{"id":332131,"date":"2025-12-05T14:11:13","date_gmt":"2025-12-05T14:11:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/332131\/"},"modified":"2025-12-05T14:11:13","modified_gmt":"2025-12-05T14:11:13","slug":"12-4-preview-doughty-foegele-danault-in-8-on-return-foegeles-impact-swagger-needed-two-game-series","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/332131\/","title":{"rendered":"12\/4 Preview – Doughty, Foegele, Danault In + 8 On Return, Foegele’s Impact, “Swagger” Needed, Two-Game Series"},"content":{"rendered":"

WHO: Los Angeles Kings (12-7-7) vs. Chicago Blackhawks (11-9-6)
WHAT: 2025 Regular-Season Game 27\/82
WHEN: Thursday, December 4 @ 7:00 PM Pacific
WHERE: Crypto.com Arena \u2013 Los Angeles, CA
HOW TO FOLLOW: VIDEO: ESPN+ \/ Hulu \u2013 AUDIO \u2013 ESPN LA 710, ESPN LA App & LA Kings App \u2013 TWITTER: @dooleylak<\/a> & @lakings<\/a><\/p>\n

TODAY\u2019S MATCHUP: The Kings begin a two-game mini-series against the Chicago Blackhawks tonight at Crypto.com Arena, as the two teams conclude their season series over the next three days. <\/p>\n

HEAD-TO-HEAD: Forward Alex Laferriere scored when these teams met back in October, a 3-1 Kings win, which gives him five goals from seven games played against Chicago over the last three seasons, tied for the second most in the NHL in that span. Forward Adrian Kempe had an assist in that game, which gives him eight helpers versus the Blackhawks over the past three seasons, tied for the third most leaguewide.<\/p>\n

KINGS VITALS: The Kings held a (mostly) full-team practice yesterday and went with an optional, yet well-attended skate this morning. <\/p>\n

Goaltender Darcy Kuemper did not skate this morning, which puts him in line tonight to make his second consecutive start between the pipes. Kuemper did not play during the 3-1 win in Chicago earlier this season but brings with him a 9-3-2 record against the Blackhawks throughout his career, with a .915 save percentage and a 2.32 goals-against average. <\/p>\n

In terms of tonight\u2019s lineup, I\u2019m not exactly sure what to expect, but here\u2019s a projection based on yesterday\u2019s practice and injury updates provided \u2013<\/p>\n

Moore \u2013 Kopitar \u2013 Kempe
Fiala \u2013 Byfield \u2013 Armia
Laferriere \u2013 Danault \u2013 Kuzmenko
Foegele \u2013 Turcotte \u2013 Perry<\/p>\n

Anderson \u2013 Doughty
Edmundson \u2013 Clarke
Dumoulin \u2013 Ceci<\/p>\n

Kuemper
Forsberg<\/p>\n

Look for both Drew Doughty and Warren Foegele to return tonight for the Kings. Doughty has missed seven games with a lower-body injury, while Foegele has missed the last three with an upper-body injury. Additionally, forward Phillip Danault will play after he missed yesterday\u2019s practice with a maintenance day. Again, what\u2019s listed above is an educated guess, so wait for warmups to see for sure. Those are the 18 skaters I expect to play, just not sure on the configuration of the bottom six and the defensive pairings. <\/p>\n

BLACKHAWKS VITALS: Chicago has dropped six of their last seven games, most recently an entertaining 4-3 shootout defeat in Vegas on Tuesday evening. <\/p>\n

Per Ben Pope of the Chicago Sun Times, here\u2019s how the Blackhawks lined up this morning at Crypto.com Arena \u2013 <\/p>\n

Blackhawks lines in morning skate in LA are the same as Tuesday:<\/p>\n

Greene-Bedard-Burakovsky
Moore-Nazar-Bertuzzi
Teravainen-Dickinson-Mikheyev
Dach-Donato-Slaggert<\/p>\n

Vlasic-Crevier
Kaiser-Levshunov
Grzelcyk-Murphy
Rinzel<\/p>\n

Knight<\/p>\n

\u2014 Ben Pope (@BenPopeCST) December 4, 2025<\/a><\/p>\n

Chicago forward Connor Bedard ranks in the NHL\u2019s Top-10 in goals, assists and points this season and although he\u2019s not found a ton of offensive success thus far against the Kings in his career, with three points (2-1-3) from seven games played, he did find the back of the net in October at United Center. Overall this season, Bedard ranks third in the NHL in scoring with 38 points, trailing only Colorado\u2019s Nathan MacKinnon and San Jose\u2019s Macklin Celebrini. <\/p>\n

Storyline Of The Day \u2013 Drew-in Up A Return
Drew Doughty confirmed this morning that he will play tonight after missing seven games with a lower-body injury.<\/p>\n

\u201cI feel good, I\u2019m ready to go,\u201d Doughty said. \u201cI didn\u2019t lose my cardio and we had lots of individual work to get that back to where it was before. I feel good.\u201d<\/p>\n

Taking it back a couple of weeks, in the moment, here\u2019s how Doughty saw things transpire.<\/p>\n

He blocked the shot, as we saw, and stuck with it to finish the play, preventing what was almost certainly a goal in the process with an excellent defensive stand. When he got to the bench, he initially thought it was just a typical blocked shot, which hurts a lot in the moment but then goes away. This time, the pain didn\u2019t go away and he knew something was up. Ultimately, the scan he got showed that surgery wasn\u2019t needed and now, just shy of three weeks after he initially blocked the show in Ottawa, he returns to game action against Chicago. <\/p>\n

\u201cUsually when you block a shot, you go back to the bench in a lot of pain and then, slowly, it kind of goes away, but this one wasn\u2019t going away, so obviously knew something normal wasn\u2019t up,\u201d Doughty said. \u201cWent in and found out bad news, but we basically knew right after the game, we were pretty sure it wasn\u2019t going to require surgery. Then, when we got back to LA, I was able to get a CT scan to confirm that, so we knew it wasn\u2019t gonna be too, too long pretty quickly.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Kings could certainly use Doughty, that\u2019s for sure. <\/p>\n

In the seven games he\u2019s missed, they won just twice, posting a 2-2-3 record. The Kings maintained a strong level of defensive play, but averaged just two goals per game in those seven matchups. <\/p>\n

Doughty has more offensive ability in the offensive zone than most when it comes to the backend for the Kings, but he\u2019s really a two-way defenseman. Still, he\u2019s got one of the heavier shots on the backend for the Kings and a willingness to shoot it. Having a personality and a leader like Doughty back in the lineup should carry natural benefits, beyond just what he can do with the puck. All things that Jim Hiller and the team are looking forward to getting back into the lineup. <\/p>\n

\u201cI look at it as big picture with Drew, I just think his energy, his swagger when he walks in the room, I think it\u2019s just a general confidence that can help all areas of the game for us,\u201d Hiller said of having Doughty back. \u201cThat\u2019s the big picture view from Drew and then playing, his play speaks for itself. He\u2019s not a pure offensive defenseman, he plays both ways, but what he does, along with [Joel Edmundson], is they have a heavy, heavy slap shot from the point. So when you\u2019re talking about trying to get pucks to the net, if it\u2019s a slap shot, it\u2019s a little harder for the other team to block\u2026\u2026we\u2019re looking for his slapshot when he gets the opportunity.\u201d<\/p>\n

The word \u201cswagger\u201d was one that Doughty used as well. <\/p>\n

When asked what he feels has been missing in the overall game for the Kings, he used that same word, swagger, as well as \u201cconfidence\u201d. He understands that the Kings need to be doing things differently to create more offense, but he also sees what he believes are a ton of players that are down in confidence, down in swagger. When the goals aren\u2019t there, that happens, obviously. When the goals start coming, it improves. But Doughty also sees the group of defensemen as being an area that can help with clean breakouts to get the puck moving in the right direction, as well as activation in the offensive zone. It\u2019s an area he can contribute in and seems focused on contributing in.<\/p>\n

Expecting Doughty to play a good amount tonight, though I think in the long run, the Kings want to see his minutes in the low 20\u2019s to keep him fresh. Brandt Clarke has shown he can take on more this season on the right side and I don\u2019t think the Kings want to just slash his minutes because Doughty is back. Hopefully both can eat. Expecting it to be Doughty on PP1, though, with Clarke likely on PP2 and then it remains to be seen on the defensive pairings. As noted in yesterday\u2019s practice report, there was lots of mixing and matching with the pairings. So, we\u2019ll see what we get tonight.<\/p>\n

What we know, though, is that number 8 will be in action for the hosts and that is a good thing for a group in need of a bit of a spark. <\/p>\n

3 To Watch For \u2013
\u2013 Tonight\u2019s game also will be a return to action for forward Warren Foegele. Unsurprising after speaking with him yesterday, when he said he felt ready to go, but we got the formal confirmation tonight.<\/p>\n

In hearing from Hiller this morning, he felt that Foegele played his best game of the season last time out, which was November 24 versus Ottawa. <\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s coming off what I believe was his best game of the year, the Ottawa game, so the injury was really disappointing, because he felt like that was his best game,\u201d Hiller said of Foegele \u201cNow, he\u2019s going to start to build some momentum, so hopefully, even though he\u2019s been off, he can build upon that last game. He\u2019s had some time to reflect on his season too, I\u2019m sure you guys have talked to him, I think we\u2019re going to see more of that from him and I think it\u2019ll start tonight.\u201d<\/p>\n

Foegele is an important piece for the Kings. He brings a ton of energy and Hiller called him the team\u2019s best player at creating below the dots in the offensive zone. Foegele led the Kings in 5-on-5 scoring last season and getting him back going again is huge for the group. He felt very motivated yesterday and looking forward to seeing him get back at it tonight. <\/p>\n

\u2013 The concept of a two-game series is an interesting one from a coaching perspective.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s not an advantage one way or the other, but it is interesting. <\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t mind it at all,\u201d Hiller said of the consecutive games against one opponent. \u201cI think \u2013 and it works this way for both teams \u2013 you can just get a little more dialed in. The players get a lot of information over a long season, playing all these different teams, and you\u2019d like to think they\u2019re grasping everything all the time, but we all know that\u2019s probably not the case. You get the same team in a short period, I think they dig in a little bit more and they make their own adjustments within the game themselves.\u201d<\/p>\n

Like Hiller said, there\u2019s no advantage one way or the other. Same goes for both teams. But it\u2019s an interesting quirk in the schedule it feels like you see maybe once or twice per season. The Kings don\u2019t have in on the road, but they will host Minnesota on January 3 and 5 in consecutive games. See how this one unfolds. <\/p>\n

\u2013 Lastly, a reminder that tonight\u2019s game is a national broadcast on ESPN+ \/ Hulu. Cassie Campbell-Pascall will be the analyst, after joining our LA Kings Insider show last week. Funny how that works. Check out her take on the team below.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

Kings and Blackhawks, a 7 PM faceoff in the first of two games between the two clubs in Los Angeles this week!<\/p>\n