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1/1 Preview – Welcoming 2025! Today’s Vitals + PP Chances & Conversion, Kopitar 1,250, NYD History

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WHO: Los Angeles Kings (21-10-5) vs. New Jersey Devils (24-13-3)
WHAT: 2024-25 Regular-Season Game
WHEN: Wednesday, January 1 @ 3:00 PM Pacific
WHERE: Crypto.com Arena – Los Angeles, CA
HOW TO FOLLOW: VIDEO: Fan Duel Sports Network – AUDIO – ESPN LA App – TWITTER: @dooleylak & @lakings

TODAY’S MATCHUP: The Kings ring in the new year this afternoon against one of the NHL’s best, as they conclude their season series against the New Jersey Devils.

HEAD-TO-HEAD: Defenseman Jordan Spence scored the only goal when these teams met last month in Newark, a 3-1 victory for the Devils.

Since joining the Kings organization, forward Kevin Fiala has led the team with six points (2-4-6) from five games played against New Jersey, while forward Anze Kopitar has five points (3-2-5) over that same stretch. When these teams met here last season, forward Phillip Danault scored a hat trick, powering the Kings to a 5-1 victory.

KINGS VITALS: With the afternoon puck drop, the Kings did not hold a morning skate in advance of today’s game.

Without the skate, unclear as to the starting goaltender for today’s game. Should the Kings turn back to David Rittich, he has a 5-1-0 record all-time versus New Jersey, though the loss came in the game in December. Should Darcy Kuemper get the start, he has an 0-5-4 all-time record against the Devils, but strong splits, with a .916 save percentage and a 2.19 goals-against average.

For reference, here’s how the Kings lined up last time out versus the Flyers –

The 11/7 appears to be here to stay, at least for the time being. Forwards Akil Thomas and Arthur Kaliyev, along with defenseman Andreas Englund, were the players out of the lineup on Sunday against Philadelphia.

Thomas would be the most likely option to check in, having played against Edmonton on Saturday. Kaliyev has yet to make his season debut due to injury, while Englund hasn’t featured in nearly two months, dating back to November 11 in Calgary. Should get some clarity soon enough, with Jim Hiller set to speak to the media at Crypto.com Arena around an hour before puck drop.

DEVILS VITALS: New Jersey completes a back-to-back set this afternoon against the Kings, after 3-2 yesterday in Anaheim.

Per NJ Devils PR, here’s how the visitors lined up last night in Anaheim –

Former King Kurtis MacDermind was in the lineup yesterday, dressing up front as the left winger on the fourth line.

Forward Jack Hughes had a hand in all three goals against the Kings in December, collecting three points (1-2-3) in the 3-1 victory. Hughes has eight assists and nine points from eight career games played against Los Angeles, though just two of those points have come in California.

Storyline Of The Day – Fighting For Power
Over the last five games, the LA Kings have had exactly one power-play opportunity in each game. They’ve had to kill eight opposing power plays, so it hasn’t exactly been skewed. It’s just been substantially down from where they were at earlier in the year.

First things first, I don’t think that is a bad thing. The Kings are one of the best 5-on-5 teams in the NHL. Play all 60 minutes 5-on-5 and the Kings would take that most nights.

It was, however, a trend I noticed all throughout the month of December. The Kings had 17 total power-play opportunities in December, compared to 22 against. That’s a small disparity, sure but that isn’t what’s interesting. It’s the difference compared to earlier in the season. 17 opportunities from 11 games is an average of 1.5 power-play opportunities per game. 22 from 11 is obviously two against.

In November, the Kings had 31 power plays in 14 games played, an average of 2.2 per game. In October, it was 39 chances in 11 games. That’s 3.5 per game. For comparison sake, we’ll ignore November, because the Kings played the same number of games in October and December. 3.5 per game in October, 1.5 in December. 57 percent decrease, per game, in that time.

“Just how the season goes sometimes,” was essentially a synonymous answer from defenseman Brandt Clarke and forward Kevin Fiala.

In total, it’s led to the second-fewest number of power plays in the entire NHL (90) this season.

So, while I think we’ve all expressed concern with the Kings production on the PP, they haven’t had a ton of opportunities, either. In December, no team had fewer PP opportunities, or PP time per game, than the Kings. The Kings had 17 total power plays in December. The second closest team had 26. The NHL leader had 49.

“We’ve definitely been discussing that in meetings, where sometimes we’ll have three, four stretches without a power-play goal but we’ve only had four or five power plays in total in that stretch,” Clarke said. “A point of emphasis has been, if we’re only going to get one chance, let’s capitalize.”

What’s all of that to say?

Anze Kopitar’s power-play goal on Saturday was just so important. Maybe the most important PPG of the season. 4-4 game, one total power play per side in that game. The Kings scored on theirs and the Flyers didn’t. Ultimately the difference in a 5-4 game.

Jim Hiller said it after the game. The Kings have been in that position before and have not gotten the job done. It has cost the teams wins and points at times this season. On Sunday, with one pivotal moment, the Kings came through. The power play earned at least one point in that moment. That’s massive.

“Scoring on the power play is always timely, but you look at a tight game, when we needed one to just pull ahead, that was definitely it,” Clarke added. “It was a point of emphasis all season on the power play, so we’ll try to emulate that [going forward], for sure.”

Fiala felt that scoring when the Kings did was not only timely in favor of the Kings but it also helped to crush any momentum the Flyers could have gotten.

Only added to that notion when the Kings got their penalty kill later in the period.

“It was huge, huge to get the lead and also the timing, I think we crushed their momentum,” Fiala said. “When you can score like that on the power play, it gives you a little boost, a little confidence, belief on the next time it comes.”

For the Kings, hopefully there’s some semblance of that boost, that belief carrying into games to come.

It’s likely that there will be an uptick in chances at some point, as Fiala pointed out, and when more chances come, more chances will likely also come against. The Kings are a great 5-on-5 team, one of the best in the NHL. They don’t want a game filled with power plays. When that game comes, though, they’ll have to find a way to produce. Sunday was a good start, but it can’t be the outlier. Hopefully, a starting point for growth.

3 To Watch For –
– Anze Kopitar likely won’t finish with the most goals in Kings franchise history. But he will finish with the third most.

With two more to his name on Sunday, Kopitar moved into a tie with Dave Taylor for the third most goals in franchise history, with the pair currently tied at 431 apiece. Ironically enough, with Kopitar’s second goal of the game coming on the power play, it also tied Taylor for third all-time in PPG’s at 123.

Kopitar remains in pursuit of the all-time franchise points record, currently sitting 57 behind Marcel Dionne. Kopitar’s second goal of the game gave him 1,250 for his career. The Kings became just the fourth franchise in NHL history to have two players amass 1,250 points with one team. 21 franchises have zero. Pretty special stuff and Kopitar, who is over a point-per-game and just keeps on going.

– With that in mind, does Kopitar remain underrated around the NHL?

Jim Hiller isn’t particularly concerned with perceptions on a wider basis. Frankly, they don’t matter at all. He certainly knows that Kopitar is not under appreciated within the Kings organization. He is certainly appreciated very much.

“The most important thing for us, the team, the organization, is we know better than anybody, because we’re living with him every day, and you guys see what he does on the ice and it’s terrific,” Hiller said of Kopitar. “We see him everyday here and we couldn’t appreciate him more.”

– Lastly, here’s a stat for you that’s simply a stat, doesn’t actually carry a ton of bearing.

The Kings are 10-4-1 in games played on New Year’s Day, all-time. The last game played on New Year’s Day was a win over the Philadelphia Flyers on January 1, 2022. That was the game the Nice Line was born, with Moore, Danault and Arvidsson skating together for the first time.

See what the 2025 edition brings!

Kings and Devils, only game of the entire day around the NHL. Pretty cool spotlight, with two of the NHL’s Top-10 teams squaring off.

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