It has been a dreary start to the season for the Kings and now they’ll be on storm watch as the Carolina Hurricanes approach for Saturday’s showdown.
While the ‘Canes are the NHL’s only undefeated team (4-0-0), the Kings’ rally in Vegas remains their only victory of 2025-26 , in which they have yet to hold a third-period lead.
Most recently, the Kings (1-3-1) fell to the Pittsburgh Penguins, 4-2, in a game where center Phillip Danault said “we could have buried many more than two, that’s for sure.”
Danault centered the top line to start a game in which Anže Kopitar (foot) was unavailable, along with goalie Darcy Kuemper (lower body). Kuemper should be considered questionable at best for Saturday, while Kopitar was downgraded to “week-to-week” status. Corey Perry (knee) continued his progress toward a return.
The Kings also continued to flounder on special teams, where they’ve been short-handed a league-high 24 times. They ceded goals both a man up and a man down to Pittsburgh, unraveling an effort that saw them take a 2-0 lead, only to surrender four unanswered scores.
“We’re not gonna try to dissect too much here. We haven’t given up a lot [five-on-five] over the last three or four games,” Kings coach Jim Hiller said. “So we’re just going to try and pull ourselves out of it. We’re in a hole, and we’re in a funk, there’s no question.”
There were encouraging signs in the loss, with Hiller singling out Warren Foegele, who opened the scoring, and Alex Laferriere as forwards who had their best games of the young campaign. On the back end, Drew Doughty and Brian Dumoulin were the Kings’ most effective pairing Tuesday, while Cody Ceci had his best outing as a King, recording his first point with a secondary assist on Foegele’s goal and later hitting the post with a shot.
Similarly, the Kings have had stretches of games where they looked more competitive and/or played more to their stingy identity. Yet overall, they are not only in the bottom five in penalty-kill percentage but also tied for the sixth-most goals allowed per game.
“We’re a confident group. We’ve shown that we can have really good periods and then, for whatever reason, it just gets away from us,” winger Trevor Moore said. “We’ve just got to put it all together, and we will. It’s still early in the year, you can’t panic yet.”
The Kings’ strength of schedule has been a talking point among apologists, but Pittsburgh was a non-playoff team last season and the Minnesota Wild are 1-2-0 apart from their OT win over the Kings. Carolina, on the other hand, not only has the league’s only unblemished record but its best goal differential at +11. The next best differential in the Eastern Conference is the Montreal Canadiens’ +4.
Carolina at Kings
When: 6 p.m. Saturday
Where: Crypto.com Arena
TV: FDSN West