Angeles Analysis – Three Weeks To Go!

The other day I went to a concert at the Rose Bowl. Oasis. Sick show. At the height of it, in Pasadena, it was 94 degrees. Nothing screams hockey is back like 94 degrees in Pasadena, am I right?

Not sure there’s ever been a worse transition than that. But hey. Hockey is just about back. The LA Kings are just about back.

I get it. It’s probably hard to get into that mindset when football is just getting back into the swing of things and the air conditioning units are pumping. But LA Kings regular-season hockey returns to Crypto.com Arena in three weeks. A lot can happen in 25 days. For example, between when I started this article and when I posted it, the Kings lost Corey Perry to a knee injury that will cost him the start of the season, as he’s sidelined for 6-8 weeks. I promise I had that “a lot can change” line in there before the injury.

But 25 will also fly by just like that.

It’s kind of funny. All summer long, you look forward to certain dates. The start of rookie camp, the start of main camp, the first preseason game and the first regular-season game. For me at least, whether I’m two months or two days away, it just feels like the end of a long tunnel and when you finally hit that day, you almost speed through the entire tunnel at once. That’s kind of how it felt with Rookie Faceoff and with main camp and Opening Night approaching, I think it might feel that way again.

The Kings will host Colorado on October 7 on home ice, the light at the end of a tunnel that’s consisted of a ton of previews, offseason interviews and off-ice features. Good space fillers, certainly. But in terms of actually moving towards something, it’s October 7 that is the date to actually keep an eye on.

It’s kind of been a weird summer. Game 6 in Edmonton feels like a year ago. At the same time, though, it just feels like the summer absolutely flew by.

Four weeks ago, I laid out 50 facts to keep in mind about the 2025-26 LA Kings, in honor of being 50 days out until Opening Night. Today is a little bit different. It feels a little bit different. We’re close to being past the time for long-winding fact stories or offseason narratives. In three weeks, we’ll see in-person hockey and the results matter. And that’s pretty exciting.

For the Kings and hopefully for the fanbase, it’s exciting to see that hockey kick off at home. The Kings were not only the best team in the NHL on home ice last season, but one of the best teams at home in recent NHL history. The Kings led the NHL with 66 points on home ice last season. They were also the only team in the league with a greater-than .800 winning percentage at home. Of the 41 games played at Crypto.com Arena during the 2024-25 regular season, the Kings won 31 of those games and collected at least a point in 35.

Since the NHL Lockout during the 2004-25 season – 20 years ago – only four teams have had a single season with a better winning percentage than the Kings posted last season. Impressive stuff.

The other side of that is the unknowns that come with the offseason changes the Kings made. Especially when a focal point of those moves centered around Perry, who we likely won’t see until November. When you shift the makeup of a team the way the Kings did, it creates unknowns. Especially when that reasoning is based around making the team better for Game 83. The thing with those moves is that you have to play Games 1 – 82 first and it can be difficult to really see it until that point. Still though, despite the 94 degree temperatures I bravely navigated, there is an excitement around just having the team back in the swing of things. That first game at home just has this energy about it for me that I’m excited to get back to……in three weeks time.

Unlike last year, the Kings don’t need to wait until October 24 to check it out in person. Last fall, Crypto.com Arena was undergoing Phase 3 of 4 of renovations. Massive changes such as City View Terrace were still under construction. As such, the Kings began the season with seven consecutive games on the road before finally playing on home ice against San Jose at the end of the month. Won’t be the case this fall, as the Kings will play on the first night of the NHL season, as a part of a tripleheader of games on Opening Night.

The biggest changes coming to Crypto.com Arena this year will be less noticeable than they were last year.

I mean, when you turn one end of the rink from a standard arena bowl into a glass façade with an indoor/outdoor component, that’s pretty noticeable. When you make wholesale changes to your locker room, it’s not something that impacts the day-to-day experience for those coming to the game. For the players, the changes will feel pretty substantial. The home facilities at Crypto.com Arena weren’t underwhelming but they were in some ways outdated. At the very least, they were older.

From what I’ve heard, that’s no longer the case. The Kings made some pretty drastic changes to their locker room area in the final wave of arena renovations to bring that part of the building up to modern-day levels. The last three years saw a ton of that on the front-facing side. Sounds like the underbelly gets that touch up for 2025-26.

And that leads us to 60 minutes, perhaps five more if we’re lucky, between the Kings and the Avalanche.

Because, once that puck drops on October 7, the rest of this just doesn’t much matter, does it? Last season’s records, offseason moves, arena renovations……just not all that important any more. Excited to get to that point. Because then we’re into it. And that’s exciting for me no matter how you shake it.