12/8 Preview – No Changes Expected + Rolling Over The Same Game, Danault’s Line, Laferriere’s Speed/Strength & Mom’s Trip G1

TODAY’S MATCHUP: The Kings are back on the road for a quick, two-game trip as they visit the Utah Mammoth for the first time this season.

HEAD-TO-HEAD: Defenseman Drew Doughty led the Kings against Utah last season, as he collected five points (2-3-5) from the two games he played. Among defensemen, Doughty’s five points are tied for the second most in all-time against the Mammoth. Defenseman Joel Edmundson scored two goals in the first ever Kings/Mammoth matchup last October and was second on the team in scoring with four points (2-2-4) against Utah in total.

KINGS VITALS: The Kings held a full-team morning skate today, coming off a travel day yesterday without a practice.

Looks like goaltender Darcy Kuemper will make his fourth consecutive start this evening, after he was the first goaltender off the ice first this morning. Kuemper was in net for all three games against the Mammoth last season, all Kings victories. Kuemper posted a 3-0-0 record in those games, with a .917 save percentage and a 2.33 goals-against average.

Coming off their best offensive showing of the season thus far, here’s how the Kings are expected to line up tonight, with no changes from Saturday’s victory –

Tonight’s @LAKings Line Rushes –

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

Anderson – Doughty
Edmundson – Clarke
Dumoulin – Ceci

Kuemper
Forsberg

— Zach Dooley (@DooleyLAK) December 7, 2025

After scoring a season-high six goals last time out, no changes are expected for the Kings. Should one be required, forwards Jeff Malott and Samuel Helenius, along with defenseman Jacob Moverare, are available to check into the lineup.

MAMMOTH VITALS: Utah returns home tonight after a six-game roadtrip, which saw them compile a record of 2-4-0, ending with a 2-0 defeat in Calgary last time out on Saturday evening.

Per the Utah team account, here’s how the Mammoth lined up last time out –

Saturday night lineup ✍️ pic.twitter.com/nJ0n6GYftB

— Utah Mammoth (@utahmammoth) December 6, 2025

Former Kings defenseman Sean Durzi returned from injury a couple of weeks back and is expected to play tonight against his former team, after leading his team in time on ice (24:19) against Calgary on Saturday. Durzi has two assists in two career games against the Kings. Forward Barrett Hayton leads all Utah skaters with three goals in three career games played against the Mammoth, all stemming from a hat trick in Los Angeles in February.

Storyline Of The Day – More Of The Same, Please
Maybe just run it back from Saturday?

Okay, fine, not that easy. But it’s what the Kings have to try and do. Alex Turcotte, who had a multi-point night in the win over the Blackhawks, talked about how yeah, that win was great, but now it’s in the past and the team has to find ways to build off of that performance.

“Definitely it’s nice, but it’s one game, we’ve got to build off of it.”

So now the team heads back on the road, where they’ve experienced the bulk of their success so far this season. Unlike past trips, they hit the road today coming off a feel-good win, as opposed to a difficult loss. They’re now tasked with the challenge of not letting Saturday’s win become a one-off.

Starts with an opportunity tonight against Utah.

“It’s just being consistent,” forward Alex Laferriere said. “I think for us, we don’t want to press for offense. We’ve got to know that we scored six goals on Saturday because of how we played, we played our game, so we didn’t press for offense, didn’t do anything out of the ordinary. It’s just about sticking to our game and knowing that the offense is going to come.”

Defenseman Cody Ceci had similar thoughts.

The goals came from the Kings playing the best version of their style, not by changing it.

“I think that was huge for us to be able to put up that number, but still play our game defensively, play as well as we did defensively,” Ceci said. “It’s good for our confidence. We don’t have to change the way we play to find scoring, we can do it our way.”

I think Saturday’s win was the closest thing we’ve seen the post-deadline version of last season’s Kings.

A big reason as to why for me was the play of the Foegele/Danault/Moore line. It’s not the first line, but it might just be the team’s most important line. That’s the swing line. The matchup line. It’s the line that, when they are on their game, can provide shutdown capabilities, along with offensive production. We haven’t seen enough in either direction this season on a consistent basis. But when they’re on, they can swing the matchups in favor of the Kings, by neutralizing top offensive opposition, which frees up the Kopitar and Byfield lines, while also adding some production of their own.

They got the game’s first goal through Foegele and then Danault got his point with the primary assist on defenseman Mikey Anderson’s goal in the third period. Offensive production, on top of a strong forechecking performance as well.

“Those three guys in particular, now they’re playing together again, I thought that’s the most they’ve looked like they were last year in the second half, all year, all three of them,” Hiller said. “They’re on pucks and honestly, they were a pain to play against. I would throw all three of those guys in there together.”

Good night for that line and so many others. All areas of optimism, as the Kings look to find that consistency tonight in Salt Lake City.

3 To Watch For –
– A lot of Kings played well on Saturday. But I felt that it was one of Alex Laferriere’s strongest games I’ve seen him play with the Kings.

“There’s two things that jumped out at me with Laf,” Hiller said. “One was the speed, he was skating, how many times did he track down pucks. The second part of that is he didn’t track them down clean, he seemed to arrive when there was another guy there. Now, you’re moving fast, now it’s a physical battle and he was able to take that guy on, use his strength on his skates and still come out and make something happen for us.”

I think that one thing that’s important to remember about Laferriere is that he can fit in just about anywhere in the lineup. His game compliments just about everybody. As such, he sometimes becomes the first piece moved around, and sometimes that perhaps hurts him at the expense of helping the team.

Playing with Anze Kopitar and Adrian Kempe, though, is maybe one spot that really allows him to flourish. I thought he was all over the ice on Saturday. On a per/60 basis, once you factor out small sample sizes, the linemate Laferriere has most excelled with from a goalscoring standpoint is Kempe. He got a well-deserved assist in the third period to get on the scoresheet, which I think was a reward for the work he put in before that.

Good showing from 14. Would like to see him get a bit of runway with his current line. Think we could see the best of him in that spot.

– The Kings scored a power-play goal on Saturday.

This is real.

While I think any power-play goal would’ve been taken, the fact that Andrei Kuzmenko got it helps double. No secret that Kuzmenko’s production hasn’t been what it was last season, when he was so effective, tallying 17 points (5-12-17) in 22 regular-season games. Kuzmenko has moved around the lineup, in search of getting him going offensively. It was always the power play, though, that was his bread and butter.

The goal saw him stationed in his favorite position, operating on the lower side of the umbrella, down low to the goaltender’s right. What made the Kings effective last year was that they had someone who could run the power play from down low, as opposed to just the point. It’s from that spot where he nearly set up Anze Kopitar for a power-play goal on the first opportunity. And where he dragged the puck around his body, into the lower slot, and got his shot to sneak over Chicago goaltender Spencer Knight on Saturday, as he snapped an 11-game goalless stretch.

Again. An area to try and keep rolling tonight.

– Lastly, as noted yesterday, today is the first game of the mom’s trip for the Kings!

The Kings had a collection of special guests on the plane ride to Utah yesterday, after most of the Kings’ moms took in the win over Chicago on Saturday. The moms will be with the team for both games on the trip. They have a few special activities planned on game days, away from the team, and will be at the games against the Mammoth and Kraken. Most of the players have their mom or another important female figure in their lives with them on the trip, which always makes for a special time.

“It’s always such a proud moment, I think, for the players to have dads or moms [on the trip],” Hiller added this morning. “The moms, for some of them, have never had the chance to experience this, even players who are later in their careers, a lot of first-time moms. It’s just really is special.”

More coverage on the mom’s trip to come over the next few days.

For today, it’s the Kings and Mammoth at 6 PM Pacific, 7 PM local here in Utah! See if they can keep things rolling off a strong showing on Saturday.