The Week That Was

The Kings wrapped up their preseason this past weekend, going 2-0-1 on the week and finished the preseason with a 4-1-1 record. The Kings didn’t play a home preseason game in Crypto.com Arena and closed out their preseason in uncharted territory, Quebec City. But before hitting Quebec, the Kings traveled to Anaheim and beat up on the neighbors to the south with a 4-0 shutout victory over Ducks. Following the Duck dub, the Kings played their last two games of the preseason in Quebec, going 1-1-0.

Game Recaps:

9/30: LAK 4 @ ANA 0

10/3: LAK 1 vs. BOS 1

10/5: LAK 2 vs. FLA 4

Notable News From The Week That Was:

• Forwards Samuel Fagemo and Jack Studnicka and goaltender Pheonix Copley have been placed on waivers for purpose of assignment to Ontario (AHL).
• Forward Andre Lee was loaned to Ontario.
• Defenseman Drew Doughty and forward Arthur Kaliyev have been placed on injured reserve (IR).

The Week That Is

Let the (real) games begin! The 2024-25 regular season has arrived and the Kings are just three days away from kicking their 82-game campaign off. Now entering the 58th season in franchise history, the Kings are aiming for a fourth consecutive playoff appearance and a shot at raising the Stanley Cup for a third time. It’ll be a unique start to the season for the Kings as they’ll start it off with seven road games while the renovations at Crypto.com Arena finish up. Beginning on the East coast, the Kings have two games this week in the eastern time zone.

The Kings season and seven-game road trip kicks off on Thursday, October 10th in New York against the Buffalo Sabres. The Sabres actually go into the Kings season opener with an 0-2-0 record after having dropped both games in Prague, Czechia to the New Jersey Devils in the NHL Global Series this past weekend.

The Sabres have led for only 3:41 of the 120 minutes of play so far this season and were outscored 7-2 in the two games in Czechia. That said, the Sabres have enjoyed their games against the Kings as of late, especially at home. The Sabres are 3-1-0 against the Kings in the past two seasons with a 2-0-0 record at home. The Sabres have outscored the Kings 13-0 on home ice in the past two meetings and the last Kings goal in Buffalo came on March 3, 2022 when the Kings defeated the Sabres 3-0. Looking to snap the mini skid in Buffalo, the Kings will face off against what is still a very young team. The Sabres are the youngest team in the NHL at an average age of 25.32 years old. Their young and bright core is highlighted by multiple number one overall draft picks in the 24-year-old Rasmus Dahlin who has emerged as one of the premier defensemen in the league and the 21-year-old Owen Power who netted the team’s first goal this season. Offensively, the Sabres are going to be dependent on their top two centers if they want to be in playoff contention. Both Tage Thompson and Dylan Cozens enter their second year’s of their $49+M, seven-year deals and are looking to rectify themselves after less than satisfying 2023-24 season’s. Thompson had a 38 point drop off from the 22-23 to 23-24 season and Cozens had a 21 point drop off during that time as well. Thompson has gotten his first goal under his belt this season, while Cozens has gone pointless in the first two games.

The Kings will travel to Boston following the Thursday opener and go up against a team that will look a lot like the one they saw on Thursday this past week. Having played the Bruins in the preseason in Quebec what will be nine days prior to the Saturday game, we’ll hope for a repeat on the ice and on the scoreboard. One major difference between the team the Kings saw in the preseason versus regular season will be the Bruins goaltending. It was announced on Sunday morning that the standoff between restricted free agent goaltender Jeremy Swayman and the Bruins had come to an end and the two had had agreed on a eight-year, $66M ($8.25M AAV) deal. Swayman rejoins the Bruins after a .916 save percentage and a 2.53 goals against average last season. Both top-8 stats among qualified goalies.

As for their skaters, Bruins captain Brad Marchand is also expected to be in the lineup after missing the Kings preseason game last week due to injury. Marchand, 36, enters his eighth and final year of his contact and comes into 24-25 after a 67-point (29-38=67) season last year. Furthermore, two newcomers to the Bruins are Pacific Division regulars in the former Flames/Canucks, Nikita Zadorov and Elias Lindholm. Zadorov joins the Bruins on a six-year, $30M ($5M AAV) deal and Lindholm joins the team on a seven-year, $54.25M ($7.750M AAV) deal.

Set your timers on Saturday morning because the Kings and Bruins will face off at 10 AM PST.

Upcoming games and events this week:

• 10/10 @ Buffalo Sabres @ 4:00 PM (Bally Sports West)

• 10/12 @ Boston Bruins @ 10:00 AM (Bally Sports West)

All Kings games can be heard on the ESPN LA App.