WHO: Los Angeles Kings (3-6-2) vs. Ottawa Senators (8-5-0)
WHAT: 2026-27 NHL Regular Season, Game 12/84
WHEN: Thursday, October 29 @ 7:00 PM Pacific
WHERE: Crypto.com Arena – Los Angeles, CA
HOW TO FOLLOW: VIDEO: ABTV, DAZN – VIDEO: ESPN LA 710, 830 AM KLAA, ESPN LA App, LA Kings App – TWITTER: @dooleylak & @lakings
TODAY’S MATCHUP: The Kings begin a seven-game homestand tonight, as they host the Ottawa Senators at Crypto.com Arena, in search of their first home win of the season.
HEAD-TO-HEAD: Just three players in the NHL have more points against Ottawa over the last five seasons than forward Artemi Panarin, who has totaled 22 points (9-13-22) in 14 games played. Defenseman Joel Edmundson was the only Kings skater with multiple points against the Senators, as he tallied two assists in the two games played. Forward Adrian Kempe has five points (2-3-5) in his last five games played against Ottawa.
KINGS VITALS: After a day off yesterday, following the return from Chicago, the Kings hit the ice this morning for a full-team skate at Toyota Sports Performance Center.
Coming off a 3-0-0 roadtrip, look for goaltender Darcy Kuemper to make the start tonight for the Kings at home. Kuemper has a lifetime record of 8-3-2 against the Senators, with a .897 save percentage and a 3.27 goals-against average.
Below is how the Kings lined up during today’s morning skate, an indicator of what we could see this evening –
Panarin – Laferriere – Kempe
Moore – Byfield – Ward
Laughton – Haula – Armia
Lee – Helenius – Perry
Gustafsson – Clarke
Edmundson – Doughty
Anderson – Dumoulin
Kuemper
Forsberg
Lots of updates with regards to personnel, which is broken down a bit further down in the article. In terms of tonight’s lineup, expecting to see the alignment above, which leaves defenseman Cody Ceci as a scratch, along with the recently recalled Martin Chromiak. More on lineup notes below.
SENATORS VITALS: Ottawa began a five-game roadtrip on Tuesday, with a 4-1 defeat in Las Vegas against the Golden Knights.
From the Ottawa team account, here’s how the Senators lined up last time out –
How we’re projected to line up tonight in Vegas 👊 #GoSensGo https://t.co/nbBjBB1DbM
— Ottawa Senators (@Senators) October 27, 2026
Former Kings forward Warren Foegele will not play against his former team, after he left the game in Vegas due to injury. Foegele would have been one of three former Kings in the lineup, along with forward Michael Amadio and defenseman Jordan Spence. The Senators are also without the NHL’s best goaltender, statistically speaking, in Linus Ullmark, but could see the return of defenseman Thomas Chabot, per Bruce Garrioch of Postmedia.
Storyline Of The Day – Not So Special Teams
You can’t say the Kings didn’t try to address special teams over the summer. A full overhaul of the staff, with a ton of work put into revamping those units. They practiced it a lot during training camp, specifically the power play. Sure, there are players out of the lineup, but this was supposed to be one of the parts of the game that helped bolster last season’s group. Hasn’t panned out that way yet.
The Kings are 26th on the power play and 32nd on the penalty kill. Accounting for shorthanded goals, they jump to 23rd and 29th respectively.
With the man advantage, the Kings hoped the goal they scored at Madison Square Garden might help to get things going. Then came Chicago, when they had a four-minute sequence at the end of the second period, carrying into the third, which came and went without a goal. Felt like it came and went without a Grade-A. It was a massive moment in the game and it wasn’t converted on, a trend that has plagued the Kings all season.
Overall, the power play was 0-for-3, which puts them as 2-for-18 over the last seven games. When you aren’t scoring 5-on-5 on a consistent basis, the power play can be a real boost, but it hasn’t been in the early goings.
“We’ve got to be better in that area, the power play just hasn’t been good enough,” forward Adrian Kempe said. “We had one [in New York], I was hoping that was going to build some confidence, but it’s got to be better. Better communicating, passes, just everything.”
Per SportLOGIQ, the Kings have 42 shots from the slot on the power play this season, a number that ranks fourth-to-last in the NHL. Where they rate highly is on second chances – tied for eighth – but they haven’t scored on any of those looks. In speaking this morning with forward Alex Laferriere, he preached a message of direct play. Said that he can do a better job of that himself. I do understand the message of being more direct and maybe when it’s struggling, that has to be the start.
At the same time, though, you’re up a man and need to get to the dangerous areas. Finding players like Kempe for one-timer chances. I’m not sur I can remember one he’s had on the power play……maybe his goal in San Jose in Game 2? He’s the best shooter on the team and isn’t getting those feeds. Maybe that needs to be the step after the Kings get things going with the direct plays. Opposing penalty kills are specifically gameplanning to take away one-timer looks. I think it starts, though, with getting Kempe more involved in goalscoring positions. He is a threat and can make the difference with one opportunity.
Chicago, on the other hand, did score a power-play goal. The Kings dug themselves an ugly number in Game 1, with four against in Colorado, which is hard to recover from, but while they’ve tightened things up from there, there are still a lot of power-play goals going into their net right now.
Ottawa brings a bottom-five power-play unit into tonight’s game and ranks 31st in Net PK. A team struggling like Los Angeles is in those departments. Important for the penalty-killing unit to contribute tonight.
“It’s not good – I think in stretches, we’ve been pretty good and you have to get some breaks too, but I think we have to make it harder on their top players, force pressure,” forward Scott Laughton assessed. “We’ve let entries come in too easily and ket them have time and space. We’re facing a pretty good power play that can move the puck around both units. It starts tonight. We need to be better to give ourselves a chance to win and you can’t let up a PK goal every game.”
Again, tapping into SportLOGIQ’s numbers, the Kings have struggled to defend the entry this season, which supports what Laughton has seen.
They have the second-fewest denials on the PK this season and rank sixth from the bottom in denial rate. In-zone, they rank towards the bottom of the league in stick checks and breaking up passes in the defensive end. They block shots effectively and willingly, ranking in the Top-10 in that category. It’s a good trait, but it’s the preventing of the chances that lead to shot blocks that seems to be where the breakdowns occur.
All in all, the special teams are really an area that can drive overall improvements. Hasn’t happened to this point but will be under the microscope on the upcoming homestand.
3 To Watch For –
– On the injury front.
Defenseman Drew Doughty and forward Corey Perry both missed the game in Chicago but were both on the ice this morning. Per Peter Laviolette, both players are expected to play tonight against the Senators, as a part of a 12/6 alignment. Coming out will be Cody Ceci on the blueline and Jared Wright up front, with the latter assigned to the AHL this morning.
Also on the ice today were forwards Kevin Fiala and Mats Zuccarello. Neither was in a full-contact capacity, although there really isn’t all that much contact to go around during a morning skate. Interested to see what tomorrow brings for those two specifically. Both players are out week-to-week at this time, per Peter Laviolette.
As Laviolette said, they are two very different situations. Zuccarello just went on injured reserve and is not even eligible to factor in tonight, but seeing him on the ice is pretty interesting actually, especially with the week-to-week designation. I suppose with an upper-body injury, there isn’t anything impacting his skating, but getting him where he needs to be, to be an impact player, is important.
On Fiala though, it’s just really encouraging to see him on the ice. Laviolette was cautious not to put any timelines on Fiala’s return to the group from a game standpoint, but at the same time, he felt Fiala moved well and it was exciting for everyone I think to see him on the ice with everyone again.
“It’s great to have Kevin, really good to see him out there and I thought he looked good, but he’s week-to-week,” Laviolette said. “He’s been out a long time, right? I think him getting comfortable in his body out on the ice, with the speed of the game……it’s one thing to go out and do those morning skates by yourself, where there’s no activity, but you have to react in a game. You can think, okay, go out and turn to the right, then turn to the left. In a game, it’s just moving. I think he’s got to get up to that speed. I’m not really sure on the timeframe. I can tell you that he was out there and that’s the first time that we saw him. I thought he looked really good.”
Lastly, on forward Alex Turcotte, he remains on injured reserve but he was also on the ice this morning, but working on his own.
Alex Turcotte on the ice on his own today, working this morning.
@LAKings on the ice in an hour or so, in advance of tonight’s game versus Ottawa.
— Zach Dooley (@DooleyLAK) October 29, 2026
I think there’s a world where we also see him progress to the main group soon, but his day today seemed to skate pretty hard, just in his own, controlled setting. Maybe the solo work makes sense there.
– Welcome to the NHL, Martin Chromiak!
The Kings recalled him from the AHL’s Ontario Reign this morning. Chromiak’s recall is not all that surprising, right? The Kings aren’t scoring goals on a consistent basis and Chromiak is burying them left and right in the AHL. He scored four goals in three games played last week and was selected as the AHL Player of the Week as a result, with six points overall. In total, Chromiak has six goals in eight games played this season, tied for seventh in the league in goals scored this season.
“He’s played well down there, he’s scoring some goals and now he comes up into the mix,” Laviolette said of Chromiak. “He’s not scheduled for tonight, but there’s always things that pop up inside of the locker room. He’ll be here with us.”
Chromiak has never played in the NHL but he scored a career-high 28 goals last season in the AHL. It took him some time to find his game but he’s really started to thrive at that level.
Now, he joins a Kings team in search of offense. That’s his game. In my opinion, he’s a guy who needs to get a chance to play a role that maximizes his strengths. Chromiak shouldn’t come in and play on the fourth line. I don’t think that puts him in a position to succeed. Let’s see him on Byfield’s line or maybe the third line, depending on the pieces, and see if he can help in that area.
He won’t play tonight, but he could be an option on Saturday against Buffalo. The Reign played yesterday in Henderson, so he’ll get back and rested, with the Sabres game a possibility.
– Lastly, I think Ottawa represents a difficult stylistic test for the Kings.
Here’s Laviolette’s take on tonight’s opponent –
“They play fast, they’re good off the rush, they’ve got skilled players and their top line is playing really well right now. They’ve got a lot of skill in the lineup. They’re scoring goals. We’re going to have to continue to be sharp defensively and then push more offensively. They’re a challenging team, I think, based on the speed and skill that they have and the way that they’re playing the game.”
The Kings struggled with the speed against the Islanders and Devils specifically, so if that’s the opponent tonight, it’ll be a test. Especially tonight. First game back after a long trip on the East Coast is always a tough one. Kings can’t afford to let one just slip away, though, so it’ll be interesting to see the adjustments they make to match up with a fast team.
Kings and Senators as a seven-game homestand opens tonight, with six more to follow. 7 PM puck drop to being a two-week stretch in Los Angeles.