3/5 Preview – Kopitar Set for 1,500th regular-season game + Keeping The Energy Rolling, Byfield/Armia Updates, Moverare on Fatherhood

WHO: Los Angeles Kings (24-22-14) vs. New York Islanders (35-21-5)
WHAT: 2025-26 Regular-Season Game 61/82
WHEN: Thursday, March 5 @ 6:30 PM Pacific
WHERE: Crypto.com Arena – Los Angeles, CA
HOW TO FOLLOW: VIDEO: ESPN – AUDIO – ESPN LA App & LA Kings App – TWITTER: @dooleylak & @lakings

TONIGHT’S MATCHUP: The Kings continue along on a six-game homestand, as they host the New York Islanders in the second game played under Interim Head Coach D.J. Smith.

HEAD-TO-HEAD: Forward Trevor Moore, who is expected to return to the Kings lineup tonight, has collected eight points (3-5-8) over his seven games played against New York as a member of the Kings organization, leading the team in that time. Moore also has a +9 rating, with all eight of his points coming at even strength. Defenseman Drew Doughty, who is also expected to return to the lineup tonight, has 7 career goals and 18 career points against the Islanders, his most against a team that has spent his entire career in the Eastern Conference.

KINGS VITALS: The Kings held an optional morning skate today, with only a few guys on the ice considering the 6:30 PM puck drop tonight.

Sounds like a TBD on tonight’s starting goaltender. Interim Head Coach D.J. Smith said that he didn’t know just yet, but would find out later in the day as to Kuemper’s availability, once everyone went through their morning processes. Kuemper practiced yesterday, off an illness, but it’s delicate. Should Kuemper get the start, he has a lifetime record of 10-7-3 against the Islanders, with a .927 save percentage and a 2.24 goals-against average. Should the Kings turn back to Anton Forsberg, he is coming off two excellent starts, with greater than two goals saved above expected in each, per SportLOGIQ.

Here is tonight’s projected lineup against the Islanders –

Panarin – Kopitar – Kempe
Moore – Turcotte – Laferriere
Foegele – Connors – Perry
Malott – Helenius – Ward

Anderson – Doughty
Edmundson – Clarke
Dumoulin – Ceci
Moverare

Forsberg
Kuemper

Forward Trevor Moore is expected to return to the lineup tonight, while defenseman Drew Doughty skated today. A decision will be made on Doughty today, though it was not made when Smith addressed the media this morning. Defenseman Jacob Moverare is also back and able to play if Doughty is not able to go. In that event, would expect an Anderson/Ceci pairing, with Moverare slotting in alongside Brian Dumoulin.

ISLANDERS VITALS: New York saw its five-game winning streak come to an end last night in Anaheim, kicking off the start of a four-game roadtrip.

Per Andrew Gross of Newsday, here’s how the Islanders lined up last night against the Ducks –

So #Isles tonight without Ryan Pulock (upper body/day to day) and with Jonathan Drouin (lower body) able to play
Palat-Horvat-Barzal
Drouin-Ritchie-Heineman
Lee-Pageau-Holmstrom
MacLean-Cizikas-Gatcomb
Schaefer-Mayfield
Pelech-DeAngelo
Soucy-Boqvist
Rittich
Sorokin

— Andrew Gross (@AGrossNewsday) March 4, 2026

Former Kings goaltender David Rittich got the start yesterday in Anaheim, which points towards goaltender Ilya Sorokin getting the nod tonight in Los Angeles. Islanders captain Anders Lee has scored four goals over his last four games played against the Kings, including both goals that New York scored against the Kings during the 2025-26 season. Lee, the Islanders’ captain, ranks fourth on the team with 34 points (14-20-34) in total on the season to date.

Storyline Of The Day – 1,500 Games, Loading
Shared a lot of reactions from teammates yesterday, but Kings captain Anze Kopitar is set to skate in his 1,500th NHL regular-season game tonight against the New York Islanders.

More on that HERE.

It’s such a rare accomplishment. Kopitar is the holder of what feels like countless Kings franchise records. He surpassed Dustin Brown for the most games played as a Los Angeles King on October 21, 2023, a mark he increases each time he suits up and takes the ice. Kopitar is approaching the mark for the most points in franchise history as well, as he moved one closer with an assist on Monday against Colorado. Kopitar is five points behind franchise legend Marcel Dionne, with six points needed to set a new record of 1,308.

We’ve heard from a lot of people talk about how special Kopitar has been to them, in whatever it is they do for the Kings. Here’s one more, with Interim Head Coach D.J. Smith’s take on what has stood out to him the most about Kopitar, going from someone who coached against him to someone who got to know him as a member of the same organization over the last couple years –

“Coming here, I didn’t know him, I just knew of him and how he played and how he played so responsibly over all those years. I think it’s just the way he treats people away from the rink, is something people don’t know about him. He doesn’t have an ego. He knows my kids’ names. He’s a guy that’s easy to root for. He doesn’t big dog anybody. I think it’s great for the young guys to see a guy like him with such status in the game, treat people the way they should be treated. Never, ever puts himself ahead of anyone. I think that’s obviously his family, his parents, that comes from them and then down to his kids and hopefully it wears off on the young guys as well, because when he’s gone next year, you want guys like Byfield, Laf and Clarke to remember how you treat people, outside of the fact that he’s great hockey player and all those things. It’s unbelievable he’s going to make it 1,500 games and that’s outstanding, but there’s something to be said about a guy that treats people the way he does with as big a name as he has.”

Think that’s pretty telling.

Asking Clarke about him and hearing back that he’s just glad to see Kopitar get the recognition publicly that he gets within the locker room, I think that says all you need to know about how Kopitar treated Clarke as a younger player. I think you’d hear similar stories from Laferriere and Byfield. Similar stories from the countless younger players who have come through Los Angeles.

That is not a prerequisite to playing 1,500 games in the NHL. But it certainly doesn’t hurt your case, to have so many people around you to help keep you going, because they want you around. That’s the impact Kopitar has had here in Los Angeles. An impact that isn’t always seen publicly. But an impact that has been extremely profound.

Look for a few special touches by the team to acknowledge Kopitar’s night. The Kings have always done a nice job of adding things into mights like this to acknowledge their players. Would expect that, certainly, for Kopitar tonight. Expecting he’ll be fired up to go and hopefully it’s a team that rallies around him, tonight and moving forward.

3 To Watch For –
– A big question I have going into tonight’s game – can the Kings keep up some of the positive things we saw on Monday?

On Monday, we saw a renewed group, even in a losing effort, as the Kings worked relentlessly all night against Colorado.

That game, though, featured three NHL debuts. It was D.J. Smith’s first game as Interim Head Coach. It was the NHL’s number-one team on the other side of the ice. That’s an easy game to get up for. Should be, at least.

But that game is in the past and those storylines won’t be present every night. If you want to say that tonight is a milestone game for Anze Kopitar, so there’s an added boost, then sure. But with 22 games remaining, there won’t be one every single night. The conditions will get harder, but the consistency still needs to be there. I think that’s the task facing the Kings.

“I’m always going to be energetic and I’m always going to push you to play hard,” Smith said. “You may not have it that particular night, but that’s the job, you’re in the NHL and there’s a lot of guys fighting for jobs, either to stay in the league, stay in the lineup or move up in the lineup. Our job is to give a gameplan, their job is to do it, to be ready to play and to play as hard as you possibly can. I thought they did that on Monday, we’ll see what happens [tonight].”

The Kings believe that they can do those things on a more consistent basis than we’ve seen for 60 games. Proof will be in the pudding. It’s easy to say it after we saw it once. Much harder to go out and do it 21 more times.

Smith made clear his own expectations in the room during his first meeting as the team’s Interim Head Coach. Effort is “non negotiable” as he said today, especially at home, when fans pay for a ticket to watch the Kings play. In talking with a couple guys in the room, the message seems to have landed.

“I think that’s what you’re going to see, is we’ll be more consistent,” defenseman Joel Edmundson said. “Work ethic. If you’re not working, you’re not going to play. Smitty made that pretty clear. Expect a faster team out there, sacrificing the body, doing what we need to do to win.”

– In terms of personnel, the Kings will be without forwards Quinton Byfield and Joel Armia tonight against the Islanders.

Byfield took part in morning skate on Monday but was a late scratch. The Kings knew they had a couple of players questionable and turns out Byfield was the second player on that list, as well as Jacob Moverare, who was designated as a non-roster player due to the birth of his first child. Moverare was reinstated to the roster yesterday and is eligible to play tonight, though he likely only plays if Drew Doughty returns.

For Armia, D.J. Smith shared yesterday that the issue he’s dealing with is related to his back. It was an injury that happened in the past, was fine, but was re-aggravated the loss to Edmonton last week. Smith said the injury happened early in the game and Armia left in the first period. Armia is on injured reserve, so we already knew he’d miss tonight’s game.

Feels like both Byfield and Armia are unlikely for tonight and Saturday, though unclear on the latter. The Kings practice tomorrow before hosting Montreal the following afternoon. Then, they leave on a five-game roadtrip on Sunday, so that’s perhaps a telling sign, on if both players travel with the team. Will report back!

– On Moverare, huge congratulations are in order for he and his family on the birth of his son, Milan!

Moverare said that everyone is doing well at home. Didn’t get a ton of sleep on night one but said he was able to rest up a bit yesterday.

A cool thing for him is that he has several other young fathers in the locker room, with lots of other kids born over the last 12 months. He’s got lots of people to lean on here, to talk to and to help out along the way.

“We have an experienced team with a lot of dads on the team, so there’s a lot of help in this room,” Moverare said. “The process of having a pregnant partner, everyone’s been so helpful with small details, their wives have been helping my girlfriend too, with small questions, it’s so new. It’s just been unreal help from everyone.”

A really good person and you’re always happy for a guy like that on a special moment.

Penultimate game here at home before the Kings hit the road for five. A strange start time, with a 6:30 PM puck drop scheduled on ESPN.