10/25 Preview – Kopitar In Tonight + Doughty’s Early-Season Performance, Laferriere’s Progress, Get To Know Dumoulin

TODAY’S MATCHUP: The Kings take a 2-0 record on the roadtrip to date into Nashville for a Saturday-evening showdown against the Predators.

HEAD-TO-HEAD: Forward Adrian Kempe led the Kings with three points (1-2-3) from the 2024-25 season series against Nashville, while forward Quinton Byfield was the only King to collect multiple goals (2-0-2). Over the last four seasons, Byfield leads all Kings skated with eight points (5-3-8) versus the Predators, including his first career multi-goal game during the 2021-22 season.

KINGS VITALS: Full-team morning skate today for the Kings in Nashville, following yesterday’s team day off.

The Kings will go back-to-back this weekend, so expecting both Darcy Kuemper and Anton Forsberg to get a game. Kuemper was off first this morning and is tonight’s projected starter against the Predators. All-time, he has an 8-2-4 record versus Nashville, with a .924 save percentage and a 2.20 goals-against average.

Expecting one lineup change for tonight, with forward Anze Kopitar set to return to the lineup, centering a line with Adrian Kempe and Andrei Kuzmenko. This morning’s line rushes shown below –

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

Dumoulin – Doughty
Edmundson – Clarke
Anderson – Ceci

Kuemper
Forsberg

Kopitar will be back after missing four games with a foot injury. Forward Jeff Malott appears to be the player coming out, with forward Samuel Helenius and defenseman Jacob Moverare also appearing likely to be out tonight in Nashville. Defenseman Kyle Burroughs continues to skate in a non-contact jersey and will not play tonight.

PREDATORS VITALS: Nashville snapped a four-game losing streak on Thursday, with a 2-1 victory over the Vancouver Canucks on home ice.

Per Brooks Bratten of NashvillePredators.com , here’s how tonight’s opponent lined up against Vancouver –

#Preds lineup in warmups:

Forsberg-O’Reilly-Wood
Bunting-Haula-Stamkos
Jost-Svechkov-Evangelista
Smith-McCarron-Wiesblatt

Wilsby-Josi
Skjei-Perbix
Stastney-Barron

Saros
Annunen#VANvsNSH

— Brooks Bratten (@brooksbratten) October 23, 2025

Defenseman Roman Josi, who leads his team in assists (4) and points (5), will not play tonight due to an upper-body injury, per Bratten. Defenseman Nic Hague, who was acquired from Vegas over the summer, is a game-time decision in what would be his season debut, as he works his way back from a lower-body injury.

Storyline Of The Day – Don’t Dought Drew
Among defensive pairs with at least 50 minutes this season, there’s one common factor between the pair ranked first and the pair ranked second in terms of fewest scoring chances against, per/60.

That common factor is Drew Doughty.

The top-ranked pair in the league is Brian Dumoulin – Drew Doughty. The second ranked pair? Mikey Anderson – Drew Doughty.

Sample sizes are small, we all know that. But Doughty is really working his way back towards his top level. He’s always been a guy who values the defensive side of the puck. If you look for consistencies year over year, Doughty always ranks among the best in the NHL as it pertains to suppressing opportunities for the opposition and he’s doing it against the top players in the NHL.

“I’ve said this, about when I got here four years ago, he looks all the way back to that time, like he’s turned the clock back for himself and that’s really important,” Head Coach Jim Hiller said of Doughty. “As you get older, as we know, Father Time gets you and you’ve got to fight back. He had the summer that’s allowed him to do that.”

Here are Doughty’s five-most faced centers this season, in order – Crosby, MacKinnon, Aho, Thomas, Eichel.

In 48:01 against those five players at 5-on-5, Doughty has been on the ice for exactly two goals against and both of those goals came on the season-opening doubleheader against Colorado and Vegas. Whether he has partnered Dumoulin or Anderson, his pairing has regularly taken on those top-end matchups and thus far, he has had a lot of success in those matchups.

“It’s great, he plays hard defensively, like really hard and he’s got a great stick and he makes really good reads,” Dumoulin said of Doughty. “He’s very smart on the ice, he knows where the plays are, he knows where the threats are at different times and he’s poised with the puck too, which helps.”

Part of the success has been in terms of denying the zone off the rush. Doughty and Dumoulin are both in the NHL’s Top-10 in terms of zone denials in the early stages of this season. An important part of the game, because it’s obviously hard to establish time in the offensive zone if you don’t get there. When in the zone, Doughty has always competed defensively and values that side of the puck. That’s been a good mix with Dumoulin, who takes care of his own end first.

“It’s good, he talks well on the ice, which I love and he’s still really good at making plays and I just try to be there to support him in the neutral zone, in the d-zone too,” Dumoulin said of their pairing. “I think [as you play] more and more with a partner, you get to know them even more, but so far it’s been great.”

While Doughty’s overall offensive totals haven’t been anything staggering, he does lead the Kings with three assists from the blueline, despite not playing on PP1 this season. His +2 rating is tied for the team lead among defensemen. He’s also currently on pace for a career best in terms of on-ice high-danger chances for, which signals that while the Kings currently are playing low-event hockey with Doughty on the ice, the chances are coming. In time, typically those categories tend to roll together, at least to some extent.

Hiller added that he’d like to see Doughty’s minutes go down just a bit and that’s the plan over the course of a long season. At 24:05, Doughty ranks tied for 18th in the NHL, so he’s not where he was in his prime, but he comfortably leads the Kings. Ideally, Hiller and the coaching staff would like to balance minutes a little bit more, so that’s something to keep an eye on. Make no mistake, though, that a reduction in minutes won’t mean a reduction in role. With the Dumoulin/Doughty pairing playing well together, I’d expect them to continue to get the top matchups against and if the level of play remains, Doughty is giving the Kings a good chance to win those matchups going forward.

3 To Watch For –
– The captain is back!

Expecting forward Anze Kopitar to play tonight in Nashville after he missed the last four games with a foot injury. Kopitar has been out now for close to two weeks but after practicing a few times coming in, he took the morning skate today with his regular linemates, between Adrian Kempe and Andrei Kuzmenko, and skated with the first power-play unit.

Good signs to see 11 back.

With Kopitar in the lineup, tonight will be the first game the Kings have everyone available to them at the same time. After Corey Perry came back, now Kopitar, the Kings have their opening-night lineup up front as it was intended to be used. We’ll see that in action tonight in Nashville.

– He won’t be at center tonight, but it was a good night in the faceoff circle for Alex Laferriere in Dallas.

I thought that Laferriere has adjusted well to playing center overall, but the faceoffs were a real struggle for him coming into the Dallas game. Against the Stars, though, Laferriere won eight of his nine faceoffs, including two in the defensive zone and one on the penalty kill.

The task he was facing is a big one, but I think it was the best usage of the available personnel. I think Laferriere really has a knack for the position during the flow of play. He looks comfortable through the middle of the ice and said that he’s always felt comfortable down low in the defensive zone. Faceoffs, though, he’s going against guys who have honed that craft for years. He’s been doing it for months. That’s a huge challenge, so credit to him for a big night.

I’m not sure if his long-term position with the Kings is at center or on the wing. With Kopitar now back, Laferriere is back on the wing with Byfield and Fiala. But looking a bit further ahead, while the Kings have Quinton Byfield for the long haul and Phillip Danault has a season left on his contract, there isn’t a ready-made replacement at that position internally right now. It’s always easier to find wingers than centers.

I don’t know. The Kings found out two years ago how tough it can be to find that center. There’s a reason the Kings invested so much into acquiring Pierre-Luc Dubois and there’s also a reason he’s playing in Washington now, after he was acquired to be that guy. Not sure if Laferriere is the answer or not, but I think there could be something there when the time comes.

– Lastly, let’s go off script a bit here, while Dumoulin is being talked about a bit.

Fun human-interest story from Deborah Lew of LAKings.com on Dumoulin and his interests off the ice. Dumoulin is an avid cooker who enjoys a nice paella. A nice read on Dumoulin, who is starting to adjust to his place on the Kings.

Kings and Predators to kick off a back-to-back. Hump game of the trip as the Kings look to make it three for three thus far.