2/7 Preview – Tonight’s Lineup TBD + Home Cooking, Kuemper Update, Laferriere Evaluation

WHO: Los Angeles Kings (28-17-6) vs. Dallas Stars (34-18-1)
WHAT: 2024-25 Regular-Season Game
WHEN: Friday, February 7 @ 7:30 PM Pacific
WHERE: Crypto.com Arena – Los Angeles, CA
HOW TO FOLLOW: VIDEO: FanDuel Sports Network – AUDIO – ESPN LA App – TWITTER: @dooleylak & @lakings

TODAY’S MATCHUP: The Kings begin a back-to-back set tonight, their final two games heading into a 4 Nations Faceoff break that begins for the Kings on Sunday.

HEAD-TO-HEAD: The Kings skated to a 3-2 victory over Dallas in their only meeting of the season to date, on home ice back in December.

Forwards Tanner Jeannot and Warren Foegele led the way against the Stars with a goal and an assist each, while defenseman Joel Edmundson also scored. It marked Jeannot’s second career multi-point game versus Dallas.

KINGS VITALS: The Kings held an optional morning skate today, after the majority of the entire team practiced yesterday morning in El Segundo.

Look for goaltender David Rittich to get the nod tonight for the Kings on the front half of the back-to-back set. Rittich has a lifetime record of 3-3-1 against Dallas, with a .915 save percentage and a 2.43 goals-against average.

With the optional skate today, there were no formal line rushes, but here’s the alignment we saw yesterday in practice –

Turcotte – Kopitar – Kempe
Foegele – Danault – Moore
Fiala – Byfield – Laferriere
Jeannot – Lewis – Thomas

Gavrikov – Doughty
Edmundson – Clarke
Moverare – Spence
Englund – Burroughs

Unclear on tonight’s lineup. Kings have rolled with 12 forwards and six defensemen over the last handful of games, with the lineup unchanged over the last two wins, but Jim Hiller said this morning there could be some changes to the group. Sounds like perhaps a game-time decision, or two, exists for the Kings. Will have an update closer to puck drop.

Defenseman Mikey Anderson remains on his own for now, skating in advance of today’s practice in a non-contact capacity. With that in mind, not expecting him back tonight or tomorrow, will expect an update when the team returns from the 4 Nations break.

STARS VITALS: Dallas came to California on a five-game winning streak but had it snapped on Tuesday against the Anaheim Ducks.

Per Dallas reported Robert Tiffin, here’s how the Stars lined up earlier this week at Honda Center –

Line rushes for Dallas in warmups look like this in Anaheim:

Robertson-Hintz-Stankoven
Marchment-Duchene-Granlund
Benn-Johnston-Dadonov
Bäck-Steel-Blackwell

Harley-Lyubushkin
Lindell-Ceci
Bichsel-Dumba

Oettinger in goal

— Robert Tiffin (@RobertTiffin) February 5, 2025

Tonight will mark the third game for forward Mikael Granlund and defenseman Cody Ceci since the pair joined the Stars in a trade from the San Jose Sharks. Granlund, who has one assist from his first two games, scored twice in his first game this season in this arena, with San Jose, on October 24. Ceci logged a season-high 24:51 against the Kings back in October.

Storyline Of The Day – Home Cooking
“I can just tell you, we’ve been on the road and the energy from the home crowd really drives the team. We’ve felt like we’ve been on the other side of that for so long, so it’s just really good to get in front of our own fans.”

That was Jim Hiller speaking after Wednesday’s victory over Montreal. The Kings had played 10 of 12 on the road coming into Wednesday’s return to Crypto.com Arena. The record in those games wasn’t the strongest, either, with the Kings posting a mark of 3-6-1 over the course of those 10 games.

You see those same digits in the home record, but man are they reversed.

16-3-1 is the record in Los Angeles this season. Three games lost in regulation and just four games lost in total for the Kings. 16 victories from 20 games played at home is the most wins the Kings have had in their first 20 home games in any season in franchise history. With a winning percentage of .825, no team in the NHL has been better in their own building so far this season.

Sounds like a number of reasons to be excited to be back.

“It’s great to be home and be in your own environment,” forward Alex Turcotte said. “We’ve been on the road a lot, it adds up over time. We’re excited to be home for sure and play in front of our fans again.”

A lot of times too you might question a blanket record. Kings have feasted in past seasons against non-playoff teams. This season, though, they’ve actually done the bulk of their damage against teams currently in playoff spots. 11 times this season, teams currently in the field of 16 have come to Crypto.com Arena. 10 times they’ve left in defeat. The Kings are 10-1-0 at home against current playoff teams, with a November 7 defeat against Vancouver the lone blemish.

To add onto this, the @LAKings are 10-1-0 at home against current playoff teams this season. Eight straight victories against the current field of 16.

Huge test tonight against Dallas in the penultimate game before the break. https://t.co/Ar74f55GSV

— Zach Dooley (@DooleyLAK) February 7, 2025

Now, they face a difficult test in the Dallas Stars. One of the Western Conference’s top contenders for the cup, sitting comfortably in a playoff spot in the Central Division.

Unlike on Wednesday, when the Kings hosted Montreal, they won’t be the team coming in with a ton of rest. Dallas hasn’t played since a one-goal defeat in Anaheim on Tuesday, so they’ve had ample rest and recovery time. For the Kings, this presents the end of what’s been a ton of travel, a ton of time spent on the road and a long month-plus in total. The break ahead is certainly invitin, but it’s not here yet. Important to have these games at home, versus on the road, where th eKings are comfortable and confident.

“We’ve been really solid at home all year, I think every game we have at home, we feel really confident that we’re going to have a good chance at winning the game,” forward Adrian Kempe added. “We just rely on the atmosphere and just the way we’ve been coming out and playing every time we’re at home. It’s nice to have a lot of home games in the final stretch and hopefully we can keep building on the momentum we get from our home games.”

Now comes the important part. Taking advantage of home-ice advantage.

To close the season, beginning with Wednesday’s game versus Montreal, the Kings play 22 of 32 at home. On paper, it’s great. Now the Kings have to make that advantage count in the standings.

“We’ve done a lot of work on the road and we’ve earned some of these home games, but we’ve got to win them,” Hiller added. “We did a good job against Montreal I thought and tonight will be a different challenge, so we’ve just got to take this one. We’ll get to Anaheim on Saturday, but this is a handful tonight and we’re fully focused on this.”

3 To Watch For –
– On goaltender Darcy Kuemper, he missed yesterday’s practice and will not start tonight against Dallas. For good reason, though.

Kuemper and his wife, Sydney, welcomed their second child yesterday. By all accounts, everyone is doing well. Kuemper didn’t skate this morning but should be set to play behind Rittich this evening. Per Jim Hiller, mom, dad and baby all doing well.

For the Kuemper’s, this is their second child, after they had their son back in 2023. He’s now a big brother. Assume we’ll have time to catch up with Kuemper after the 4 Nations break. Good timing there for the family to get a chance to spend a couple weeks together without games or travel, with the Kings off from Sunday, 2/9 through Saturday, 2/22.

– In speaking yesterday with forward Alex Laferriere, he’s been pleased with the way he’s played since he returned from injury.

“I think I’m playing really well,” he said. “It sucked being out, but for me, I looked at it as a little reset. Played a lot of games in a year, so it was nice to focus on getting back my strength and everything like that. I felt really good coming back. The goals [disallowed] suck, but we’re getting a lot of chances. I feel good.”

Jim Hiller was extremely complementary of Laferriere’s game as well.

The Kings bench boss noted that the Kings missed Laferriere quite a bit when he was out of the lineup in January and now that he’s back, he’s an important add. Hiller praised Laferriere’s consistency, highlighting his offensive ability on multiple occasions. Good to have number 14 back.

More HERE on Laferriere’s fit on a line with Byfield and Fiala.

– Lastly, sharing a quote from Jim Hiller on Brandt Clarke.

Hiller was asked about Clarke’s confidence following two healthy scratches. Clarke is a very confident player. I think you saw that in his two games back in the lineup in Carolina and on Wednesday versus Montreal. They weren’t perfect games, but Clarke was not reserved in the way he played. And he can’t be, because the aggression in certain areas is part of what makes him effective.

Hiller pointed to Clarke’s confidence as a strength in coming back in without getting down about being out.

“That’s a real strength of his, to have that self confidence, I’ve talked about that with him, it is a strength. At times, you have a harder time maybe accepting things with that confidence but you also can bounce back and you can’t get yourself down. I don’t think he dropped, I think he was frustrated with it and accepted it and was ready to play when called upon.”

Huge goal for 92 against the Canadiens. Kings can certainly continue to use that type of production from him going forward.

Two games left before the break. Kings host Dallas tonight before the Ducks come to town tomorrow.