4/9 Preview – That’s What’s Called A Winning Streak + Byfield Expected To Play, Forsberg In Net, Standings Implications

TODAY’S MATCHUP: The Kings are 3-1-1 on their current homestand, entering another massively important game for the team, tonight against the Vancouver Cauncks.

HEAD-TO-HEAD: The Kings had three players with multiple points when these teams met back in March – Quinton Byfield (1-1-2), Trevor Moore (1-1-2) and Mikey Anderson (0-2-2). Additionally, forward Adrian Kempe had an assist in that game in Vancouver and leads the Kings with three points (1-2-3) in two head-to-head games played versus the Canucks so far this season.

KINGS VITALS: The Kings held an optional morning skate today, coming off of Wednesday’s full-team practice at Toyota Sports Performance Center.

Coming off another strong showing versus Nashville, look for goaltender Anton Forsberg to be back between the pipes this evening against Vancouver. Forsberg made 19 saves on 20 shots when these teams met in Los Angeles earlier this season, earning a 2-1 victory in overtime.

Here is the expected lineup for the Kings this evening, based on yesterday’s practice and today’s morning skate –

Panarin – Kopitar – Kempe
Moore – Byfield – Laferriere
Armia – Laughton – Wright
Malott – Helenius – Ward

Anderson – Doughty
Edmundson – Clarke
Dumoulin – Ceci

Forsberg
Kuemper

Should the Kings make any changes from the group shown above, forward Mathieu Joseph and defenseman Jacob Moverare are options to check in. Forward Alex Turcotte remains off the ice at this time due to injury and is not expected to be available for the Kings this evening.

CANUCKS VITALS: Vancouver begins a three-game California roadtrip tonight in Los Angeles, coming off a narrow, 2-1 defeat against Vegas last time out.

Per Brendan Batchelor of Sportsnet 650, here’s how the Canucks lined up on Tuesday versus the Golden Knights –

Warmup #Canucks lines vs. @GoldenKnights

O’Connor. EP40. DeBrusk.
Öhgren. Rossi. Boeser.
Sasson. Blueger. Karlsson.
Douglas. Räty. Höglander.

Buium. Hronek.
MP29. Mancini.
EP25. Willander.

🥅Tolopilo🥅

7pm on @Sportsnet650 https://t.co/J6DNM1E8Qt pic.twitter.com/C7scHU19k4

— Brendan Batchelor (@BatchHockey) April 8, 2026

Forward Brock Boeser has found the back of the net more than anyone against the Kings throughout his career. Boeser has 17 goals in 25 games versus Los Angeles and since his first goal, no player in the NHL has buried more versus Los Angeles. Boeser leads Vancouver with 21 goals this season and is third on his team with 44 points.

Storyline Of The Day – That’s What’s Called A Winning Streak
The LA Kings won a hockey game on Saturday.

Then, they won one on Monday. That’s two in a row.

If they win one tonight, that’s what’s called a winning streak.

The Kings snapped an ugly statistic on Monday versus Nashville, winning consecutive games for the first time since late-January. It was just the second time all season they’ve won two in a row at home. Now, here they stand, with a 3-1-1 record thus far on this seven-game homestand. Now, they have an opportunity to make it three straight victories, at the most critical time of the season. Coming off wins over the Maple Leafs and Predators, the Kings have a bit of confidence, heading into tonight’s game against Vancouver.

“I think confidence is high, I think we’re playing good hockey right now,” forward Trevor Moore said. “We’re staying aggressive, obviously we’re going to overtime a lot, but I think that we feel good about our game. We feel like we’re able to win every night and that’s always good.”

It’s been an interesting year for a number of reasons. One aspect that has really stood out, though, has been the absence of a real run in either direction. Regardless of how good a team is, there is typically that one stretch in each direction.

The Kings have one four-game winning streak, back in November, as they won the first four games of a roadtrip. They have one losing streak of four-plus games in regulation. That’s it.

One stretch of four games where they collected two points, one stretch of four games where they collected zero points.

So, you’d almost feel they’ve been due in both directions. With five games to play, though, that obviously can’t happen. One in the right direction probably gets the team into the playoffs. Starts with tonight’s game against Vancouver.

Winning streaks have happened before. The Kings left it late and they’ve got no real choice but to find theirs now. There isn’t a margin for error the rest of the way home, so these games are each very important.

With San Jose losing last night against Edmonton, the Kings control their own destiny down the stretch. They have the highest maximum point total of the teams battling for that second wild card berth, now ahead of both the Predators and Sharks. That implies winning out, however, which is the goal, but that’s quite the ask, especially for a team that has been inconsistent the entire season. It’s where you want to be, though, knowing that you have the chance to control your own fate.

“Yeah, you like to be in control of it and obviously there’s other teams that we’ve got to wait on, but if we just win out, that’s what you want to do and it’s all in our hands,” forward Quinton Byfield said this morning.

Control is control. You offer that a month ago, I think everyone here would have taken it.

The Kings are playing in meaningful games here with five to play and although they are far from a playoff lock, they’re in the mix, with control, and that’s better than you could’ve for most of the past six weeks. All they’ve got to do is find that ever so elusive winning streak. They’ll play in some meaningful and intense games in order to do that. Not much more to it than that.

“I’d like to be comfortably in the playoffs but that’s not the case,” forward Anze Kopitar said. “We’re focused on making the playoffs and these are the games you want to be involved in. You want to be in a playoff spot, but we’re not, we’re fighting for it. It’s exciting. It’s good to be a part of these games, to be in this position right now, to be ready to go into these last five games and hopefully more.”

3 To Watch For –
– On the injury front, forward Quinton Byfield did not practice with the team yesterday, nor did he take today’s morning skate. However, Byfield is expected to play tonight versus Vancouver, per Interim Head Coach D.J. Smith.

“Just maintenance. He could have [practiced] if he had to, but he’ll play [against Vancouver].”

It’s not exactly a secret that Byfield has been playing through something for some time now.

Smith was asked recently how much Byfield has had to battle through of late and the answer was simple – “a lot.”

Byfield understands what time of the year it is and despite

“It’s that time of the year, everybody is battling something, so it’s important times, you’ve got to play through whatever you’ve got going on,” he said. “You always try to do the best you can and do what’s right for the team.”

He’s not been at 100 percent of late, yet Byfield has found his most productive stretch of games this season despite that. Byfield enters tonight’s action with 11 points (7-4-11) over his last 11 games played.

The Kings have needed just about all of those goals at an important stretch of the season. Around the league, most teams have players battling through injury to suit up and help the team. Byfield has done that more than most of late, helping the team continue to push towards the postseason.

“He keeps pushing through it,” Smith added. “When I watch him, he’s starting to go to the net more, he’s shooting more, he’s played as well as I’ve seen him play. Q, as a whole, to me, he’s taken a bigger leadership role, he’s taking on the other team’s top lines and he’s embracing it.”

– In terms of tonight’s goaltending decision, it’ll be Anton Forsberg’s net versus Vancouver.

Forsberg is coming off a pair of good starts – victories over St. Louis and Nashville – and his play has earned him tonight’s game, one of the biggest starts of his NHL career thus far, in a game that is massively important for the Kings.

Goaltending choices will likely come game-by-game at this stage in the season. Forsberg’s play earned him tonight’s start and we’ll see what Saturday brings. Interim Head Coach D.J. Smith knows Forsberg well from his time on Ottawa and certainly sees what he’s about as a person and as a player.

“The thing with Forsy is, and I had him [in Ottawa], he went through waivers, he’s been through the ups and downs and he’s gotten tougher, mentally, every year,” Smith said. “Physically, the work ethic is exceptional. It’s easy to cheer for a guy like that. In saying that, we’re going to need both guys here. We’ve got five games in a short period and we’re going to need everybody.”

Since Smith took over behind the bench, Forsberg has a .913 save percentage in seven appearances. In terms of a hot hand, Forsberg’s two starts in April have both been excellent, with a .945 save percentage between those two appearances. He’ll play tonight and the Kings need the same kind of performance to keep momentum moving in the right direction.

Forsberg said after the win over Nashville that he feels ready to start the remaining five games, if that is what is asked of him. Based on what we’ve heard from Smith, he has stressed the importance of both goaltenders, Forsberg and Darcy Kuemper. With five games in eight nights, that’s a big ask for one guy, especially someone who hasn’t that that kind of workload very often in his career. I think both guys will play over those eight days. But that’s for another day.

It’s Anton Forsberg in goal tonight and we go from there.

– Lastly, the impact of these games continues to remain quite high.

The Kings have 83 points entering tonight’s game, one point behind Nashville for the final wild card spot in the Western Conference, though with a game in hand. Both teams play tonight, with the Predators in Utah, beginning 90 minutes before the puck drops in Los Angeles. Other games of note include San Jose at Anaheim, Vegas at Seattle and Winnipeg at St. Louis.

Results around the Western Conference have continued to be up and down of late. The Kings haven’t gotten a perfect slate of help, but they’ve gotten a lot of it. They remain in a very good position when it comes to WC2, while staying within reach of the teams in front of them. Feels like over the last couple days – and the next couple days to come – there are head-to-head matchups between teams within striking distance, meaning someone has to win.

All the Kings can do is win the game in front of them. Against the team currently in 32nd place in the NHL, this is one they’ve got to have to keep pace, regardless of what happens in Utah or elsewhere around the league. Vancouver will have hungry players, battling for roles and jobs next season, playing with nothing to lose. That can be quite dangerous, as we’ve seen around the NHL. An important one for the Kings to be sharp and ready to play on their toes, against that kind of opponent.

Kings and Canucks. You’d look at this one as another must-win game for the Kings. 7:30 PM puck drop in the penultimate home game of the 2025-26 regular season.