4/16 Preview – Playoff Scenarios Aplenty + Last Regular Season Game For 11, Full Lineup Expected, A Short Thank You!

TODAY’S MATCHUP: We’ve reached Game 82! The LA Kings are in Calgary to complete their regular-season schedule, with their playoff seeding and opponent to be determined tonight. 
 
HEAD-TO-HEAD: Forward Quinton Byfield scored twice in this building when the Kings were here last month, a 3-2 shootout defeat for the visitors. Byfield is tied for the team lead in goals against Calgary this season with forward Adrian Kempe, who has also scored twice. Byfield is also tied for the team lead in points with linemate Alex Laferriere, who has three (1-2-3) in three games played. 
 
KINGS VITALS: The Kings held a full-team morning skate today in Calgary in advance of their final game of the 2025-26 regular season. 
 
Goaltender Anton Forsberg will start tonight’s finale, per Interim Head Coach D.J. Smith. Forsberg posted a 29-save shutout in his only start against the Flames this season, a 2-0 Kings victory in Los Angeles back in February. 
 
Here is how the Kings lined up during today’s morning skate, projecting tonight’s Game 82 lineup –
 
Panarin – Kopitar – Kempe
Moore – Byfield – Laferriere
Armia – Laughton – Wright
Joseph – Helenius – Ward
Turcotte
 
Anderson – Doughty
Edmundson – Clarke
Dumoulin – Ceci
Moverare
 
Forsberg
Kuemper
 
Forward Alex Turcotte and defenseman Jacob Moverare both took the morning skate today but appear to be tonight’s scratches, with the Kings using the same lineup tonight as we saw in the first two games on this trip.
 
FLAMES VITALS: Calgary has split the first two games of its season-ending homestand, with a 4-1 win over Utah and a 3-1 defeat versus Colorado, coming into tonight’s game versus the Kings. 
 
Per Pat Steinberg of Sportsnet 960, here’s how the Flames lined up last time out versus Colorado –
 

#Flames morning skate vs. Colorado, Matt Coronato not skating:

Coleman-Backlund-Farabee
Gridin-Frost-Olofsson
Zary-Kerins-Klapka
Sharangovich-Gross-Suniev

Parekh-Whitecloud
Maatta-Brzustewicz
Wiebe-Pachal

Wolf

— Pat Steinberg (@Fan960Steinberg) April 14, 2026

 
Calgary was without forwards Matt Coronato (undisclosed) and Jonathan Huberdeau (lower-body) against the Avalanche. Coronato is Calgary’s leading scorer with 44 points. Defenseman Olli Maatta, who played two seasons in Los Angeles, scored against his former team in this building back in March and he leads Calgary in scoring with 14 points (2-12-14) since the trade deadline.

Storyline Of The Day – Playoff Scenarios!
So. Tonight we find out.

We find out the who, what, where and when of Round 1.

There are several scenarios still at play here for the LA Kings. The Kings could play one of three opponents in Round 1 – Colorado, Edmonton and Anaheim. We won’t know where the Kings are headed until the final buzzer sounds tonight in Calgary, with all three of those teams in action tonight for Game 82.

If my numbers are correct, here are the scenarios for the Kings entering the final day of the regular season –

Kings @ Avalanche
LAK Regulation Loss
LAK OTL/SOL + ANA Collects At Least 1 Point
LAK, EDM, ANA all get same result (W, OTL, SOL, L)
LAK Win + ANA Win + EDM OTL/SOL

Kings @ Oilers
LAK W + EDM W + ANA Loss
EDM Gets At Least 1 Point + LAK Win + ANA Loss of Any Kind
EDM Gets At Least 1 Point + LAK OTL/SOL + ANA Regulation Loss

Kings @ Ducks
LAK Win + ANA Win + EDM Regulation Loss

Kings vs. Oilers
LAK Win + EDM Regulation Loss + ANA Loss of Any Kind

I think that’s an exhaustive list? Correct me in the comments if I’m wrong.

For reference, the Ducks are in Nashville for a 5 PM Pacific puck drop, while Edmonton visits Vancouver for a 6 PM Pacific start.

There are a number of factors in play here. Anaheim’s game begins an hour before both Los Angeles and Edmonton get underway. So, we’ll have a good sense of what is at stake once that game ends. If Anaheim wins, the Kings cannot play Edmonton, so it would be down to the Ducks or the Avalanche. If Anaheim loses, it would be either the Avalanche or the Oilers, as the only Freeway Faceoff scenario requires Anaheim to defeat Nashville.

The most straight forward path would be a Kings loss. If the Kings lose in regulation tonight, it’ll be Colorado in Round 1. There are far more Colorado scenarios than not because the Kings do not control their destiny. If Anaheim and Edmonton both win, that would be that. However, that’s why you play the games. Could go a number of different directions, certainly.

The craziest part of it all is that there is still a chance that the Kings play Game 1 at Crypto.com Arena. Imagine suggesting that, what, 10 days ago? Would’ve been insane. But there is a path to it. The Kings need to win and get the necessary results from the Ducks and Oilers. Not to suggest it’s the most likely outcome here, but it’s not like it’s that crazy either. If the Ducks lose to the Predators, it’ll come down to the late games to see if opening at home has a legitimate chance.

With that comes something to play for tonight. They want home-ice advantage. There is motivation there. Coming off the best homestand of the season at 5-1-1, the Kings have started to find just a bit of consistency and form on home ice. Now, they have a chance to lock that in tonight. It’s something worth playing for.

Mikey Anderson – It’s big. If you can start at home, it makes travel a little bit easier, you get time at home, you get the fans, last change, you get everything. I think it’s good and we’ll be ready to go.

Joel Edmundson – We love playing in front of our fans, so we can get that extra game, that would be huge. That’s why this game is big and we’re excited for it.

Alex Laferriere – It’s huge. We know that if we win [tonight], there’s a possibility we could be playing in front of our fans in Games 1 and 2 and that definitely gives us an advantage. We want to do that.

That is why we’ll see a full-strength lineup for the Kings. There are only two players on the trip who could check in anyways and as confirmed this morning, I think we’ll see everyone play, to try and secure home-ice advantage and also in an effort to deliver a performance that could carry some momentum into the postseason. Been such an eventful season, wouldn’t have expected it to end any other way other than an unknown.

What we learned this morning is that the Kings will open on Sunday if they play Colorado and Monday if it’s Anaheim or Edmonton. All to be shaken out by the end of the night!

3 To Watch For –
– Tonight will not be the final game of Anze Kopitar’s NHL career but it will be his final regular-season game. With the captain set to retire at the conclusion of the 2026 Stanley Cup Playoffs, tonight will be his final game in this setting, before the Kings begin Round 1 in a few days.

Kind of crazy to think about. Wrote about extending Kopitar’s season meant to his teammates HERE. Regardless of tonight’s game, the show goes on. One last set of handshakes and then it’s off to the postseason.

Expecting Kopitar to have some loved ones in attendance tonight, which should make the moment just a bit more special. Fitting in some ways that he and Jonathan Quick have these nights just a couple days apart, after both players were selected by the Kings in the same draft, just a couple of rounds apart.

One to enjoy tonight before all of his focus goes towards the postseason.

– Has there been a hotter scorer in the NHL of late than Adrian Kempe?

Honestly, didn’t even realize just how impressive he has been until looking it up during Tuesday’s game. When Kempe scored in Vancouver on Thursday, it was his ninth goal in the month of April. No other player had more than six.

Adrian Kempe has now scored nine goals in the month of April. No other player in the @NHL has more than six. https://t.co/t7FyQqdR7g

— Zach Dooley (@DooleyLAK) April 15, 2026

Kempe is on pace for a potential NHL Player of the Month award with his play of late. He’s up to 36 goals on the season heading into tonight’s finale and that came in spite of a nagging injury that cost him one game and hampered him in others. It also came on one of the lowest-scoring teams in the NHL over the first several months of the season. Takes a certain kind of scorer to excel in those conditions and Kempe has done that. Now, with goals up overall, Kempe is thriving at the most important time.

“He’s a big-time player and that’s why he gets the deal he got,” defenseman Mikey Anderson said of his teammate. “He’s our guy when we need something, he finds a way to make it happen. Him and that line all together, they’ve been big for us and come up in some big moments.”

Kempe is one player who has elevated his game in the playoffs every time the Kings have qualified. He excels in those big moments. As big a reason as any that the Kings have gotten in and hopefully he’s able to continue that level of production into the postseason.

– Lastly, just wanted to take a brief chance to say thank you for reading all season long!

There’s more to come, with a ton of coverage planned for the postseason, but Game 82 is the end of a journey for all of us. This season in particular came with a lot of hardships for the team and naturally that wasn’t always the easiest to work through. However, we made it. Playoff hockey coming soon and that is always the most exciting time.

Through it all, the Insiders have been there. And, for that, I am most appreciative. More thanks to follow when we eventually see this season wrap up, hopefully some time from now!

Kings and Flames. One last regular-season game with seeding and opponents on the line! Let’s enjoy this one and get ready for Game 83.