Breaking down the 2024-25 LA Kings schedule!

Introducing the 2024-25 LA Kings schedule!

I love the schedule release date every year. Adding the games into my phone calendar. Planning our roadtrips and days off in certain cities. Seeing where we’re at for holidays. There’s the competitive side as well, with a look at how a schedule compares to past seasons. How the Kings fared with a busy early schedule versus late. Where the schedule is congested versus a bit lighter. How things stack up around the trade deadline or heading into the 4 Nations break. It’s not as important as the moves that were made yesterday but it’s pretty fun for me. I enjoy breaking it down and diving into more detail than it probably merits. I wish they spread things out a bit, to give it a bit more play that it’ll get on July 2. But still. A fun breakdown for me of the 82 games that will follow.

Presenting the 2024-25 LA Kings schedule –

The NHL has 32 teams and for another season, the Kings will play the same schedule format. Against teams from the Eastern Conference, the Kings will play each team twice, once at home and once on the road. Against Central Division opposition, the Kings will face each team three times (2H, 1A against four teams, 1H, 2A against four teams). Within the Pacific Division, the Kings will take on five of the other seven teams twice at home and on the road and they’ll face two teams, randomly selected, just three times. This season, the Kings will play Calgary once at home and twice on the road, while they will play Vancouver twice at home and once on the road. Tough scene for the “enjoys a day off in Vancouver” crew.

Included in that breakdown is the first matchup against Viktor Arvidsson and the Edmonton Oilers on December 28 in Los Angeles, with the first return to the site of the team’s Game 5 elimination coming on January 13. The Kings will play against both Anaheim and San Jose four times. The Freeway Faceoff will be in Anaheim on October 20 and November 29, with the games in Los Angeles on February 8 and April 10. The Kings will host Carl Grundstrom and the Sharks on October 24 and March 30, with the games in Northern California on October 29 and November 25, with the October 24 game serving as the home opener.

Looking at the breakdown of the Central Division, the Kings will play Dallas, St. Louis, Utah and Winnipeg two times at home and once on the road. The Kings will then host Chicago, Colorado, Minnesota and Nashville once each and play those teams on the road twice. The Kings will get the Stars, their most-difficult matchup last season, twice at Crypto.com Arena, with the first meeting coming on December 4. The Kings will host Winnipeg for the first time on November 27, with Alex Iafallo, Rasmus Kupari and Gabe Vilardi coming back to town. The Kings will host Utah Hockey Club twice, including in their second home game of the regular season on October 26, the first ever Los Angeles/Utah matchup. They’ll head to Salt Lake City for the first and only time on April 3.

Looking at the cross-conference games, the Kings will take on all 16 Eastern Conference opponents once at home and once on the road. The Kings will play the defending Stanley Cup Champions twice in a span of eight days. The teams will play on January 22 in Los Angeles and January 29 in Florida. Of those to depart the Kings yesterday, Cam Talbot and the Detroit Red Wings return to Los Angeles on November 16. Blake Lizotte and the Pittsburgh Penguins come to Crypto.com Arena on January 20, while the duo of Matt Roy and Pierre-Luc Dubois come to California on March 13.

Detailed Breakdown

By Day Of The Week
– Death, taxes and spending all of our Saturdays at Crypto.com Arena! The Kings will play 17 of their 41 home games on Saturday evenings. Saturday night is hockey night, without a doubt, so it’s exciting from that perspective for sure. A few marquee games included in that mix and actually a few afternoon puck drops as well. The Kings will also play eight road games on a Saturday, putting more than 30 percent of the overall schedule on Saturdays.
– As far as the rest of the weekend, though, the Kings will play just one home game on a Friday and three on a Sunday. One Sunday on December 29, coming out of the NHL holiday break and two more in March, on consecutive weekends, with 6 PM puck drops. The lone Friday home game is on February 7, coming just before the teams break for the 4 Nations tournament. The Kings will be on the road for three games on Friday and Sunday apiece.
– The Kings will also play double-digit home games on Wednesday evenings, with 10 Wednesday games at Crypto.com Arena. The road breakdown is more evenly dispersed, with six-plus away games coming on Mondays, Tuesday and Thursdays. In total, the Kings will play nine-plus games on Mondays, Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursdays.

By Month
– The front half of the season is road-heavy. October, December and January will see the Kings play substantially more away games than games played at home. In those months specifically, there are 12 more games played on the road than there are at home. Even including November, it’s 10 more road games from October – January, with 30 games of the team’s 41 road games coming in that span. The Kings will play all but one of their games in the Eastern Time Zone between October and January, with February 1 in Carolina the lone outlier. Just two trips in April and one is a season-ending back-to-back. Front loaded for sure.
– With that means a backloaded home schedule. The Kings will play around the same number of home games from February – April as October – January, but it’ll be 21 of the final 32 games coming on home ice. The Kings have only two games on the road in February, with one being that Carolina game, which actually ends a previous trip. Longest trip in the second half of the season is three games. It’s an interesting breakdown and the Kings will get their travel out of the way early. Good way to finish things up.
– It’s a busier start to the season for sure but that comes with the territory of starting the season on the road. The Kings will play five more games in October and November this year than they did last year. A lot of that comes down to February, when the midseason break is longer than usual due to the 4 Nations tournament. The Kings have just eight games in February this season and that includes games on February 1 and February 28. From February 2 through February 27, the Kings have only six total games on the calendar and all six of them are at home.

By Start Time
– I don’t usually go into this by start time but there is a lot more variety in the schedule here this season. For starters, the Kings will play way more afternoon games on home ice, at least it feels like they do. There are certainly more starts that are not at 7:30 PM. The Kings have seven 1:00 PM starts at Crypto.com Arena this season and that just feels like way more than in past years. There is also the New Year’s Day game at 3:00 PM and two games at 4:00 PM, four games at 5:00 PM and six games at 6:00 PM. That’s 20 of 41 games at home that will start before 7:00 PM. At the very least, that’s a bit different.
– The Kings will also play five afternoon games on the road, including a 12:30 PM faceoff in Anaheim on Black Friday. There’s also a random Monday at 10:AM Pacific in Ottawa in October. The Kings will also play four road games with 8:00 PM starts locally, including one on Pacific time in Vegas.

On the Hunt for Lord Stanley 🏆

Our 2024-25 Regular Season schedule is here! 📲 https://t.co/gkwBHdINli#GoKingsGo pic.twitter.com/dSL6PC1k0b

— LA Kings (@LAKings) July 2, 2024

Odds & Ends
– The Kings will begin the season with seven consecutive games on the road. This makes a lot of sense, when considering the team is ending their preseason with two games in Quebec City. Rather than waste a flight East, the Kings will just stay there and play their first five games of the regular season on the road. They’ll knock out an East Coast swing in Games 1 – 5, while taking on Anaheim and Vegas on the backend upon returning to the West Coast to complete the season-opening, seven-game trip.
– With renovations at Crypto.com Arena forcing the Kings out of their building for the preseason, followed by the season-opening trip, the Kings won’t play a home game until October 24, when they host San Jose. Only the three home games in total in October, as a result of the season-opening travel.
– The break in February that has been referenced several times is for the NHL 4 Nations Face-Off. With Canada, Finland, Sweden and the United States set to participate, the tournament runs from February 12 – February 20 and the Kings will be off from February 9 – February 23. It creates more congestion elsewhere on the calendar but the regular-season schedule still ends four days earlier than last season.
– The Kings will take a second seven-game roadtrip in December, leading into the NHL’s holiday break. Great for those us us with family on the East Coast, who can spend their first Christmas at home since 2019. I’m not talking about anyone in particular. That trip ends with a visit to Matt Roy, Pierre-Luc Dubois and the Washington Capitals on December 22. This is a true seven-game trip, with the Kings taking on seven teams on the East Coast. Seven games, two sets of two days off, 15 days in total. That’s a big fella.
– The longest homestand of the season is just six games, despite how regularly the Kings will play in Los Angeles in the second half. That homestand actually spans 22 days, as the Kings play three games both before and after the Four Nations tournament in February. Other than that, the Kings have one five-game homestand from December 28 – January 8.
– The Kings also have an uptick in back-to-backs this season, with 14 to handle in 2024-25, up from 12 in 2023-24 and 11 in 2022-23, though down from the 16 they had in 2021-22. Typically, you see the back-to-back coming on the road and half of them will be this season as well, with seven split between two different road cities. The Kings also have four sets of home back-to-backs, as well as two with an away game followed by a home game (San Jose/Los Angeles and Anaheim/Los Angeles) and one the other way, with a home game followed by an away game (Los Angeles/Vegas).
– The Kings will play on Canadian Thanksgiving in Ottawa, their third game of the season, a rare 1 PM local puck drop on a weekday. The Kings play the Wednesday before American Thanksgiving at home, as well as Black Friday during the afternoon and a home game on the Saturday after American Thanksgiving back at home. The Kings will play on 12/22 in Washington and 12/28 at home coming out of the NHL holiday break. They’ll play on New Year’s Day at home against New Jersey, a 3 PM puck drop on that Wednesday afternoon. Last season the Kings played on April Fools Day in Winnipeg. This season, they host the Jets on 4/1.

That’s a wrap on your 2024-25 schedule. A lot of information typed out at 11 PM last night, but hey, I like you guys. Hoping for more to follow here over the next few days with regards to both free agency and development camp, to get us back to our regularly-scheduled hockey content.

Ticket Information –

– 7/12 – Season Ticket Members Pre-sale.
– 7/15 – AMEX Pre-Sale.
– 7/17 – VIP and Social Pre-Sales.
– 7/19 – Public On-sale.
– Full Promotional schedule including theme nights and giveaways to be announced later.