2/26 Preview – Moving On From An Inexcusable Loss + Breaking Down The Breakdowns, Power Play Improvements, Morning Skate Observations

TODAY’S MATCHUP: The LA Kings will look to bounce back off of one of the season’s worst defeats last night, as they host the Edmonton Oilers for the first time since Game 5 of last year’s playoffs.

HEAD-TO-HEAD: The Kings skated to a 4-3 shootout win over the Oilers when these teams met at Rogers Place last month. Defenseman Brandt Clarke led the way with a multi-point game, as he netted two primary assists. Over the last five seasons, forward Adrian Kempe has scored 21 goals against Edmonton between the regular season and playoffs, the most in the NHL in that span.

KINGS VITALS: The Kings had just a few guys on the ice today, considering the back-to-back situation.

Unconfirmed, but would expect to see goaltender Darcy Kuemper between the pipes tonight for his first start out of the break, after goaltender Anton Forsberg got the nod last night against Vegas. Kuemper has a lifetime record of 13-4-4 against the Oilers, with a .924 save percentage and a 2.22 goals-against average. Both goaltenders skated this morning, but Kuemper was off earlier.

For reference, here’s how the Kings lined up last night, which was a bit of a deviation from yesterday’s lineup projection –

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

Dumoulin – Doughty
Edmundson – Clarke
Anderson – Ceci

Forsberg
Kuemper

Looking at today’s skate, would not be surprised to see Taylor Ward and Jeff Malott potentially check in. Both players were off earlier, while forward Samuel Helenius was on later, but those numbers don’t fully add up either, that’s one too many. Jim Hiller will address the media from Crypto.com Arena to disclose anything closer to puck drop if there is anything to learn.

OILERS VITALS: Similar to the Kings, Edmonton played last night and did not hold a morning skate in advance of tonight’s playoff rematch.

Per the Edmonton team account, here’s how the Oilers lined up during last night’s 6-5 defeat in Anaheim –

Draisaitl & McDavid are back from the Olympics & in the lineup while Jarry starts for the #Oilers vs. the Ducks.@PlayAlbertaCA | #LetsGoOilers pic.twitter.com/5sq6d2J0N7

— Edmonton Oilers (@EdmontonOilers) February 26, 2026

The Oilers were led by forward Leon Draisaitl when these teams met back in January. Draisaitl found the back of the net twice when these teams met last month in the 4-3 Kings victory. Over the last five seasons, Draisaitl has scored 26 goals against the Kings between the regular season and the playoffs, more than any other player around the NHL in that span. Draisaitl ranks fifth in the NHL with 80 points entering tonight’s action.

Storyline Of The Day – Hard To Move Past Yesterday
I feel that sometimes, you just gotta say it.

Last night’s loss was simply unacceptable. I think you could argue it was the worst one of the season.

I get it. It’s the NHL and every player in the league deserves to be there. Vegas came into Los Angeles and worked their bags off. They checked relentlessly and got rewarded for their honest effort. Fine. But from the perspective of the Kings, that game became as much of a must win as you could ask for when it came out that five key players for the Golden Knights would not play. Despite missing Jack Eichel, Mark Stone, Mitch Marner, Shea Theodore and Noah Hanafin, Vegas dropped six goals at Crypto.com Arena and not only won but did so in a deserving fashion.

One team looked hungry and tenacious and it wasn’t the team that entered the game three points out of a playoff spot with close to a full complement of healthy players. It was the team with several AHL callups, the team which openly rested players for the long haul.

You just can’t lose that game. And the Kings did.

“We’re at the stage, 26 games in 51 days, where we’ve got to get points, we’ve got to play and get points,” Jim Hiller said. “There was an opportunity [last night] to get two, we didn’t get them, and we can’t let opportunities slip by. We have to ready and focused to get get two [against Edmonton], we have no other choice. We had a lot of meetings, we had a lot of practices, but you have to go out there, execute and get the points.”

So where does that leave us?

You actually wonder if this team just might have the audacity to win tonight. Seems to be the MO, at times. Feels like it’s happened a couple of times where the Kings lose the game they have no business losing, only to come back the following night and win a game they have no business winning, including the Winnipeg/Edmonton series in January. A few scheduled 1-1 records that have been 1-1, just not the way you’d have thought. They have been faced with this scenario before and, to their credit, they’ve found some wins in these types of games. That’s just narrative, though.

It’s hard right now to look beyond last night. There’s just no way to explain it. The Kings were gift-wrapped a game against a high-caliber opponent without arguably their five best players. Vegas prioritized the stretch run, the long haul, in resting those players. Drew Doughty was in that boat for the Kings, he played in the same game as those five players, but said he needed to play because the Kings need wins. He is, of course, correct. Doughty needed to play and if others played for the Kings, they would have needed to play also.

But here we are. The team that was willing to lose the game last night fought tooth and nail to earn the win. The team that couldn’t afford to lose did, passing up an incredible opportunity to start off the stretch run with two points.

You look at the margin for error the Kings are staring down, with now 25 games remaining in the regular season, and what was already thin is now even thinner. The Kings actually got the results they’d have wanted around the league last night, with Seattle and Utah losing, while the Anaheim/Edmonton game ended in regulation. But they did not get the most important result, their own, as they couldn’t get the job done against the Golden Knights. A disappointment to say the least.

Now, the task moves on. All it can do.

“That one hurts, but you’ve got to keep moving forward,” forward Quinton Byfield said. “[Tonight] is a massive game as well, they’re right there in the standings, so we’re trying to make a run here and get in, so it’s a big game.”

The games will come hot and heavy through the end of the season. No time to lick the wounds. Kings shouldn’t have any issues with energy, though. I’d give the Olympians a pass, but the bulk of the team hadn’t played in three weeks. Should be a pissed off team with more than enough in the tank. Time to show there’s still something in there.

3 To Watch For –
– So, what went so wrong?

Five goals against in the third period, for starters.

Didn’t think the Kings were ever really “in control” of the game. They had their opportunities to lead by more than a goal, but also conceded some chances as well. Either way, through 40 minutes, it wasn’t anything crazy, but the Kings were in a comfortable spot. Until they weren’t.

After the game, Jim Hiller was asked about the three goals conceded in a span of just over four minutes in the third period, which saw a 2-1 lead flipped into a 4-2 deficit. Were those structural breakdowns or were those individual mistakes? He didn’t give a ton away in the answer, indicating that it was a combination of both.

As I watched each goal back, the game-tying goal was an odd bounce, a whiffed one-timer that deflected off a skate, to a wide-open Colton Sissons, after he got lost in coverage off the rush. Hard to call that a structural breakdown, but no one stuck with Sissons at the back post either. The third goal was an extended shift in the defensive zone. The biggest breakdown was probably a mental error, as forward Joel Armia touched the puck after a Vegas high stick but barely cleared the zone, which didn’t allow for a change or a full reset. Vegas came right back and scored seconds later against exhausted opposition. The fourth goal looked to be a relatively harmless 2-on-2 rush but Reilly Smith split Edmundson and Clarke, with Clarke probably more at fault and a backhanded shot the Kings could’ve used a save on.

As I watched each goal, there wasn’t really a constant theme. All three were different plays. Breakdowns, certainly. I think they were more on the side of individual misplays than structural ones, though they were misplays within the structure, if that makes sense. Not that there’s a ton of difference, really, because as noted above, there’s just no excuses last night. But I did think, upon watching back, that the breakdowns were more of the individual variety than anything else.

– A bright spot from last night? The power play with Artemi Panarin included.

For Panarin’s part, he’s like to see it be even better than it was, but I thought it looked pretty solid.

“We have to attack the net more, even though we got an accidental goal, it still helps and we just have to be more on the attack,” Panarin said. “We also have to receive more power plays, that’s the goal, to be a part of more power plays and to attack the net more.”

Scoring is the most important thing and the Kings did that. The goal was fairly lucky with the finish, but I believe that in many ways, you make your own luck. I think the Kings did that.

Here is how the sequence played out, for those who did not watch.

First things first, Quinton Byfield won the faceoff, which set up the first attempted play, a Panarin seam pass for a Kempe one-timer that was deflected away. Kempe did get a one-timer look though on the same sequence, but it came off a low-to-high pass by forward Corey Perry, with space created by all the attention going to Panarin on the wall. That’s his influence, even when he isn’t making the pass himself.

Panarin then got a one-timer of his own, off a pass from defenseman Brandt Clarke, created by the handedness of both players. It wasn’t a Grade-A chance, but the work by Byfield and Panarin to win the puck back after the save was exactly what you wanted to see, which allowed for yet another reload. Then, Panarin has space against tired killers and although he was looking for Kempe on the pass, who was open for a one-timer it went off Byfield and in. You make your own luck by doing those five other things.

“We had a nice play, Panarin to Perry to Kempe for a one-timer, we haven’t seen Kempe over there a lot and getting that shot, I thought he looked dangerous, certainly on that one,” Hiller said of the power play last night. “Then, Panarin gets the puck and he finds people. Special players can find people and you’re seeing that on the power play specifically. All of a sudden, you put one guy there and things change in a hurry.”

Power play looked good, I felt. On another night, different brand of officiating, that unit gets several looks. Perhaps for the first time in a couple years, a game with lots of power plays might not be a bad thing.

– Wondering aloud if today’s morning skate is an indication of anything that we might we see tonight?

Four skaters and two goaltenders on the ice in El Segundo. Darcy Kuemper was the first off, which is unsurprising and indicates he is likely tonight’s starter in net. That’s according to plan. What was interesting, though, is that it was forward Samuel Helenius who was on late, along with defenseman Jacob Moverare, while forwards Taylor Ward and Jeff Malott were working separate and off the ice earlier.

The Kings are already thin at center, so removing Helenius without putting a center in would be interesting. Joel Armia can play center, so there’s a possibility there, or the Kings could split up Anze Kopitar and Quinton Byfield, though that line scored a goal. Additionally, if both Ward and Malott played, someone else would need to come out. All it really leads to, for me, are a bunch of thoughts on what it all might mean.

Frankly, it could mean absolutely nothing. Could be as simple as working with Helenius on a couple of things, he’s a younger player and didn’t play a ton of minutes last night and he wasn’t on for an hour and a half. Could mean multiple lineup changes coming with something we don’t yet know. Reporting, for now, what we saw this morning and will look towards the pre-game media availability and warmups for more firm details.

Kings and Oilers, as the final 25 game segment of the season gets underway. An opportunity to get a split out of the gates and atone for a poor performance last night.