12/15 Preview – Precarious Power Play + Kuemper as the team’s backbone, Danault/Byfield out with flu, Kopi on the dot
WHO: Los Angeles Kings (14-8-9) vs. Dallas Stars (21-7-5)
WHAT: 2025-26 Regular-Season Game 32/82
WHEN: Monday, December 15 @ 5:00 PM Pacific
WHERE: American Airlines Center – Dallas, TX
HOW TO FOLLOW: VIDEO: FanDuel Sports Network – AUDIO – ESPN LA 710, ESPN LA App & LA Kings App – TWITTER: @jaredshafran & @lakings
TODAY’S MATCHUP: The Kings begin a three-game road trip in Dallas tonight, visiting the Stars for the second time this season.
HEAD-TO-HEAD: Monday’s battle is the second of three total matchups between the Kings and Stars, with the third and final also to be played on a Monday in LA next month on January 12. Forward Adrian Kempe gave the Kings a 3-2 overtime win in the first contest on October 23 in Dallas. Last season, the Kings won two of the three meetings against the Stars, both of which came at Crypto.com Arena. Forward Warren Foegele led the team with three goals and four points in the series a year ago and has scored nine points in his career vs. Dallas (6-3=9), while Joel Armia has posted a team-high plus-5 rating in 23 games with 10 points on six goals and four assists.
KINGS VITALS: After a Sunday spent traveling, the Kings held a full team morning skate today.
That is, for those who are healthy. LA will be without forwards Quinton Byfield and Phillip Danault tonight, who per head coach Jim Hiller, are both out due to the flu. For Danault, it will be the second straight game he’s missed after he was scratched on Saturday vs. Calgary.
Darcy Kuemper was the first goaltender off the ice, indicating he’ll make his second consecutive start in net. Kuemper was excellent once again in Saturday’s overtime loss to Calgary, stopping 36 shots before surrendering an overtime winner on a 2-on-1. Against the Stars, Kuemper has a career record of 10-7-3 and a 0.911 save percentage in 20 appearances.
Without two of their top three centers, here’s how the Kings aligned during this morning’s on-ice session –
Kuzmenko – Kopitar – Kempe
Fiala – Turcotte – Moore
Foegele – Laferriere – Armia
Malott – Helenius – Perry
Anderson – Doughty
Edmundson – Clarke
Dumoulin – Ceci
Moverare
Kuemper / Forsberg
Andrei Kuzmenko is set to make his return and is expected to be back alongside Kopitar and Kempe, two linemates he’s had plenty of experience playing with. The flu bug will also elevate Alex Turcotte, who is expected to be deployed between Kevin Fiala and Trevor Moore. A big opportunity for Turc, who played over 14 minutes with Danault out on Saturday, and also saw reps with the second power play unit during the latter portion of today’s skate. Defensively, the three pairings we’ve seen recently are expected to remain intact, but should a change be necessary, Jacob Moverare is available to check back in.
STARS VITALS: Dallas has dropped back-to-back contests this week after posting a recent 11-game point streak, which spanned from Nov. 20 through Dec. 9 and propelled them up the standings into second place in both the Central Division and the entire NHL behind Colorado. The Stars fell by a 5-2 score to Minnesota on Thursday before getting blanked for the first time this season by Florida, 4-0.
Dallas held an optional morning skate today. Per Sam Nestler with DLLS Sports, here’s how the team lined up at the start of their last game on Saturday against the Panthers –
Stars warmup lines vs Florida:
Steel – Johnston – Rantanen
Robertson – Hintz – Benn
Hryckowian – Duchene – Bourque
Bäck – Faksa – Blackwell
Lindell – Heiskanen
Capobianco – Lyubushkin
Harley – Petrovic
Oettinger
DeSmith
— Sam Nestler (@samnestler) December 14, 2025
Per Brian Rea of the Stars, it’ll be Casey DeSmith in between the pipes for Dallas, and Nils Lundkvist checking in on the back end in place of Capobianco. DeSmith is 7-1-3 on the year in 11 contests with a 0.920 save percentage, but is just 1-4-0 in five career matchups vs. LA with a 0.853 save percentage and a 3.97 goals-against. The Stars are also without veteran forward Tyler Seguin, who is out long-term after suffering an ACL injury earlier this month.
A trio of All-Star attackers lead the way for Dallas up front, with Mikko Rantanen (42 points), Jason Robertson (40 points) and Wyatt Johnston (37 points) providing the bulk of the team’s offense, which ranks sixth in the league, scoring an average of 3.27 goals per game. Rantanen has 11 points (5-6=11) in his last six games against the Kings and has totaled 42 points (15-27=42) in 31 career games vs. LA which is the most among Dallas skaters, while Robertson, a California native, has 17 points (7-10=17) in 12 games against the Kings. His 1.42 points per game average is the best in the NHL among players who have played LA at least five times. 18 of the Stars 21 wins have come in regulation, which is tied for the second-most ROW in the NHL this year.
Storyline Of The Day –
As the Kings get set for Game 32 of 82 on the year, they still find themselves searching for some way to be more dangerous on the power play.
To this point, nothing they’ve tried in the first 31 games has led to any consistency. The 5-forward unit that produced very successful results after the trade deadline last season was unable to keep opponents on their heels as it had previously. Whether other teams watching and studying video changed the way they defend the attack, or if something else changed with the group, it wasn’t working, and personnel changes were needed.
First, it was Brandt Clarke who got an opportunity with the first unit, and then Drew Doughty replaced him once he returned from injury 10 days ago. And yes, the group has scored twice over that five-game span, but it’s hard to say the group has been jumpstarted as of late, either.
Hiller wasn’t too displeased with the unit in Wednesday’s overtime loss to Seattle, which included a third period man-advantage goal by Kevin Fiala to give them a lead, but went 1-for-5 overall.
“We got in the zone and we had a lot of pucks bouncing around in front of their net, so we were not perimeter,” Hiller said of their overall looks on the five chances. “You’re hoping that one of those just ends up on a stick, we’re around it, but we didn’t get that bounce. The guys executed really well on the entry and so we’ll take one, but we had a chance for more.”
Despite the lack of overall offensive production, the Kings have still found themselves in games every night because of their team defense and timely goaltending. And they’ve consistently found ways to pick up points, whether it be from wins or overtime losses, with 37 total coming from 23 of their 31 games (14 wins, nine OTL). That’s good for third place in the Pacific Division, in playoff position and certainly nothing to sneeze at.
“I mean, we’re in a good spot, really,” said captain Anze Kopitar of where the Kings sit after Saturday’s overtime loss to Calgary. “We’ve got to find a way to score more goals, obviously starting with power play. We have to figure something out, find something in order to jumpstart the offense.”
Finding a way to get even a few more man-advantage goals would make a big difference. If they’d done so over the past few weeks, maybe they wouldn’t have had so many contests go to overtime, and they’d be even higher in the standings.
While the team’s 13 power play goals aren’t the least in the league, the overall conversion rate of 13.7% ranks at the bottom among all teams.
The big question is: How can they achieve better results?
Most of the time, players will point to getting back to basics, and we’ve certainly heard that multiple times from different voices this season.
“Simplify, first, I think,” Kopitar said as a response when asked what the first step is to getting the power play back where he wants it to be. “Just getting more pucks to the net and then seeing if we can create something off of that.”
After alluding to the power play’s struggles being a pain point for the team, defenseman Brian Dumoulin suggested something else that wasn’t even a special teams tactic, saying that the group needs to find a way to have more opportunities with an extra man. That’s not entirely up to them, but penalties drawn are usually a reflection of how hard a team is working. At the very least, Dumoulin felt a key might be to find a way to have more power plays than their opponents, something which hasn’t been the case in any of LA’s past four games.
Looking at the whole season, the Kings have drawn 95 power play opportunities, which ranks 18th-most in the 32-team league, certainly not an alarmingly low number. Comparatively, they’ve been shorthanded 103 times and have allowed opponents to score on 20.4% of their chances.
As for tonight, with both Kuzmenko expected to be back on the top unit, and Turcotte joining the second grouping, Hiller said they expect the Stars to defend the lower part of the zone, so we may see the team use the point more.
“Dallas does a pretty good job down low, so we need to just try to deliver some pucks where the open area is,” Hiller said. “We know that, and then we just have to be there, screen, create some rebounds and chaos. When you’re struggling, the perfect goal generally doesn’t appear, and we’ve seen that, so we’ve just got to get greasy.”
Turcotte also mentioned that when the group practiced during morning skate, they were looking to get as many shots as possible from their quarterback.
“I think for us, being the second unit, we’ve just got to get pucks to the net and create havoc there,” Turcotte said. “I think that’s what we did in practice today, a lot of shots from Clark, that’s going to be open, so just getting it to the net. We won’t have too much time, anyway, so we’ve got to make the most of it and just create havoc and hopefully get a greasy rebound goal.”
Forward Kevin Fiala, who scored that most recent goal in Seattle, said he’s more encouraged by the way they’ve been playing of late and thinks they’ve been improving.
“I think the power play has been moving way better lately,” Fiala said after the morning skate. “We scored a goal in Seattle, and I think it’s feeling way better. The motions and stuff, it’s getting in there. The positions were back to what we had before, so I feel like everybody feels good.”
In order to find a positive outcome tonight in Dallas, the play on special teams will certainly be a priority.
3 To Watch For –
– Where would the Kings be if they didn’t have Darcy Kuemper? A question that certainly was asked last season when the Saskatoon, Saskatchewan native went 31-11-7 in 50 starts with a 0.921 save percentage and a 2.02 goals-against average to finish as a finalist for the league’s Vezina Trophy.
It’s been more of the same standout play as of late for the goaltender, who is 10-6-6 this year with a 0.916 save percentage and a 2.21 GAA in 22 appearances. Kuemper hasn’t allowed more than two goals in any of his last five starts, but has only won two of those games. All of his last six losses have been by just one goal, supporting the theory that the Kings have been in every game.
“He is our backbone. He has been since he arrived, and he’s the backbone of the team. He was last year, and he carried that on this year,” said Jim Hiller after the team’s most recent practice on Friday.
That was before Kuemper had one of his best efforts of the season against Calgary to keep his team in the game. Despite the overtime loss, LA never trailed despite getting out-shot 38-21 overall in the contest.
“He was the reason why we got the one point,” Kopitar said. “The second period, he was outstanding. I mean, he’s been outstanding all year and last year. We almost take it for granted. We’ve got to find ways to score more goals and give him some run support.”
Dumoulin echoed Kopitar’s thoughts, using the word “phenomenal” to describe Kuemper’s effort.
“On their power play and at even strength, he made a lot of big-time saves, was really good with his rebound control and gave us a chance there,” Dumoulin said.
Hiller has been asked multiple times in the last week about his goaltender’s outlook for Team Canada at the upcoming Olympics in February and although he did mention that his opinion doesn’t count, saying “they don’t ask me”, his performance has certainly put him in contention for a roster spot. Looking at more than just the numbers, watching what he has done consistently over the body of the past two seasons, he’s right up there with anyone in the league.
“It just seems pretty obvious, the way he’s played, that he has to be in serious consideration,” Hiller said of Kuemper’s chances at being selected. “Not just this year, right? Let’s take it right back. He’s been just incredible for us. Biased or not, it would be hard to say that he doesn’t deserve to be there.”
Another chance tonight for Kuemper to prove himself on the road against one of the best offenses in the game. Surely the folks who will be making decisions for Canada will be watching.
– As mentioned above, illness is once again dictating changes to the Kings forward lines. It’s been a very inconsistent grouping this season for different reasons. Obviously, sometimes there are players down with injuries, as was the case with Warren Foegele a few weeks ago, other times the alignment changes due to performance, and that has been seen with Kuzmenko as of late, who has been a healthy scratch on five separate occasions.
Jim Hiller did reveal that he and his coaching staff discussed going with 11 forwards and seven defenders, a look that they were very comfortable with last season, but said ultimately the decision was made to bring Kuzmenko back in due to their thinness down the middle and the fact that Laferriere will be moving over to play center.
That will lead to more opportunity for Turcotte, who Hiller would like to get more offense from without sacrificing his better defensive play of late.
“Just continue what he did last game,” Hiller said of what he’d like to see from the young pivot. “We didn’t have a strong offensive game against Calgary, but Turc played really well defensively. He’s on the power play tonight, so just generally an increased role for him, let’s see if that can help his confidence.”
When asked about having the chance to play alongside Fiala, Turcotte said he’s not looking to overthink things, but that he definitely understands it’s a great opportunity.
“Trying not to think about it too much, honestly,” Turcotte said. “Just go out and play, have fun, do the best I can. Obviously, it’s tough with those guys out, but just going to go out and play my game and make the most out of it. We were talking about it today a little bit, I still have to attack, you still have to play your game. You can’t just defer. I’m going to try to get him the puck as much as I can, but I still have to take it to the net if I have the chance or shoot if I have the chance.”
It’ll be the first time we’ve seen Fiala and Turcotte get a run together, and Fiala said he’s excited about playing with a player like Turcotte.
“I think it’s easy to play with him,” Fiala said of his new linemate. “He works hard, grinds, goes to get the puck, backchecks, he plays hard and he does everything. He can make plays, he sees the eyes, he can shoot the puck, you know what you get from him, and that’s great.”
– Nothing new here for you, Insiders, but wanted to highlight another stretch of excellence by Kopitar in the faceoff circle. As he has been throughout his career, the captain is grinding away at the dot and coming out with exceptional results.
Kopitar has been on the ice to take more than 20 faceoffs in six of the Kings last seven games, while playing over 19 minutes in four of those contests.
On Saturday, in a game where faceoffs were crucial for the Kings as they took a lot of them in their own zone, Kopitar won 19 of 27, a success rate of 70.4%. I asked him afterward what’s been working for him.
“I guess figure out what I’m going to do and just kind of sticking to my gameplan,” Kopitar said.
Against Seattle, it was 20 faceoff wins from a season-high 31 draws for the Slovenian. After a win in Utah last Monday night, which included 23 faceoffs, Jim Hiller confirmed he’s going to his leader for those important draws late in games.
“I kept him busy there, for sure, but he was good,” Hiller said. “He won those big faceoffs. I was leaning on him a lot, and that stick is heavy when he gets it on the dot.”
One of his longtime linemates, Adrian Kempe, also gave some more insight recently.
“He’s one of the best in the league, has been for the last 20 years, so it’s pretty nice to be out there with him, whether it’s in the d-zone or the o-zone,” Kempe said. “You pretty much expect him to win every faceoff, and he’s so good at it, so it’s a great asset to have, and for the coaches to put him out there, you’re pretty confident that he’s going to win.”
The puck drops in Dallas at 5 p.m. Pacific time later this afternoon! Tune in on FanDuel Sports West with John Kelly alongside former Kings forward Tony Granato on the call. More on Tony filling in, courtesy of Zach Dooley, here! I’ll be back tonight with the game thread and a recap after the final horn.
