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Game Day

4/13 Preview – The First Clinching Scenario + Panarin Making The Difference, A Rare Power Play, Athletic Reads

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WHO: Los Angeles Kings (34-26-19) @ Seattle Kraken (34-34-11)
WHAT: 2025-26 Regular-Season Game 80/82
WHEN: Monday, April 13 @ 6:30 PM Pacific
WHERE: Crypto.com Arena – Los Angeles, CA
HOW TO FOLLOW: VIDEO: ESPN – AUDIO – ESPN LA 710, ESPN LA App & LA Kings App – TWITTER: @dooleylak & @lakings

TODAY’S MATCHUP: The Kings begin their final roadtrip of the regular season this evening, as they visit the Seattle Kraken for the first of three straight games away from home to conclude their 82-game schedule.

HEAD-TO-HEAD: Among the players expected to dress tonight, the Kings have been led this season by forward Adrian Kempe and defenseman Brandt Clarke, who each have two assists in three games played this season versus Seattle. Forward Trevor Moore has six points (3-3-6) and a +9 rating in eight career games played at Climate Pledge Arena, tied for the best +/- in Seattle in NHL history.

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

Unconfirmed on tonight’s starting goaltender, though you would expect it to be Anton Forsberg coming off a 27-save shutout victory over Edmonton on Saturday afternoon. Forsberg made 30 saves on 33 shots faced in this building earlier this season, a 3-2 overtime defeat against the Kraken back in December.

For reference, here’s how the Kings lined up last time out, the 1-0 win over the Oilers on Saturday –

The Kings made one lineup change last time out, with forward Mathieu Joseph coming in for forward Jeff Malott, who was not available to play, per Interim Head Coach D.J. Smith. Malott is not on the trip and is likely out for the remainder of the regular season. Forward Alex Turcotte is here and is “real close” though he won’t play tonight, which means the same lineup is expected here.

KRAKEN VITALS: Seattle concludes a three-game homestand tonight in search of a perfect record, with victories over Vegas and Calgary in the first two games.

From Mike Benton of the Seattle radio broadcast, here’s how the Kraken lined up on Saturday versus the Flames –

Seattle was without goaltender Joey Daccord and Philipp Grubauer in their win over Calgary, with Nikko Kokko making 26 saves in his first career NHL start. Seattle has three players – Vince Dunn, Eeli Tolvanen and Chandler Stephenson – with four points in three games played this season versus the Kings.

Storyline Of The Day – The First Clinching Scenario
As the sun rose this morning, the LA Kings have something they haven’t had in a long time – a clinching scenario.

A Kings win tonight over the Seattle Kraken, paired with a Nashville defeat against the San Jose Sharks and the Kings would officially lock in their place in the 2026 Stanley Cup Playoffs.

The Kings haven’t been in control for much of the path along the way. When D.J. Smith took over as the team’s interim head coach, the Kings sat three points out of a playoff spot, really four when you factor in tiebreakers, with three teams to jump along the way. At its largest, the gap was five points, six with tiebreakers accounted for.

If you offered the team’s Interim Head Coach this current scenario back on March 1, would he have taken it?

“For sure. I don’t know how many points we were out when I took over, I just know that we were out. And here we are. The job isn’t done, but here we are.”

Over the last six weeks, the Kings have made up that gap and then some, moving into the second wild card position with three games remaining. They’ve also seriously narrowed the gap within the Pacific Division. From the largest deficits they faced, the Kings have made up si points on Anaheim, six points on Vegas and three on Edmonton, mostly coming during a 5-0-1 run to conclude the recent seven-game homestand. While the second wild card position is still the most likely outcome for sure, all of those teams, as well as Utah, are at least within reach if the Kings can continue to win games.

With that all being said, I think we’ve all seen enough ups and downs this season to know that D.J. Smith is right. The job is not done. For all there is to discuss with regards to seeding, positioning and matchups, the Kings have not secured a spot in the Stanley Cup Playoffs. Even taking care of their own business tonight will not guarantee that. They’ve done well to put themselves in this position and they are in full control of their fate, needing two victories to clinch a spot. But with three road games to be played, there is much work left to do, for a group that took care of business at home.

“I think we did a pretty good job at home and confidence is a big thing at this time of the year and I think we’re catching it at the right time,” forward Scott Laughton said. “There’s a lot of belief in this room and in each other, it’s been a lot of fun. We need to keep this going. Huge game for us tonight and a huge stretch. It’s a lot of fun playing in these games.”

What is within their control is tonight’s game versus Seattle. The Kraken were eliminated from playoff contention just a couple of days ago, but they just beat Vegas last week, damaging their position in the standings. Plus, it just seems like every Kings/Kraken game is extremely tight. Six of the last seven head-to-head matchups have been either one-goal games or two-goal games with an empty netter. The only outlier was Seattle’s 4-2 win in Los Angeles back in February. Always tight between the Kings and Kraken and would expect tonight to be no different, regardless of what either side has at stake.

“Both teams skate really well and check really well and they’re pretty deep throughout their lineup, so they have guys that can play and obviously they’re not afraid to play everyone in their lineup,” defenseman Brian Dumoulin, who played for both teams, said. “It creates a battle……it’ll probably be another tight one tonight.”

3 To Watch For –
– Nice to have a gamebreaker like Artemi Panarin, isn’t it?

“He can make plays and he makes two or three a night that no one else makes,” Interim Head Coach D.J. Smith said. “They made one mistake gave the bread man a breakaway and he gets the winner. We expect a lot from him to get where we want to go, but he found a way to do it tonight.”

Having that caliber of player offensively has been such a difference maker for the Kings and he made his opportunity count against Edmonton on Saturday. The NHL’s top-scoring defenseman Evan Bouchard fumbled the puck at the point and Panarin stripped it loose, going the other direction on a first-period breakaway. There, one of the best shootout players in NHL history did his thing.

Quick hands, good deception, top shelf for the goal. Panarin is at 55.8 percent for his career in shootouts, the third-best clip all-time among players with at least 20 shootout goals. Not the exact same situation, but a breakaway is a breakaway and Panarin is quite effective in those situations.

The Kings have long-missed a player like Panarin, specifically against Edmonton, who draws the type of attention that Edmonton’s stars do. Few in the league are on McDavid or Draisaitl’s level, but Panarin is a very high-caliber offensive player who makes plays few others can. The Kings finally have their superstar and he made all the difference when the Kings needed him on Saturday.

– Speaking of Panarin, he had to get the job done 5-on-5, because as of late, the Kings have hardly had a sniff on the power play.

The Kings finally got one late in the third period against Edmonton, which snapped a stretch of more than 200 minutes without a man advantage, dating back to the second period of the Toronto game the Saturday prior. That’s more than three full games worth of time elapsed between power-play chances.

That’s not to say, though, that there’s been a massive disparity. The Kings have only been shorthanded three times over the last three games, including once on Saturday, which they killed off. There were just two penalties in total called in the Vancouver game, matching roughing minors, and the Kings were called twice the game prior versus Nashville, three seconds apart, resulting in a 5-on-3 goal for the Predators.

That’s the bright side. Smith challenged his team to limit their minor penalties to 10 over the final five games of the season and they are currently on pace to do that. It’s that time of the year, where the whistles get swallowed more and more. I don’t think that’s a bad thing for the Kings, given the struggles of the penalty kill for much of the season, though we know how important special teams have been in the postseason.

The Kings want to play 5-on-5 and as of late they have been. See how the standard of officiating continues here into the final week of the regular season.

– Lastly, Insiders, wanted to share two articles from The Athletic that I read that morning that I thought were interesting reads.

The first one was the NHL Agent Poll, linked HERE.

I found this interesting for two reasons. One, player agents are known for their brutal honesty and the Kings were highlighted twice for the way the way they run they are run, from the perspective of the agents, one of seven organizations to receive votes, alongside some of the best-run teams in the league.

“The management do a very good job of taking care of their players, communicating to their players, and I think throughout the minor leagues, they do a very good job of running a similar system and working guys in.”

Think that jives pretty consistently with what players who have been traded to Los Angeles have said. When they come to the Kings, they are treated extremely well.

I also found the conversation about the future of contracts for top-end players to be really interesting. Right now, the Kings don’t have anyone in that conversation, but some of the players being discussed are players who have had links to Los Angeles. It also sparks a lot of debate around top-end players moving away from eight-year contracts and moving towards shorter deals, but signing more of them. It’ll be really interesting to see how that impacts the market for those players, whether via trades or potential free agency.

The second was this one, on the seven most underrated forwards in the NHL, featuring Kings winger Alex Laferriere, linked HERE.

This story focuses in on players who do things at an extremely high level that often go unnoticed. I have long felt that Laferriere hasn’t gotten the love he deserves. Laferriere ranks in the top five percent in the NHL in forecheck involvement and the Top-10 in hits, all while continuing to produce good numbers mostly in 5-on-5 situations. Nice to see him get a little love.

Kings and Kraken, as a three-game roadtrip gets underway tonight in Washington. Lots on the line over the next four days!

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