Coming off an ugly opening-night loss, Los Angeles will look to enter the win column Saturday night, as they visit the Shark Tank for a showdown with San Jose — featuring Macklin Celebrini and a potent batch of future Sharks stars.
One thing is for sure, though, head coach Peter Laviolette brings a different system to this Kings organization. With a shortened training camp and several new faces in the LA lineup, it’s reasonable to expect an adjustment period. However, the key is to make that span as short as possible. Playing aggressively and getting defensemen involved in the offensive zone will potentially lead to more goals — and goals against — for this club. At the same time, allowing eight goals as they did on Wednesday is a recipe for disaster.
It was what it was. The page was turned; that’s old news.
Thursday brought another day of practice, where Corey Perry and Erik Gustafsson both spent quite a bit of time being integrated into the power-play drills.
“Everybody's available, so there's a chance that they could play tomorrow” -Laviolette on whether Corey Perry and Erik Gustafsson will play tomorrow, based on having practiced with the PP2 unit
— Alexander Legget (@LeggetNHL) October 2, 2026
We’ll have to see what that means for tonight’s lineup. We’re expecting Perry in, with a better than 50% chance Gustafsson makes his Kings debut, as well.
Part of the reason for either or both to draw in ties to the team’s current focus on special teams. LA was in the bottom five in both power-play and penalty kill a season ago. Obviously, there is a necessary desire to improve in both areas. Last time out, the penalty kill allowed four goals and the power play came up empty despite numerous chances. Adjustments are needed, or perhaps even just repetition within the new system.
Goaltending choices will continue to be an early-season topic. After coming into camp with what was said to be more of a competition in net, expectation is Anton Forsberg will get his first crack at things this evening. He’s coming off playing some of his best hockey at the end of last season. In fact, it isn’t much of a stretch to suggest the Kings made the playoffs largely because of his success, and he gave the group a chance to win in every playoff game he started. Laviolette will be looking for more of the same from Forsberg, especially as they face a high-powered offense like the Sharks.
Quoting and Noting
Laferriere comparing the team’s first two opponents: “Obviously Colorado is pretty deep, and they have a lot of great weapons, but San Jose is equally as good. They’re playing really good hockey. For us, I think right now we just kind of looked back on last game and tried to nitpick little things to try and get better.”
Ceci is keeping a positive mindset: “I think we generated more offense and more time in their zone than we have in the past, so there was a lot of positives to come out of the game despite the score.”
Statistically Speaking
— Mats Zuccarello has nine points in his last five games against San Jose, dating back to Nov. 7, 2024.
— Drew Doughty will play in his 79th career game against the Sharks on Saturday, which will surpass Darryl Sydor (79 GP) for the most games played vs. San Jose by a defenseman in NHL history.
— Joel Armia scored his first goal of the season on Wednesday in Denver, marking his 22nd career shorthanded tally. Among active skaters, only Brad Marchand (36) and Jean-Gabriel Pageau (24) have more shorthanded goals. Armia scored his first of a team-best four shorthanded goals last season in the team’s most recent outing in San Jose on Nov. 20, 2025.
Kings Projected Lineup
Below is a projected alignment. If there are any key changes during pregame warmups, this article will be updated.
Panarin – Byfield – Kempe
Zuccarello – Turcotte – Laferriere
Moore – Haula – Armia
Laughton – Perry *
Edmundson – Clarke
Dumoulin – Doughty
Anderson – Ceci
Gustafsson
Forsberg
Kuemper
Likely scratches: (F) Helenius, Lee (D) N/A
Injured Reserve: Fiala
* LA is going 11+7, per Zach Dooley
Across the Ice
San Jose is coming off a 4-3 victory over Florida on Thursday. Here’s how they are projected to line up tonight:
Marchment – Celebrini – Smith
Stenberg – Wennberg – Graf
Chernyshov – Misa – Toffoli
Goodrow – Ostapchuk – Sherwood
Nurse – Kesselring
Allan – Trouba
Orlov – Cagnoni
Askarov
How to Watch the Game
Puck drop is set for 7:00 pm Pacific Time and the game can be viewed locally on ABTV — available on DIRECTV (Ch. 692), Spectrum (Ch. 320), Cox (Ch. 64 in Orange County; Ch. 53 in Palos Verdes), and other cable/satellite providers.
Further details on LA’s broadcast and streaming plans for 2026-27 can be found here:
UPDATED: Kings Regular Season Streaming Options, Plus Preseason TV Plans
On This Day in Kings History
On October 3, 1994, the @LAKings acquired Eric Lacroix, Chris Snell, and a fourth round pick from Toronto for Dixon Ward, Guy Leveque, Shayne Toporowski, and Kelly Fairchild. Lacroix had 25 goals, 48 points, and 164 penalty minutes in 117 games with the #LAKings.#GoKingsGo pic.twitter.com/0fFGQDjlVd
— The Kingstorian (@Kingstorian) October 3, 2026
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