1/1 Preview – Latest on Kuemper + Today’s Projected Lineup, Road Ahead, Fiala/Turcotte/Kuzmenko, Happy 2026!

TODAY’S MATCHUP: The Kings begin a four-game homestand tonight against Tampa Bay, tying their longest stretch of consecutive home games so far this season.

HEAD-TO-HEAD: Forward Adrian Kempe led the way offensively when these teams met last month in Tampa Bay, as he scored both goals in a 2-1 victory for Los Angeles. Kempe has five goals over his last eight games played against the Lightning, which leads all Kings skaters. Only three players in the Western Conference have more goals against Tampa Bay than Kempe in that span.

KINGS VITALS: Considering the earlier than usual puck drop, the Kings did not hold a morning skate in advance of today’s game.

With Darcy Kuemper working his way back from injury, the Kings were noncommittal on tonight’s starting goaltender. Should Kuemper get the nod, he’s 6-5-0 all time versus the Lightning, with a .915 save percentage and a 2.58 goals-against average. If the Kings go back to Anton Forsberg, he earned the victory in Tampa Bay with a 31-save performance in a 2-1 win in mid-December.

Beyond a potential change in net, no lineup changes are expected for tonight, with Monday’s alignment in Colorado shown below –

Tonight’s @LAKings Line Rushes –

Laferriere – Kopitar – Kempe
Foegele – Byfield – Moore
Fiala – Turcotte – Kuzmenko
Armia – Helenius – Perry

Anderson – Doughty
Edmundson – Clarke
Dumoulin – Ceci

Forsberg
Copley

— Zach Dooley (@DooleyLAK) December 30, 2025

Not expecting any changes for the Kings tonight, as noted above. Should any be required, forward Jeff Malott and defenseman Jacob Moverare are options to check into the lineup.

LIGHTNING VITALS: Tampa Bay has surged into the Atlantic Division lead and is riding a five-game winning streak entering today’s action, extended with yesterday’s 4-3 win in Anaheim.

Per the Lightning team account, here’s how today’s opponent lined up at Honda Center on Wednesday –

Tonight’s @LAKings Line Rushes –

Laferriere – Kopitar – Kempe
Foegele – Byfield – Moore
Fiala – Turcotte – Kuzmenko
Armia – Helenius – Perry

Anderson – Doughty
Edmundson – Clarke
Dumoulin – Ceci

Forsberg
Copley

— Zach Dooley (@DooleyLAK) December 30, 2025

Tampa Bay is without its number-one defenseman, Victor Hedman, due to an elbow injury. Lightning Head Coach Jon Cooper coached his 1,000th game in the NHL in yesterday’s win over Anaheim. Forwards Anthony Cirelli, Brayden Point and Brandon Hagel were all selected to Team Canada’s Olympic roster yesterday, all reprising their roles with the national team after playing in the 4 Nations Faceoff last season.

Storyline Of The Day – The Kuemperor (str)I(ke)S Back!
Will Darcy Kuemper start today against Tampa Bay?

That much is unknown. When we spoke with Kings Head Coach Jim Hiller yesterday, he again praised the progress that Kuemper has made in getting back into the mix, skating in his second full practice with the team, but said he had not yet had the final conversations with the team’s training staff to discuss whether or not everyone felt he would be in net against the Lightning.

“I still have to have the conversation with [Head Athletic Trainer Chris Kingsley] and with Bucks, all those kinds of things, to see if he’s ready,” Hiller said yesterday. “There’s points to being ready, there’s mentally, there’s physically, there’s feeling confident. All those things we still have to have the conversation.”

With Tuesday’s roster moves, however, Kuemper was activated from injured reserve and goaltender Pheonix Copley was assigned to the AHL. Therefore, Kuemper is close and ready enough at least to backup tonight. Very good signs.

For his part, Kuemper feels good.

He’s now been able to get in a few practices, he’s skated, he’s been around the team again. The official activation from injured reserve, though, is the first sign that he could be ready to play today. Will he start? Remains to be seen. But if you ask him, he feels he’s almost ready to get back into game action.

“It’s been good, the medical staff is taking great care of me and I’ve been getting good ice sessions in with [goaltending coach Mike] Buckley, so it was nice to get in for a full practice [Wednesday] and be back with the guys,” Kuemper said. “It’s always fun when the games are right on the horizon. I was in good hands and the recovery was going smooth the whole time, so I’m looking forward to being back.”

The injury for Kuemper came at a tough time both for himself and for the team, as he was playing some really good hockey. For a team that doesn’t score a ton of goals, strong goaltending is that much more important.

In the month of December, prior to his injury, Kuemper had allowed just eight goals in six starts, good for a .946 save percentage and a 1.54 goals-against average. Dating back over two months, Kuemper has allowed two-or-fewer goals in seven straight starts at Crypto.com Arena. The strong level of play that landed him a Vezina nomination last season and earned his place on Team Canada for the 2026 Winter Olympics.

“I didn’t miss that much time and I felt really good about my game before I got hurt,” Kuemper added.

So, if it’s tonight, the Kings will welcome back their number-one goaltender. Anton Forsberg has filled in admirably, with a .914 save percentage over his last 10 starts, and the Kings will need both guys going considering the schedule this month, with 16 games in 31 days, the busiest month of the season.

Getting Kuemper back in that mix, though, is exciting. If it comes tonight, it’ll mean that he’s ready to go in all of the areas Hiller mentioned. If a backup role is felt to be better for today, the Kings would go back to Forsberg, who delivered perhaps his best performance of the season in Tampa Bay, with 31 saves on 32 shots against the Lightning.

Either way, Kuemper is close and is expected to dress tonight. With a big challenge ahead, not a moment too soon.

3 To Watch For –
– Tonight’s game is the beginning of many things. The first game of 2026. The first game of a four-game homestand, all against teams currently in playoff spots. The first game of 16 this month and 19 before the Olympic break, by far the busiest stretch of the season.

Does the team look ahead to that at all? Yes and no.

Jim Hiller said the focus is all in the moment, but he understands that winning one game or playing well in one game right now doesn’t solve a ton. It’s about finding it over a longer stretch, which has eluded the Kings this season to date.

“Terrible answer, the one you’re sick of, is to say, we play Tampa at four o’clock and that’s most important game and then the next one will become the most important game, but we want to get on a roll,” Hiller said. “We’ve been talking about this a lot, whether it’s been at home, on the road, a combination the two, we need to get ourselves on a roll. I believe that’s going to happen. I believed it was going to happen last week. I believed it was going to happen a month ago. Need to get four, five, six games, string some together. I don’t care where it is. That’s what we need as a team. We haven’t got over that hump yet.”

There was a pretty winnable stretch in December that the Kings did not take advantage of. If they’re to pull it off now, it’ll be quite impressive considering the competition. Tampa Bay, Minnesota (x2), San Jose, Winnipeg, Edmonton, Dallas, Vegas, Anaheim (x2), New York, with eight of those games coming at home, where the Kings rank 30th in the NHL this season in points and points percentage.

Starts tonight against a strong Lightning team, but a team that played yesterday and will be without number-one defenseman Victor Hedman. See if they can continue their level from the last two games and start stringing a few more together.

– The Kings will likely need to score more than the two goals they had in Tampa Bay to win tonight. Where might they come from?

If you want my betting advice, I’d put it on the Fiala/Turcotte/Kuzmenko. line.

Per MoneyPuck, of the 15 lines that have played at least 25 minutes this season, that line ranks third best on the team – and first among currently assembled lines – in expected goals for per/60. Expected goals counts for nothing, but historically it’s a sign of what could come. I thought that line was the most dangerous in Colorado by the eye test, generating some of the Kings’ best looks 5-on-5. Feels like they’re going to breakthrough offensively, even if they’re a higher-event line that gives up a bit more as well. Don’t mind that tradeoff for those three.

The common factor between the top three lines on that list, by the way, is Turcotte, who has been the center on each of them. Good quote from Hiller on Turcotte during yesterday’s media availability, starting at 25:02 on the video below.

– Tonight is the first game of 2026, as the Kings flip the script on 2025. This didn’t get a ton of play, as the Kings activated Darcy Kuemper right after I posted it, but here’s 2025 by the numbers, one last time. I look at 2025 as the year that could have been. In March and April of 2025, the Kings played their best hockey as a group that they’ve played in years. They held a 2-0 lead in their playoff series with Edmonton. We all know what happened next and they haven’t gotten back to that level since.

As we hit 2026, the team is 0-0. It’s kind of an imaginary reset, since the Kings played three days ago, it just happened to be in 2025. For us, personally, it’s a change. Happy 2026! Hope everyone had a great night last night and welcomes in the New Year however they best like to celebrate today!

For the Kings, we’ll ring in 2026 at Crypto.com Arena. Big test today as the Kings look to claim the season series against Tampa Bay with a win on home ice.