WHO: Los Angeles Kings (0-1) vs. Anaheim Ducks (0-1)
WHAT: 2026 Rookie Faceoff, Game 2
WHEN: Sunday, September 13 @ 3:00 PM Pacific
WHERE: Tech CU Arena, Orange Rink – San Jose, CA
HOW TO FOLLOW: VIDEO: SLVR & LAKings.com – TWITTER: @dooleylak & @lakings

TODAY’S MATCHUP: The LA Kings dropped their opening game of the 2026 Rookie Faceoff by an 8-1 final yesterday and get right back at it this afternoon against the Anaheim Ducks.

HEAD-TO-HEAD: The Kings defeated the Ducks 4-1 at this event last season. Forward Kenny Connors led the way for Los Angeles with a hat trick, while forward Koehn Ziemmer also found the back of the net. Both players are expected to feature in today’s lineup as well.

KINGS VITALS: Being a rookie tournament after all, a result in Game 1 is unlikely to impact the lineup decisions for tomorrow. The lineups are largely pre-planned, so what we see today is what was planned coming in from those in Kings management.

Here is the projected game group for today’s matchup with Anaheim –

Forwards (12) – Jan Chovan, Vojtech Cihar, Kenny Connors, Jack Hughes, Kenta Isogai, Kaleb Lawrence, Liam Lefebvre, Jimmy Lombardi, Elias Schneider, Grant Slukynsky, Jared Wright, Koehn Ziemmer

Defensemen (7) – Lucas Ambrosio, Henry Brzustewicz, Nate Corbet, Jakub Dvorak, Michael Mastrodomenico, Giorgos Pantelas, Jared Woolley

Goaltenders (2) – Carter George, Hampton Slukynsky

Andrew Lord said in advance of the tournament that he expected all skaters in attendance to play in at least one game during the tournament. As such, expect to see a bit of rotation with the lineup today, reflected above. Lord moved the lines around mid-game, as the Kings fell behind early, so it’ll be interesting to see what the lines look like overall.

With that being said, the way yesterday’s game could impact today is with regards to injury. I have one extra defenseman in here because I am unsure of Jakub Dvorak’s status. He left the game in the third period with an injury and did not return, with Lord indicating that he would be further evaluated in the morning.

DUCKS VITALS: Similar to the Kings, the Ducks lost a lopsided Game 1, falling 7-2 against the Colorado Avalanche.

Per the Ducks team account, here’s how Anaheim lined up yesterday versus Colorado –

Here’s who we fly with in the Rookie Faceoff Tournament today:

⚔️
Nordmark-McQueen-Klepov
Chudzinski-Pettersson-Preston
Lucius-Procyszyn-Traff
Read-Kosick-Turko

🛡️
Frossard-Basgall
Mathieu-Kurtz
Smith-Rieber

🥅
Clara-Suchanek

— Anaheim Ducks (@AnaheimDucks) September 12, 2026

Anaheim is led by three first-round draft picks up front, including 2026 selections Nikita Klepov and Marcus Nordmark, as well as 2025 first-round selection Roger McQueen. Goaltender Damian Clara was the starting netminder for Team Italy at the 2026 Winter Olympics in Milan and posted a .911 save percentage.

Storyline Of The Day – On To The Next One
Two things can be true.

The results at a Rookie Faceoff do not really matter. There are no standings points gained or lost from last night. Artemi Panarin isn’t sitting at home wondering how the organization will move foward after yesterday’s result. All is okay.

At the same time, 8-1 is not a result anyone involved is happy with.

Yeah, it doesn’t matter in the long run, but any competitor should be pissed with 8-1. Any competitor should be motivated to do substantially better than 8-1 next time out. So what needs to be different today?

“I think the biggest thing I’d like to see is to clean up the odd-man rushes against,” forward Grant Slukynsky said. “We gave up a ton of 2-on-1’s, partial breaks, 3-on-2’s and I think if we tighten that up, we can build off of that. Keeping the odd-man rushes down will be key for us tomorrow.”

Carter George ate a very ugly statline but man, look at the chances against. It was an onslaught of breakaways and 2-on-1’s. Shots from the slot off of defensive-zone breakdowns. Deflections from dangerous areas. I think five of the goals came on tips. Stopped so many Grade A’s and still surrendered eight. With a change likely coming between the pipes, the Kings need to clean things up in front of their goaltenders, regardless of who plays. That starts with the odd-man rushes as Grant Slukynsky noted.

Lord called last night’s game a lesson.

Right now, it’s a lesson taught. Will it be a lesson learned is the question we’ll now ask. Anaheim doesn’t have the firepower that San Jose brought to the tournament at the forward position but there are still a lot of dangerous offensive players who will punish mistakes.

“From an odd-man perspective, puck management perspective, we have to be so much better for sure and just make the game a lot harder,” Lord said.

Not a ton of teams the Kings rookies will beat playing as they did last night. They understand that.

The defensive side of the game will certainly be a point of emphasis but a lot of that was self inflicted mistakes quickly going the other direction. With a faster, sharper and more aggressive showing, some of that will hopefully take care of itself.

“We need to stick to our plan, be fast and be aggressive,” forward Vojtech Cihar added, on what he’d like to see the team do early in today’s game. “[If we do that] those points will come to us for sure.”

Again. How much does 8-1 matter? Very little. However, these are playing vying for spots within the organization and that should come with a ton of motivation to deliver more in Game 2.

3 To Watch For –
– For today’s expected changes among the skaters, we were always going to see more on the blueline than up front.

The roster has 13 forwards and 10 defensemen, so that much is natural. Expecting to see Henry Brzustewicz and Jared Woolley remain in the lineup today, with at least three of Lucas Ambrosio, Nate Corbet, Michael Mastrodomenico and Giorgos Pantelas all checking in alongside them. That’s a younger and less experienced group than in Game 1, but in fairness, Game 1 didn’t go so well on the blueline. The wild card is Dvorak, who was injured yesterday. My expectation is that we’ll see Dvorak out, with four changes to that group.

Pantelas is a player I’m interested in watching. 18-year-old defensemen often struggle in events like this, playing against older, more experienced players. But he’s an interesting profile as a late-round pick out of the WHL with some good traits. First time he will wear a Kings jersey. Mastrodomenico is an older player on an AHL contract after playing four seasons at Notre Dame.

Lot of spotlight will be on Brzustewicz, who was probably the team’s best defensemen against San Jose. He’ll need to lead a less experienced group and it’ll be interesting to see how he fares the second time out. He’s in camp trying to show that he should be playing pro hockey this season and these are important opportunities for him to do that.

Up front, look for a 1-for-1 swap between Brendan Gorman and Elias Schneider.

The Kings shook the forward lines up a few times throughout the game, as is typically the case when things aren’t going well. We saw lots of movement and while I don’t think yesterday impacts those who are playing, it could impact where players line up.

– Looks like it’s Hammer Time between the pipes.

Hampton Slukynsky backed up Carter George but it looks as if he will get the starting nod tonight. Slukynsky has never been able to play in this tournament before as an NCAA player. Today will be his debut and he’ll take the net behind a Kings team with a stated focus of allowing less than they did in Game 1.

“I’ve been to four development camps, but never been a rookie camp, so just excited to get the Kings jersey on in a real game,” Slukynsky said. “Excited to get playing this weekend.”

Slukynsky was one of the best goaltenders in college hockey last season and he will hopefully be playing behind a tighter group that we saw in Game 1 yesterday evening. He is a national champion with Western Michigan and posted excellent numbers both as a freshman and as a sophomore. Slukynsky won both of the AHL games he started last spring as well, allowing just two total goals across 120 minutes.

Welcome to the pros, Hampton. First chance to see him in action this afternoon.

– Lastly, I’ll throw Liam Lefebvre some kudos for his fight in yesterday’s third period.

When Dvorak got injured, it was Lefebvre who stepped in…..against 7-foot-1 San Jose blueliner Alexander Karamanov. Biggest dude I’ve ever seen play hockey. You see 7-foot-1 and say yeah, obviously, but when you see him in person it’s even crazier.

Lefebvre gave up nearly a foot of height but got a couple of shots in. Certainly wasn’t ragdolled. Small win and a memory I am sure will last for a few when you think of Lefebvre going forward.

Kings and Ducks today at 3 PM in San Jose. See how the LA can bounceback from last night’s opener in the Freeway Faceoff, rookie edition.