body injury that saw him placed on injured reserve earlier this week, though three former members of the Kings organization are expected to be in tonight’s lineup. Forward Tanner Jeannot signed a five-year contract in Boston this summer, while forward Mikey Eyssimont, a Kings draft pick, is slated to play on the fourth line and goaltender Joonas Korpisalo should be the backup goaltender to Jeremy Swayman.

Storyline Of The Day –
I remember a few years back, the Kings got tagged for four power-play goals in St. Louis early in the season. In talking with Assistant Coach Trent Yawney about it, he pointed out that one game would set the team’s PK number back for months. And he was right.

Somewhat of a similar story this season. The Kings gave up eight power-play goals in their first five games of the season, including three in one game in Minnesota. In the 17 games since, they’ve given up seven power-play goals, so one fewer. And yet, the overall number just cracked back into the 80’s last night, as the Kings moved into the top half of the NHL on the PK for the season as a whole at exactly 80 percent.

Two things I think you can point to. First things first, the number of penalties are down.

“We’ve taken a lot less penalties, I think that’s important, especially on the road, so that’s made a difference,” Head Coach Jim Hiller said. “Then, the penalty kill has been really strong the times we have taken penalties.”

In those first five games, the Kings were shorthanded an average of 4.8 times per game, the highest clip in the NHL. They’ve cut that number down significantly to 2.8 times per game since, including just 2.2 this month. Quantity matters and the Kings have been better in that department.

Looking more specifically at the present, the Kings have been shorthanded 20 times in the month of November. They’ve killed 19 of them off, a 95-percent success rate. Good quantity and good on quality.

They’re certainly turning things around in that department and perhaps the second thing you can point to is that new players are beginning to settle in and grasp the systems. The Kings lost 277 shorthanded minutes from Vladislav Gavrikov last season, third most in the NHL. It took a little bit to get up to speed, but Cody Ceci and Brian Dumoulin have been effective penalty killers, even more so now that they’ve gotten up to speed. Among the 165 defensemen with at least 10 shorthanded minutes this season, Ceci’s 2/92 goals against per/60 is tied for 13th in the NHL, while Dumoulin ranks slightly behind in 23rd.

“We had some new guys on it, trying to learn it and now we’re getting back on our toes a little bit,” Ceci said. “When you give up a couple, you fall back on your heels and then it just gets worse. We’ve just played a little more confidently on it.”

Up front, the Kings have really shuffled around their penalty killing pairs. Alex Laferriere has become a regular on the kill this season and Joel Armia was brought in as one of the NHL’s top penalty-killing forwards as a free agent and he continues to be that. How about this stat –

Per @NatStatTrick, while shorthanded, Joel Armia’s expected goals for is higher than his expected goals against this season. 54.2 percent in his favor.

364 players in the NHL have played at least 10 shorthanded minutes. He is the only one above 50 percent. Insane.

— Zach Dooley (@DooleyLAK) November 21, 2025

Armia scored shorthanded last night, his second shorthanded goal of the season. He’s actually +2 on the penalty kill this season. He is tied for the NHL lead with two shorthanded goals and he’s been on the ice for no power-play goals against thus far. His goal last night was terrific, as he stripped San Jose star Macklin Celebrini at the blueline before he made a spinning pass to himself off the wall to spring a shorthanded breakaway, which he buried with a glove-side shot.

“I just saw a chance to interrupt the play there, got a breakaway and scored,” Armia said. “Usually when you come in, skating full speed there, you don’t have many options to deke, so I just tried to shoot it.”

this is one of the slickest zone exits you’ll see. https://t.co/U6rwkm2w9x

— Zach Dooley (@DooleyLAK) November 21, 2025

There are ebbs and flows throughout a season. The Kings will have a stretch where they start to concede power-play goals and then they’ll get it back on track. Last season, the penalty kill became a strength, driven by aggressive play. As new players have settled in and the team as a whole has started to find its way, it’s getting back to that point again. And yeah, they’re staying out of the box, after taking way too many penalties early. Consider that a trending up, for sure.

3 To Watch For –
– In net, as noted earlier this week, the goaltending assignments for these two games were pre-planned.

The Kings left Darcy Kuemper back in Los Angeles as the team flew to San Jose, with Pheonix Copley joining the team as the backup goaltender. The games were always going to be split between Kuemper and Anton Forsberg, considering the back-to-back, so there was an opportunity to give Kuemper the trip off to continue to allow him to rest and manage himself.

Kuemper is the unquestioned starting goaltender but he’s 35-years-old and already missed a few games earlier this season due to injury. He missed games on two occasions last season as well. Any opportunity to help manage his body and keep him up and running should be taken, especially with a condensed schedule due to the Olympic break in February.

Sounds like there was a good conversation between Kuemper and the coaching staff to lead to that decision. If it helps to keep Kuemper fresh, got to be all for it.

– Tonight is the third back-to-back game of the season for the Kings and they enter it unblemished thus far, with a 2-0-0 record in those situations. The first was a wild, 6-5 win in Vegas and the second a less impressive, yet equally important 3-1 win in Chicago at the end of October.

The Kings have ranked inside the Top-7 in the NHL in points percentage on the second half of back-to-backs in three of the last four seasons. In 2024-25, the Kings collected an average of 1.36 points-per-game in those situations, fifth in the league.

Tonight, they at least had two days on the front end, including a full-day off after the East Coast swing. It’s something Hiller believes should help and he expects the legs to be there for the group, despite the back-to-back situation.

“I would like to think we’re a little bit better rested, because we were able to get home and have the day off. We should be fine. We’ve got a good record with the back-to-backs. Some guys played a fair amount [last night] between the overtime and the power plays, but we’ll have legs tomorrow.”

– Lastly, tonight represents Boston Head Coach Marco Sturm’s first game at Crypto.com Arena as an NHL Head Coach.

Sturm was with the Kings organization from 2018-25, first as an assistant coach with the Kings and then as the Head Coach of the AHL’s Ontario Reign. Under Sturm, Ontario was a playoff team each season and advanced to the third round of the Calder Cup Playoffs in 2024. Really great to see him get a shot at the NHL level, a guy who was good to everyone in his time here and has a lot of people pulling for him……just perhaps not tonight!

Kings and Bruins in the second half of a back-to-back set here to end the week! A rare Friday game at home. See you there!