1/5 Preview – Power-Play Progress + Kuemper Off First, “Difficult Conversations”, F3 vs. Wild Defensemen, Suite Night 10 Days Out!

TODAY’S MATCHUP: The Kings conclude a two-game mini series against Minnesota tonight at Crypto.com Arena, coming off Saturday’s 5-4 shootout win over the Wild.

HEAD-TO-HEAD: Forward Quinton Byfield had a goal and an assist on Saturday, his second multi-point output in as many matchups against Minnesota this season. Byfield has two multi-point games in his last four played and ranks third on the Kings this season with 23 points. Forward Adrian Kempe also scored on Saturday, his second in as many games played against the Wild this season. Kempe leads all Pacific Division players with eight goals versus Minnesota over the last five seasons.

KINGS VITALS: After an off day yesterday for the team, the Kings held a full-team morning skate earlier today at Toyota Sports Performance Center.

Goaltender Darcy Kuemper was off first after today’s morning skate, making him the expected starter in net tonight against Minnesota. Kuemper earned his sixth career victory against the Wild on Saturday and brings with him a 6-7-2 record, a .901 save percentage and a 2.84 goals-against average throughout his career versus Minnesota.

Based on today’s morning skate, here’s how the Kings are expected to line up this evening against the Wild –

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

Anderson – Doughty
Edmundson – Clarke
Dumoulin – Ceci

Kuemper
Forsberg

Expecting forward Trevor Moore to miss his third straight game, as he did not take part in line rushes and was on late for extra work this morning. Moore skated again this morning but not much of an update to provide, beyond that he is “close”. Should the Kings look for any additional changes, defenseman Jacob Moverare is an option to check in for the Kings.

WILD VITALS: Minnesota has just one regulation loss over its last 14 games, extended with the shootout defeat against the Kings on Saturday. It has a record of 10-1-3 in that span.

Per Michael Russo of The Athletic, here’s how Minnesota lined up this morning –

#mnwild lines

Kaprizov-Yurov-Zuccarello
Johansson-Eriksson Ek-Boldy
Tarasenko-Hartman-Hinostroza
Foligno-Sturm-Trenin

Hughes-Pitlick***
Brodin-Spurgeon
Middleton-Kiersted***

No Bogosian, Faber

Gustavsson expected to start

— Michael Russo (@RussoHockey) January 5, 2026

Forward Matt Boldy found the back of the net on Saturday, making it goals in both games played against the Kings so far this season. Boldy’s goal was his 26th in total for the 2025-26 season, ranking second in the NHL behind only Colorado’s Nathan MacKinnon. Defenseman Brock Faber did not skate this morning but is expected to play tonight, per Russo. Faber, a Los Angeles draft pick in 2020, collected a goal and an assist in Saturday’s matchup. Both Boldy and Faber will represent the United States at the 2026 Winter Olympics.

Storyline Of The Day – Power-Play Progress
Have written what has felt like endless words about the LA Kings power play this season.

Those words have been almost universally negative. And rightfully so, for a unit that has underperformed just about all season long.

Perhaps, though, we are starting to see a corner turned for that unit. With Corey Perry’s power-play goal on Saturday against Minnesota, it marks four consecutive games with a goal on the man advantage, the first time this season the Kings have done that. First time since Games 77 – 81 of last season.

The @LAKings have now scored a power-play goal in four consecutive games. First time since Games 78 – 81 of last season.

92/55/22/96/10 unit is clicking really well, responsible for all five goals. As good as the PP has looked all season.

— Zach Dooley (@DooleyLAK) January 4, 2026

In that span, the Kings have gotten five goals in total. Perry has led the way with two, while forwards Quinton Byfield, Kevin Fiala and Andrei Kuzmenko have each scored one. The common factor is that all five goals have come from the same unit, with Brandt Clarke the fifth member alongside the four forwards and all five players have contributed.

Coming out of the holiday break, the Kings took a new approach to the power play. Rather than try to create what they thought was a PP1 and a PP2, they separated their two most dangerous scorers in Fiala and forward Adrian Kempe. Jim Hiller put it simply. The unit that scores is the unit that will play.

Since Byfield’s goal against Anaheim, that unit has averaged 6:36 per player, compared to 5:24, for the other unit. As Hiller put it the other day, the unit above is the top unit right now and the other unit is playing “second fiddle” at the moment. That can certainly change, as the other unit finds the back of the net or production dries up. But right now, Hiller has stood true to his word of rewarding the unit that is producing.

So what’s gone so well?

I think a lot of the success has come down to putting the right mix of skillsets into players finding their roles on that unit.

“We know Perrs is around the net, we know Q is good down low and then me, Kuzy and Kevin are working the top and it’s good,” Clarke said. “We can come from both sides, we’re funneling pucks, we’ve done that well and we’re collapsing on loose pucks, not letting them get out of the zone. I think we’re going all the right things right now.”

Byfield and Clarke pointed to Perry first and foremost and his role at the net. He’s been doing it for 20 years, as Byfield put it, and his presence encourages pucks to the net. Byfield also operates down low as the unit’s best puck retriever, though he’s also able to switch spots with Fiala when situations call for it, as was the case on Saturday when the Kings scored.

That leaves Fiala and Kuzmenko operating on the sides of the umbrella, with Clarke up at the top. On Saturday, the Kings used a right-side overload, not an umbrella, with Byfield and Fiala moving around to create space, which led to Byfield moving up higher while Fiala remained on the right side, down low, to create a numbers advantage. I felt that earlier this season, Kuzmenko and Perry, at times, struggled to operate on the same unit earlier in the season because both players liked to play down low. That hasn’t been an issue with Kuzmenko stationed a bit higher in the zone. He’s able to freely roam the left flank or move into the middle and his goal came from a tighter angle, when he crashed down low. He can also make plays from the circles and that allows Perry to play where he is most effective, in and around the net.

The combination of those five players has been as effective as the Kings have been on the man advantage so far this season. Four games is the smallest of sample sizes, but the Kings are third in the NHL since the break at 38.5 percent. They won’t score every night, but keeping things going even close to that rate will continue to help them score more goals as they’ve done with 4.0 per game in that time.

3 To Watch For –
– So, the Kings did play well against Minnesota on Saturday, especially offensively.

What’s one thing they’d like to clean up?

“We liked a lot about our game, certainly liked how we played in the o-zone,” Hiller said. “We gave up too much off the rush, their D are active, fourth guy always there, especially with Faber and Hughes. Our F3, there was too many times that we lost our F3. If there’s one thing we can do better, it’s make sure that they’re coming through numbers off their rush, which is when they’re most dangerous.”

Looking at the goals the Kings allowed, the third Minnesota goal was an even-strength goal off the rush with Faber activating, just as Hiller described. Joel Eriksson Ek’s goal was also off the rush, though it was on the power play and more of stretch pass than a true rush attack.

Still, I think there’s a good point made there. Keep up the same approach offensively and try to clean a few things up the other way, like what Hiller mentioned with the F3, especially against a team with two, elite defensemen.

– I liked this quote from Alex Turcotte this morning on where he feels the team is at right now –

“We’ve talked about it a lot and I think had some difficult conversations that needed to be had. I think everyone realizes we’ve got a lot better as a team, individually as well. Just a mindset and being positive and kind of flushing the first half a little bit and just moving on. I think we kind of have a weight off our back a little bit and we’re playing better. Hopefully we keep it going.”

The difficult conversations I think play into what I felt yesterday as I wrote about the team. Turcotte added that the Kings falling out of a playoff spot was “alarming” for some, but also that the team had long known that they were not playing up to par. Think that meeting the Kings held on Friday was one that addressed some of the concerns the Kings have had, things we’ve all certainly seen. Schedule to come remains very difficult, so we’ll see how it goes. So far so good on Night 1, hopefully something that continues into Night 2.

– Lastly, Insiders, another reminder about LA Kings Insider Suite Night coming up on January 14!

We’ll be in the Sky Box that night, tickets are $56 each.

This is the first of two events this season and we still have a few spots remaining. Shoot me an email at [email protected] for more information or feel free to visit this link HERE directly to purchase tickets for the game against Vegas!

Kings and Wild to conclude the season series tonight. Los Angeles with a 1-0-1 record that they’ll look to extend to claim the series in total.