As the Kings begin another short two-game road trip this week, they do so sitting atop the Pacific Division. Entering play in Calgary on Monday, LA holds a one-point lead over Vegas. However, with two more games played, it’s more important to look at the points percentage (P%), where coach Jim Hiller’s club is a tick or two behind the Golden Knights. Even so, holding a .656 P% — good enough for eighth best in the entire league — should have everybody feeling fairly optimistic after 16 games.
Every season has its ups and downs, and that fact has certainly come to fruition just a month into the 2024-25 campaign. As discussed on this week’s Kings Of The Podcast episode, it almost feels as though the season has been going on for far longer than it actually has. Up until about 10 days ago, nobody really knew which Kings team would show up any given night. Inconsistency was the only constant in the early going.
However, after earning points in seven of their last nine games played — including six wins during that stretch — Hiller is starting to see some of the wrinkles being ironed out. This includes a strong penalty kill, winning more faceoffs, and a group that’s been rather resilient with almost nightly tweaks to the lineup. Those changes haven’t always been ones preferred by the coaching staff, but often necessitated by injuries and then compound by a Tanner Jeannot suspension handed down last Friday.
Add in Alex Turcotte being placed on injured reserve for at least one more game and the Kings only have 12 healthy forwards at the moment. On one hand, that makes the lineup projection a little easier to gauge. Yet, Hiller still hasn’t found a true left wing to play on his top line — instead, rotating in a cast that’s included Andre Lee, Akil Thomas, and Kevin Fiala among others.
Sammy Helenius did travel to Canada with the club and is expected to make his second straight start on the fourth line. Andre Lee will most likely be on his left side once again. Will it be Thomas rounding out the line or Trevor Lewis — who was temporarily bumped up to play with Anze Kopitar and Adrian Kempe on Saturday.
We’re expecting Darcy Kuemper to return between the pipes after getting a night off against Columbus. The real questions will most likely come on defense, where Hiller has consistently rotated in Kyle Burroughs, Andreas Englund, and Caleb Jones to keep each guy fresh. The other five blueline spots are pretty much locked in, which leaves that trio cycling through just one opening. Englund appears to be the more consistent of the three thus far; albeit in a very small sample size.
Regardless of how the rearguards are configured, LA continues to collectively shut other teams down, especially during 5-on-5 play:
5v5 Team Defence – November 10 pic.twitter.com/zQJjgBFG2R
— JFresh (@JFreshHockey) November 10, 2024
As for the Flames, LA will be taking on a Calgary team that started off hot in the early going but has fallen back to earth of late. The Flames are 3-5-2 over their last 10 games and have dropped out of the top three spots in the division.
Hiller Time: From the moment he arrived in Los Angeles as an assistant coach in 2022, he has openly talked about his love for the Kings organization. After all, the club selected him in the 10th round at the 1989 NHL Draft. After finishing his collegiate career at Northern Michigan University, he officially joined the Kings in 1992 — playing on a line with Jari Kurri and Luc Robitaille. His NHL debut came on Oct. 6, 1992 vs. the Flames at Calgary’s Saddledome — the same building where the two clubs will square off tonight. We dove into the story a little further here:
Hiller Returns to the Scene of the Crime (So to Speak) in Calgary
Statistically Speaking
— Los Angeles leads the NHL in goals among defensemen with 11. With 38 points by Kings defensemen already racked up this season, they’re tied for second in the league, only trailing Winnipeg and Colorado.
— Nobody will probably welcome the soon-to-be-built new Flames arena more than the Kings. Historically, they have found little success in Calgary, holding a 41-72-12-5 record all-time heading into play there tonight.
— Kuemper has a career .951 SV% along with a 1.72 GAA against Calgary, the best in NHL history amongst goaltenders with at least ten starts vs. the Flames.
— With his shorthanded goal in Saturday’s victory, forward Trevor Moore now has the seventh most shorthanded goals in Kings history (11)
— Finally, we have a fun stat to track this season. Our MM graphics team had an almost uncanny ability to randomly select a player for our daily lineup article last year, and then said player would seem to score a goal. Thus far in 2024-25, the Kings have played 16 games, and the player featured has scored eight times, for a 50% conversion rate. A goal from Andre Lee tonight would push it up to 53%.
Kings Projected Lineup vs. Flames
Per morning skate notes, the alignment will remain the same from Saturday. If there are any key changes during pregame warmups, this article will be updated.
Lewis – Kopitar – Kempe
Moore – Danault – Fiala
Foegele – Byfield – Laferriere
Lee – Helenius – Thomas
Anderson – Gavrikov
Edmundson – Clarke
Englund – Spence
Kuemper (starter)
Rittich
Likely scratches: (F) Jeannot (D) Burroughs, Englund
Injured Reserve: Turcotte
Key Game Info
Puck drop is set for 5:30 pm Pacific and will be televised locally by FanDuel Sports. Additionally, a Kings radio feed is available on the ESPN LA app (which is the new home for Kings radio this season, they’ve moved off of the iHeart platform).
Across the Ice
Calgary is coming off a 3-2 loss to Buffalo on Saturday. Here’s how they lined up for that contest:
Zary – Kadri – Sharangovich
Huberdeau – Pospisil – Kuzmenko
Coleman – Backlund – Coronato
Lomberg – Rooney – Kirkland
Weegar – Miromanov
Bahl – Andersson
Bean – Pachal
Dustin Wolf starting tonight vs. Los Angeles. #Flames
— Pat Steinberg (@Fan960Steinberg) November 11, 2024
On This Day in Kings History
On November 11, 1989, Larry Robinson played against his former team, the Montreal Canadiens, for the first time in his career. Luc Robitaille scored two goals, Wayne Gretzky had three assists, and Mario Gosselin made 25 saves in a 5-4 win for the @LAKings.#LAKings #GoKingsGo pic.twitter.com/Vy6k1fTgrI
— The Kingstorian (@Kingstorian) November 11, 2024
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