2/4 Preview – Moverare in, Anderson/Turcotte Out + Focus Before The Break, SEA Improvements, 43’s Value, Injury Updates

TODAY’S MATCHUP: The Kings have two games remaining before the midseason break for the 2026 Winter Olympics, beginning tonight on home ice against the Seattle Kraken.

HEAD-TO-HEAD: Forward Kevin Fiala has found the back of the net in both games he has played versus Seattle this season, including a goal in the game played in Los Angeles in December. Since he joined the Kings in 2022, Fiala has 15 points (4-11-15) in 13 games played against the Kraken, which leads the team and also ties him for sixth in the NHL in assists and seventh in points.

KINGS VITALS: The Kings held an optional morning skate today, following a full-team practice day yesterday at Toyota Sports Performance Center in El Segundo.

Would expect the goaltenders to split the starts this week, with goaltender Darcy Kuemper expected to get the nod between the pipes tonight versus the Kraken. Kuemper has a 1-3-1 lifetime record against Seattle, with a .880 save percentage and a 3.04 goals-against average in five career starts.

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

Moore – Kopitar – Armia
Perry – Laferriere – Kempe
Fiala – Byfield – Kuzmenko
Malott – Helenius – Ward

Dumoulin – Doughty
Edmundson – Clarke
Moverare – Ceci

Kuemper
Forsberg

This isn’t confirmed, but a best estimate based on what we’ve seen over the last two days. That means one lineup change for the Kings from a personnel standpoint, with defenseman Jacob Moverare checking in for the injured Mikey Anderson on the blueline. That would see the pairs shuffled around just a bit, with Brian Dumoulin moving up and Moverare sliding into his spot. Otherwise, expecting the alignment above to be what we see tonight.

KRAKEN VITALS: The Kraken saw their four-game winning streak snapped yesterday, as they were defeated by the Anaheim Ducks yesterday evening at Honda Center.

Per Circling Seattle Sports, here’s how tonight’s opponent was aligned last night against the Ducks –

Here’s tonight’s @SeattleKraken starting forward lines, defenseman pairings, and goaltender matchup as they take on the @AnaheimDucks in the first leg of a road back-to-back!

No changes!

Grubauer photo by Eric Hiller
Dostál photo by @bgrdq77 #SeaKraken #SeattleKraken pic.twitter.com/7Roszqb40Z

— Circling Seattle Sports (@CirclingSports) February 4, 2026

Forward Eeli Tolvanen has led the Kraken against Los Angeles with multiple assists in both games played against the Kings this season, including a pair of helpers in a 3-2 Seattle victory at Crypto.com Arena on December 23. Tolvanen, who leads all Kraken skaters with four points (0-4-4) against the Kings this season, is one of three Seattle forwards with 20 assists during the 2025-26 season overall.

Storyline Of The Day – Keep The Focus Forward
Two games separate the LA Kings from the Olympic break.

I know where my head is at. But for the team on the ice, it’s got to be business as usual here heading into the break. The four points the team will contend for over the next 48 hours count the same as any other this season. Coming off a 3-1-1 roadtrip, the Kings came home with a bit of momentum in their favor.

“Good trip, good resilience I thought and the record was acceptable, so that’s great,” forward Trevor Moore said. “Now, it’s just pedal down. Nothing to save it for. We’ve got to make a run, we’ve got to win some games, string some together and just get hot going into the break.”

You always wonder where the mindset is at heading into games like that. Goes twice for those competing in the Olympics, which begin next week for five members of the team. For the rest of the team, it’s games against Seattle and Vegas separating them from more than a week off. Time to relax, recharge and reload. But not just yet.

There’s business to attend to first and the Kings need to be focused on the task at hand.

“Everybody’s facing the same thing,” Head Coach Jim Hiller said. “We went out on that roadtrip and we really tried to keep our focus tight. We talked about shift to shift, period to period. We knew we were going to be on the road for a long time, so what we need to do is just bring that home here for the next couple days, the same kind of focus and the way we approached it on the road. I liked how we played on the road, I thought that we were dialed in and focused. I would expect us to just roll that out for the next couple games.”

The Kings certainly need the focus. I wrote above that the points count the same tonight as they do in any other game. But that might not be the truth of it. They actually might mean a little bit more. The Kings have lost both games they’ve played this season against Seattle, collecting just one point. They lost three of four against Anaheim and they’ve lost two of three versus San Jose. A quick look at the standings would tell you the damage of those results. But there’s more to come, with four straight divisional games on tap and it starts tonight.

The Kraken enter tonight’s game occupying the second wild card spot in the Western Conference. They are ahead of the Kings by a point, with the points earned head-to-head matchups more than making up the difference there. That’s the task at hand here. The Kings better have their mindset where it needs to be and there’s nothing to suggest it won’t be. They’ve typically fared pretty well in these situations.

Last year, they won three of four heading into the 4 Nations break, points in all four. Won four of six the last time there was a scheduled Olympic break in 2022, with points in all six. Mentality has typically been there in those situations. They’ll put that to the test again tonight against Seattle, with two massive points on the line as they host the Kraken.

“I think everyone’s right here in this room right now,” forward Alex Laferriere added. “We know how big these two games are, especially in the standings, for us right now. I think everyone’s pretty excited for these two games.”

Easy to say it. Feels like the Kings are where they need to be here to approach these two games the right way. Time to go out there and do it on the ice.

3 To Watch For –
– So, obviously a big game tonight.

Teams are a point apart in the standings and as Laferriere said, everyone is well aware of that.

Seattle has won both games played against the Kings so far this season, once in overtime and once in regulation. What would Hiller like to see the Kings change from the most recent matchup, the Kraken victory in Los Angeles on December 23?

“The last game, we did have a lot of scoring chances, we didn’t execute well off the rush,” Hiller said of the 3-2 defeat in Los Angeles. “They’ve got some big defensemen and we’ve got to do a better job of getting in front of the goaltender. Those were two things in the Seattle game. Plenty of chances, didn’t execute great off the rush and just did not get in front of the goaltender as good as we should have.”

Nothing really crazy there, but Hiller added that Seattle is a team that makes it difficult to get to the dirty areas. Like the Kings, they are a low-scoring team. They don’t have any 100-point players and they try to win differently. Sounds familiar.

In Hiller’s eyes, Kings have to do a better job in that area than they did last time out.

“They usually play it pretty tight, it’s hard to get chances, so when you do have an opportunity, you’ve got to make it really hard on their goaltenders,” he added. “They make it hard, but you’ve got to do your job, you have to fight through that and make it difficult.”

– On the injury front, defenseman Mikey Anderson and forward Alex Turcotte will miss tonight’s game with their respective upper-body injuries.

Anderson left the game on Sunday early, after he was checked from behind into the boards by Carolina forward Jordan Martinook. He returned to the game briefly, taking three shifts, but eventually was ruled out with an upper-body injury. Turcotte has missed the last four games with his own upper-body injury and will not play tonight, though he was on the ice skating on his own this morning, apart from the team.

Alex Turcotte is on the ice on his own, in advance of today’s @LAKings morning skate.

Has missed the last four games with an upper-body injury, good to see him out there.

— Zach Dooley (@DooleyLAK) February 4, 2026

For defenseman Brian Dumoulin, he had a maintenance day yesterday and did not practice with the Kings, but it sounds like he should be ready to play tonight against the Kraken. He’s a veteran player, coming off a long trip, so a maintenance day is not all that out of character here. Assuming he is in fact good to go this evening, it’s a no harm, no foul situation.

So, from yesterday’s updates, Dumoulin is expected to play, Anderson and Turcotte are both out. Will see about tomorrow or perhaps more likely after the break.

– Defenseman Jacob Moverare is expected to check into the lineup tonight, his first appearance since January 20 against New York.

With Mikey Anderson out, Moverare is the next man up. He’s a reliable option on the blueline who has been successful in spot-start duty before. He’ll be tasked with that again here tonight against Seattle, in a moment the Kings need him in.

“It’s a lousy role for him personally, because you’ve got to play to be in a rhythm, but nobody does it better than him,” Hiller said of Moverare. “Nobody does it better, to be able to just be a good teammate, hang around, do all the extra skating, stay ready for when you’re called upon, it makes him so valuable, it really does. It’s a special skill that he has and again, not one that he enjoys, but he’s able to keep himself focused and ready to produce when he gets in.”

Expect to see Moverare paired with defenseman Cody Ceci. It’s a pairing we’ve seen before. When Drew Doughty was out earlier in the season, the Kings shuffled some things around and that led to a Moverare/Ceci combination on the third pairing. With that pairing on the ice, the Kings controlled 66.7 percent of high-danger chances, including the team’s best rate of high-danger chances for on a per/60 basis.

Small sample size of 12 games, but there is some familiarity there, which helps Moverare in coming back in.

“Cody is a veteran player, he plays a solid game, so I just try to adapt and I think we fit good together, two guys doing solid stuff out there and helping each other,” Moverare said of his pairing. “I’ve really liked playing with him. There aren’t too many surprises, we know each other’s game and just try to help out each other.”

Always good to see Moverare get a chance. Kings need good minutes from him tonight, as the Kings look to replace what Anderson brings to the fold.

Kings and Kraken, final home game before the break, with two big points on the line in a Pacific Division showdown.