WHO: Los Angeles Kings (15-10-9) vs. Columbus Blue Jackets (14-15-6)
WHAT: 2025 Regular-Season Game 35/82
WHEN: Monday, December 22 @ 7:00 PM Pacific
WHERE: Crypto.com Arena – Los Angeles, CA
HOW TO FOLLOW: VIDEO: FanDuel Sports Network – AUDIO – ESPN LA 710, ESPN LA App & LA Kings App – TWITTER: @dooleylak & @lakings

TODAY’S MATCHUP: The Kings return home tonight for their penultimate game before the NHL’s holiday break, as they take on the Columbus Blue Jackets for the final time this season.

HEAD-TO-HEAD: Defenseman Drew Doughty enters tonight’s game on a three-game goal streak and a four-game point streak against Columbus. Throughout his NHL career, Doughty has collected 32 points (9-23-32) from 37 games played against the Blue Jackets, his most against any Eastern Conference opponent. Forward Anze Kopitar has also been successful versus Columbus, with his 20 goals and 42 points against Columbus being his highest totals against any Eastern Conference opponent.

KINGS VITALS: Following two full-team practices over the weekend, the Kings held an optional morning skate today at Toyota Sports Performance Center.

Anton Forsberg, a 2011 seventh-round draft pick by Columbus, is tonight’s expected starting goaltender, coming off his finest performance of the season against Tampa Bay on Thursday. Forsberg has a lifetime record of 4-3-0 against the Blue Jackets, with a .928 save percentage and a 2.42 goals-against average.

Here’s how the Kings lined up during yesterday’s practice, with this alignment expected for tonight’s game as well –

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

Anderson – Doughty
Edmundson – Clarke
Dumoulin – Ceci

Forsberg
Copley

Goaltender Darcy Kuemper remains sidelined with an upper-body injury and will not play tonight. Among the skaters, certainly some changes here from what we’ve seen over the last week or so, reflected in the above configuration. More HERE on Alex Turcotte, as he’s set to play with Warren Foegele and Andrei Kuzmenko as the team’s third-line center. That sees Trevor Moore move up with Anze Kopitar and Adrian Kempe, which has been a lightning in a bottle trio in the past in short bursts. Should the Kings need to make any changes to this group, forward Jeff Malott and defenseman Jacob Moverare are options to check in.

BLUE JACKETS VITALS: Columbus has lost seven of its last eight games and 11 of its last 14 entering tonight’s action, extended with a 4-3 loss in Anaheim on Saturday evening.

Per the Columbus team account, here’s how the Blue Jackets lined up last time out –

roll call ️ pic.twitter.com/b9BNp0Hrth

— Columbus Blue Jackets (@BlueJacketsNHL) December 20, 2025

Columbus will be without defenseman Zach Werenski tonight after he blocked a shot on Saturday in Anaheim. Werenski is out day-to-day but is not expected to play tonight. Forward Mason Marchment, who was acquired from Seattle last week, will play his second game with the Blue Jackets after he scored a goal in his debut with the club on Saturday against the Ducks.

Storyline Of The Day – Mentality
Tonight’s game is about mentality, for three reasons.

1. The NHL’s holiday break is coming up, beginning Wednesday. With that comes Christmas, time spent with friends and family and three days off the ice.
2. The Kings are playing tonight for the first time since the Phillip Danault trade. A trade that was certainly felt in the room. Though it was not intended to be a shakeup, it’s a trade that needs to help serve as a bit of a boost for a team that hasn’t hit its stride this season.
3. The Kings had an emotional win last time out over Tampa Bay. It was a win driven by individual performances, not a good team game, but a win that seemed to empower the group a bit from what I’ve observed.

With the break, I guess there’s never really a way to know if a team is looking ahead until you play the games. Energy during practices this weekend was as good as I’ve seen it in a long time. Team felt really juiced up. Is that a sign of a team that’s really dialed in, or a team that has lost its focus? Can’t really tell. But there’s a character test that comes with the mentality of the team tonight.

“Everybody knows right, Christmas is just around the corner, I don’t think we can shy away from it,” Jim Hiller said. “We had our Christmas party [this weekend], it was a great day for everybody as it should be, lots of kids here and I just think it’s important to share the family atmosphere with everybody. They’re pros. They’ve been through this many times. You’ve got to get focused and play. I thought we’ve had two good days of practice, two really important days of practice. Let’s see how it translates.”

As Hiller noted in the quote above, he felt the energy during practices over the weekend too.

As for Danault, he brought a lot to the Kings and Hiller said that he held a team meeting on Saturday to discuss that. He acknowledged what Danault did here and the hurt in losing a teammate and a friend for many in the room. Now, it’s about how the team responds to it and moves forward.

“What it means to go from here and what that means for us as not only individuals but as a team,” Hiller said. “How do we respond as a team, how do we push our team forward.”

For this group, while Danault brought a lot, he wasn’t a superstar player or a player whose departure signals an organizational shift in direction. The Kings have never been driven by superstars, they just don’t have that kind of player on their roster.

Moving forward, they’ll have to continue to pride themselves on that fact and hopefully the situation can spur an uptick from several players who really need one.

“We’ve always prided ourselves on being obviously a team, no offense to anybody, but we don’t have a superstar here, so it’s always been a team game,” forward Anze Kopitar added. “That’s been our biggest strength and especially now, we’re going to have to show it. It’s just everybody putting in the work, bringing the energy and then we’ll go from there.”

In terms of the win over Tampa Bay, at some point the Kings need to find a jumping off point.

There have been a couple of moments where it’s felt like they’ve been close. They’ve strung together a few wins, you feel like there’s a corner to be turned but then it isn’t. Just haven’t sustained any momentum. We’re closing in on three months into the season now, so there should be concern there.

The Tampa Bay win reminds me of a 3-2 win in Boston in 2022. The Kings had just gotten their doors blown off in Buffalo. The season felt like it was on the brink of going right off the rails. Then Adrian Kempe scored two goals against the Bruins and the Kings won in a shootout. Was a gutsy win, just like Tampa Bay, with Kempe providing the spark. After that win, the Kings got hot and went on to amass 104 points.

Maybe history repeats itself. Maybe not. At some point, though, that turning point has to emerge. For the Kings, that might start at home.

“We’ve got to re-establish our game at home and this really gives us a chance to do that,” Hiller added.

3 To Watch For –
– With all of that in mind, what do the Kings want to see early in this game?

“We had two good days of practice, it felt really good, so I hope we can bring that into tonight,” Hiller said. “:So what are we looking for? I think one of the things we’ve talked about over the years, not as much this year, is right away, when you know the guys are in it, they’re skating. We’ve had some of those on the road, not as many at home for whatever reason, so we’ve discussed that this morning. I hope you can tell up in the booth tonight that the guys are ready to skate. Sometimes you have to put the puck in to do that. You have to forecheck, just so everybody can get rolling into the game. That’s what I’m looking for tonight.”

Hiller pointed to the Foegele/Turcotte/Kuzmenko line as the trip he believes can help in that area. Foegele and Turcotte are the skaters, the guys who will get it in and hunt. Kuzmenko is more nuanced, liking to hold onto pucks and make plays, but he can also gets pucks to the net, where Foegele and Turcotte like to go.

“I’m really looking forward to that line,” Hiller added.

– On Kuzmenko, Jim Hiller offered this about where he believes the player is at –

“We’ve been on him, him and Q particularly, to shoot the puck. You guys see him shoot the puck in practice and then Kuzy will stay out there and shoot 1,000 pucks after practice. When the game starts, we say Kuzy, we’d like you to shoot the puck. There’s times that he still hasn’t done that, so the player has to make that decision in the moment, what they think is the best course of action. We’d like him to think a little bit more about shooting, he’s got a heck of a shot.”

Kuzmenko does have a powerful wrist shot and he works on shooting the puck more than anyone on the team. He was the last player on the ice yesterday after practice, which is a pretty common occurrence for him. Kuzmenko is one of the team’s most creative playmakers, certainly, and he has the ability to pick out passes most don’t. He can also shoot and score the puck too.

Hiller also mentioned Byfield here and it’s not the first time we’ve heard the message when it comes to his game, either. Last time the Kings played at home, Hiller indicated he saw the shooting mentality from Byfield in practice, but then saw him pass up looks during the game. Same kind of thing here with Kuzmenko.

The coaches are preaching it and they’re seeing it in practice. Time to see it now in games for both players.

– On goaltender Darcy Kuemper, think we have some good news! Yesterday, Jim Hiller shared that he is “doing better and feeling better”, though we had not yet seen him return to the ice……until today.

Good News!

Darcy Kuemper is on the ice this morning working 1-on-1 with goalie coach Mike Buckley.

Jim Hiller said yesterday that Kuemper is “feeling better” so a great sign that he’s out there taking some shots.

— Zach Dooley (@DooleyLAK) December 22, 2025

Kuemper was on the ice this morning working 1-on-1 with goaltending coach Mike Buckley before practice. He did not stick around with the full group and he was in a red, non-contact jersey. You know, just in case Mikko Rantanen shows up to check him in the head.

Kuemper will not play tonight versus Columbus and feels unlikely to go tomorrow against Seattle, however with three days off for the holiday break after Tuesday’s game, we should get a better assessment on Kuemper when the team returns on December 27. With some additional time off and six straight games out of the break against teams currently in playoff spots, getting Kuemper back for that stretch will be incredibly important for the Kings.

“We don’t want to get ahead of ourselves, but when you see [him skating], you start seeing progress,” Hiller added. “Difficult to measure how long it’s going to take, but you like to see it moving forward.”

Kings and Blue Jackets, a 7 PM puck drop tonight at Crypto.com Arena, second-to-last game before the holiday break! Good chance tonight for the Kings to put two more points in the bank.