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Game Day

10/3 Preview – Special Teams Remain A Focal Point + 11/7 Alignment Tonight, Laferriere on Control, ABTV Debut

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WHO: Los Angeles Kings (0-1-0) @ San Jose Sharks (1-0-0)
WHAT: 2026-27 NHL Regular Season, Game 2/84
WHEN: Saturday, October 3 @ 7:00 PM Pacific
WHERE: SAP Center – San Jose, CA
HOW TO FOLLOW: VIDEO: ABTV + DAZN – VIDEO: ESPN LA App – TWITTER: @dooleylak & @lakings

TODAY’S MATCHUP: The LA Kings are back on the road in San Jose, in search of a bounce-back performance tonight, after a season-opening defeat in Colorado on Wednesday.

HEAD-TO-HEAD: The Kings posted a 1-0-2 record against San Jose during the 2025-26 season, with the lone victory coming at SAP Center back in October. Defenseman Joel Edmundson led all Los Angeles skaters with four assists against the Sharks last season, while forward Alex Turcotte had three points (1-2-3) in three games played and forward Corey Perry added a goal and an assist in the two he featured in. Forward Artemi Panarin has 13 goals in 21 career games played against San Jose, his most against any Western Conference opponent.

KINGS VITALS: The Kings travel to San Jose with 22 players on the roster, meaning two lineup decisions will need to be made for tonight’s game.

Expect to see goaltender Anton Forsberg between the pipes this evening for the visitors. Forsberg brings a lifetime record of 1-0-2 against the Sharks into tonight’s matchup, including an overtime defeat in San Jose last season. The Swede has posted a .922 save percentage and a 2.49 goals-against average in five career appearances versus tonight’s opponent.

Based on yesterday’s practice and today’s morning skate, here is tonight’s projected Kings lineup –

Panarin – Byfield – Kempe
Zuccarello – Turcotte – Laferriere
Moore – Haula – Laughton
Armia – Perry

Dumoulin – Doughty
Edmundson – Clarke
Anderson – Ceci
Gustafsson

Forsberg
Kuemper

The Kings are expecting to dress 11 forwards and seven defensemen tonight, per Head Coach Peter Laviolette. That would see forward Corey Perry and Erik Gustafsson each make their season debuts, while forwards Samuel Helenius and Andre Lee are expected to come out. How that adjusts the pairings remains to be seen in some ways, but Laviolette said it’ll be a rotation throughout the game.

SHARKS VITALS: San Jose made its season debut on Thursday against the Florida Panthers, skating to an 4-3 victory on home ice.

Per Curtis Pashelka of the Mercury New Group, here’s how the Sharks lined up during practice yesterday afternoon –

San Jose was led last season by forward Macklin Celebrini, who totaled five points (1-4-5) in three games played against the Kings. Celebrini collected three assists in the season opener, with forward Will Smith also tallying three points (2-1-3) in the win over Florida. Defenseman Luca Cagnoni also had a multi-point game in the season opener, including the game-winning goal in overtime.

Storyline Of The Day – Special Teams Step Forward
The Kings want to keep the good from Wednesday in their game but boy do they know they’ve got to improve some of the bad.

One thing everyone has seemed to agree upon – lots of what went wrong was self inflicted.

“I think a lot of the goals they scored were on our own mistakes that we made,” forward Joel Armia said. “I’m sure that we’re going to be better. I just feel like everything was our own doing, how they scored. It’s simple stuff that we have to fix.”

Four power-play goals against and a 0-for-5 showing on the power play in the loss. Special teams are under the microscope early in the season, coming off a rough debut. It’s been a focus all summer and a lot of resources have been dedicated towards improving in those areas.

It’s not time to push the panic button. The Kings scored a power-play goal in last year’s season opener and then things went the other direction. They killed five of six power plays they faced, good for 83.3 percent, and again, went the other way. Both against Colorado, for what it’s worth.

So, all is not lost.

It is, however, pressing. There’s a difference between overreaction and urgency. The Kings need the latter, because points in Game 2 count the same as points in Game 82. Special teams were a big factor in the result on Wednesday and could be the same here tonight.

On the power play, Colorado was certainly a difficult first test, having led the league last season in PK%. Still, the Kings aren’t taking that excuse. San Jose added veteran, penalty-killing defensemen this summer and is aiming for improved metrics itself on special teams, from a unit that ranked near the Kings last season, at 26th in the NHL.

So, the Kings will need to snap it around quicker, with more movement, than they had against the Avalanche.

“We’re still trying to make a lot of plays,” forward Quinton Byfield said. “I feel like everyone on the power play can be anywhere, if we can get some more motion, make the defenders guess where you are and not let them get set. A little bit more motion can create different opportunities.”

The other direction, the challenge is never easy against Macklin Celebrini. But that’s part of the power play. You play against elite players. The Kings surrendered four goals in Wednesday’s opener. They added two shorthanded tallies as well, which is positive, on individual plays by Trevor Moore and Joel Armia. Four, though, isn’t going to cut it.

San Jose ranked directly in the middle of the NHL last season, 16th in the league, and scored once on the man advantage in the season opener against Florida.

For the Kings, it starts with defending the slot area better, denying seam passes and protecting the most dangerous area of the ice, better than they did in Denver. It was a huge point of emphasis for the group yesterday and I’m sure it will be again this morning.

“Yeah, obviously we’ve got to tighten it up a little bit, keep the puck out of the net and stay out of the box,” defenseman Cody Ceci said. “We gave up four shorthanded, one 5-on-3, so those are tough to kill against some elite players. Cleaning up all those things, I think we can get that number down early in the year. We watched a lot of video and now it’s trying to move on from it and learn from it.”

Special teams can always be the difference. The Kings did a lot of things well 5-on-5 in their first game. Continuing that, with improvements around it, is a key to success this evening.

3 To Watch For –
– With the alignment change comes personnel rotation.

The Kings have had a good amount of success over the years in this alignment. On defense, it gets another puck mover and power-play contributor in the lineup in Erik Gustafsson, without removing a penalty killer. Up front, it should create icetime for other players, who could double up with shifts lower in the lineup.

“You just have to figure out how you manage it, whether you go with four centermen or you leave it the way it was,” Laviolette said. “It’ll move around throughout the course of the night and the same with the defensemen, the pairs will move as well.”

What Laviolette is talking about pretty much comes down to whether he splits up Erik Haula and Scott Laughton. Both players are natural centers, but played on the same line with Trevor Moore in Colorado. I think that Laviolette likes that line, but with 11 up front, you have to be willing to shuffle things a bit. I think that the players you want to benefit here are players like Alex Laferriere and Trevor Moore, who should get a few more reps, as well as your top-end guys. Forwards tend to like the 11/7 look and I think it could benefit the group up front to do so.

Laviolette agreed that having several players who can play both center and wing is a benefit to everyone in this situation. Interesting to see how it shakes out this evening on the ice.

– One positive from Game 1 in Colorado was Brian Dumoulin’s goal, created by a very poised sequence by Laferriere.

Laferriere did a lot of things well there. He drove aggressively down the right wing, but instead of forcing it to the net, he opted to retain possession, go around the back of the cage and search for different options. As he worked back up the wall, he executed a crisscrossing play with Dumoulin, who found room down the left side as a result of the movement. One drop pass and a ripped shot later and it was Dumoulin opening the Kings’ account for the season.

Not exactly the betting-odds favorite, with Dumoulin scoring the first goal of the season. But a nice play from both players to execute something that the Kings tried to do on multiple occasions in the offensive zone, to create some space to work with, with the defensemen activating to create different looks.

“Yeah, it’s just reading the play, I had a good head of speed there, so I was able to get to the back of the net,” Laferriere said. “That’s something Lavi’s been preaching is us controlling the puck more and holding on to it a little bit longer. He’s talked to me about that a little bit too, just how he trusts me handling the puck and if I’m able to get some space up high to try and carry it up there, that’s all I was trying to do. Then Dumo came on the ice and I saw the two guys kind of go towards me, so I just dropped it off to him and he sniped it.”

Laferriere was the only King with two points in Colorado, coming after he collected a team-high four assists in four playoff games last season. He’ll look to keep that going into Game 2.

– Lastly, tonight is the first local broadcast of the season on ABTV.

John Kelly will be on play-by-play with Jim Fox as the color analyst. Throughout the season, you’ll see a rotating collection of analysts, as Fox scales back his travel. For tonight, though, with the short trip to San Jose, it’ll be Kelly and Fox as it was for the bulk of last season. First game on ABTV and DAZN for those who watch on those platforms.

Need to see more tonight, Insiders. Kings at Sharks to conclude a two-game stretch away from home to begin the season. Home opener at 7 PM on Tuesday, with the Kings looking to bring a couple of points and an improved showing back to Los Angeles.

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