Can the LA Kings Turn Last Spring’s Pain Into a 60th-Season Statement? Four Preseason Previews and the Post-Game Review That Matters
The LA Kings do not need a manufactured sense of urgency heading into their 60th anniversary season. They already have one. The final image of 2025–26 was Colorado’s 5-1 victory at Crypto.com Arena, the fourth straight loss in a first-round sweep that brought Anže Kopitar’s extraordinary Kings career to a close. That result hurt, but the more useful question for a new season is what the club does with it.
There are no points in the standings waiting at the end of September. There are, however, four meaningful preseason games, a new coach, new veteran voices, a reshaped leadership group and a home crowd ready to see whether Los Angeles has learned the right lessons. The LA Kings’ exhibition schedule begins Saturday, September 19, with the Empire Classic against the Vegas Golden Knights at Toyota Arena in Ontario. From there, the Kings face Utah once and Anaheim twice before opening the regular season on the road against Colorado.
For fans, that makes this a perfect moment for a combined post-game review and game-preview reset. The review begins with the way last season ended. The previews begin with what must be visible before opening night.
The Post-Game Review: What the Last Games Told the Kings
Los Angeles finished 2025–26 with a 35-27-20 record, 90 points and fourth place in the Pacific Division. The closing regular-season stretch had a frustratingly familiar rhythm: an encouraging 5-3 win in Seattle on April 13, followed by a 4-3 overtime loss in Vancouver and a 3-1 loss in Calgary. The Kings were competitive, but the margin between creating a chance and converting one never felt wider than it did in the spring.
The playoff series against Colorado sharpened that issue. The Avalanche swept Los Angeles in four games, but the series was not simply a matter of one team skating away with every shift. The Kings had tight moments early in the matchup and, as Trevor Moore noted after the finale, real opportunities in Games 2 and 3. The difference was finish. Los Angeles scored only five goals over the series and just two at even strength. Colorado’s defensive structure reduced the rush looks and odd-player advantages that can turn a close postseason game in a period.
Game 4 supplied the harshest summary. Joel Edmundson’s second-period goal brought the Kings within 2-1, briefly creating the sort of push a packed building could believe in. Colorado answered with three third-period goals, then added an empty-netter to close a 5-1 final. Anton Forsberg made 27 saves, but no goalie can reasonably be asked to erase the need for more offense at five-on-five.
That is the post-game review that should inform every September decision: the Kings were not short on compete, but they needed a more dangerous attack when structure tightened. Their best preseason answer will not be a highlight-reel score on an empty-net rush. It will be evidence that the team can sustain offensive-zone time, arrive at the net in layers and create second chances against organized defenses.
A New Chapter After Kopitar, and a New Voice Behind the Bench
The emotional weight of last spring cannot be separated from Kopitar’s retirement. For two decades, he embodied what the Kings hoped to be: composed, accountable, difficult to play against and at his best when the game mattered most. Replacing a player of that stature is impossible. Replacing his responsibilities is a team-wide assignment.
That responsibility now lands with a roster entering the Peter Laviolette era. The experienced coach inherits a group with top-end talent in Artemi Panarin, Quinton Byfield, Adrian Kempe and Kevin Fiala, while the offseason added the seasoned skill and edge of Mats Zuccarello, Erik Haula, Corey Perry and Erik Gustafsson. No one should expect a September line card to deliver a final answer on chemistry, but the ingredients are intriguing. A projected Panarin–Byfield–Kempe unit has speed, puck possession and finishing potential, while a Fiala–Haula–Zuccarello combination would give the Kings another line capable of entering the zone with control.
Byfield is the player who can make the transition from the Kopitar era feel less like a void and more like a challenge accepted. He need not imitate his predecessor’s game or demeanor. What he can do is own difficult minutes, make the middle of the ice his territory and lead a line that forces opponents to choose between protecting the slot and respecting the Kings’ speed on the perimeter. That question begins in preseason, not in April.
The blue line has its own evaluation. Drew Doughty remains a tone-setter, and Brandt Clarke’s 2025–26 breakout offered a genuine reason for optimism. Clarke recorded 40 points while contributing on the power play and absorbing demanding defensive work. His preseason performance should be judged less by points than by pace: can he move pucks quickly enough to help the new-look attack play on the front foot? For more context on the roster questions surrounding this camp, revisit our look at the three decisions that will define LA Kings training camp.
Game Preview No. 1: Vegas at the Empire Classic, September 19
The first game is not merely a ceremonial start. Vegas provides a familiar Pacific Division measuring stick, and Toyota Arena gives the Empire Classic an atmosphere that is closer to a meaningful event than a routine scrimmage. The Golden Knights will test the Kings’ puck management immediately; a loose neutral-zone decision can turn into a high-danger chance before a new system has time to settle.
The most important LA Kings preview question is simple: how cleanly does the team exit its zone and re-enter on offense? Watch whether defensemen have immediate support beneath the puck and whether centers return low enough to give the first pass a safe option. On the other side of the red line, the Kings should be looking for possession entries rather than hoping to win every puck battle after a dump-in. A disciplined performance against Vegas would be an early sign that the club can control games instead of chasing them.
Game Preview No. 2: Utah at Crypto.com Arena, September 22
Utah’s visit gives the Kings their first local look at the revamped forward group. This is the game where combinations matter. Haula’s faceoff work, Zuccarello’s playmaking and Perry’s ability to operate in crowded areas can complement the Kings’ established scorers, but preseason chemistry only becomes useful when it produces repeatable habits.
Against the Mammoth, focus on the sequence after the first shot. Does Los Angeles recover rebounds? Do wings arrive on time at the far post? Does the second power-play unit create a real threat rather than merely give the first unit a rest? Those details speak directly to the scoring shortfall exposed by Colorado. The home crowd will naturally track the new names; the staff will be tracking whether five skaters act like a connected unit.
Game Preview No. 3: At Anaheim, September 23
A preseason trip to Anaheim will always carry a little extra bite. The Freeway Face-Off does not need standings points to feel personal, and the road setting gives Laviolette a chance to see which players can keep their structure when the building turns hostile. It is also a practical audition game. Players on the roster bubble must show they can make a fast, low-risk play with pressure arriving, not simply create offense when the ice opens up.
Keep an eye on young defensemen and the penalty kill. Henry Brzustewicz enters camp as a prospect with a real chance to push for a role, and the Ducks can provide the kind of speed test that exposes hesitation. In the post-game review, the right question will be whether Kings defenders closed plays early and advanced the puck with purpose. A plus-minus line in September is noise; controlled exits, sound gaps and smart recoveries are the signal.
Game Preview No. 4: Anaheim at Crypto.com Arena, September 26
The rematch with Anaheim is the final dress rehearsal and arguably the most consequential exhibition date. By then, the coaching staff should be closer to identifying the opening-night lineup, the preferred defensive pairs and the special-teams personnel that will start the season in Colorado. The Kings do not need to reveal every tactical wrinkle, but they should look settled.
This game is where the details from the first three previews should come together. Can the top six create pressure without depending on a single star? Does the power play move the penalty killers instead of passing around them? Are the goaltenders seeing pucks through traffic? Most importantly, does the club protect a lead with the same urgency it shows while chasing one? A convincing final preseason performance would not erase the spring. It would show that the lessons are shaping the present.
The Regular-Season Tests Arrive Quickly
The LA Kings will not have the luxury of a gentle ramp into the 2026–27 schedule. Their opener is September 30 at Colorado, followed by an October 3 trip to San Jose. Then comes the home opener October 6 against the Florida Panthers and an October 13 visit from the Edmonton Oilers. That is a revealing early sequence: a chance to confront the team that ended last season, a divisional road test, a celebratory home night and a matchup with a perennial elite opponent.
Colorado is the obvious headline. A win or loss will not define 84 games, but the game will be a valuable comparison point. Can Los Angeles generate more than perimeter looks? Can it play fast enough to force the Avalanche to defend rather than simply transition? Against San Jose, the key will be avoiding the letdown that often follows an emotional opener. Florida will bring a championship-caliber standard to Crypto.com Arena, while Edmonton will test the Kings’ discipline, special teams and ability to handle high-end skill.
InfanityTV will be following every turn of that opening stretch. Subscribe to the InfanityTV YouTube channel and check in with LA Kings Weekly for continued previews, post-game reviews and the fan conversation that makes a new season feel alive. You can also explore why the organization’s 60th anniversary calendar is about more than giveaways as the home schedule takes shape.
What Success Looks Like Before Opening Night
Preseason success is not four wins. It is four games that narrow the uncertainty. The Kings should leave September knowing who can take a critical defensive-zone draw, which line can tilt the ice at five-on-five, how their power play creates inside pressure and whether their younger players can be trusted when the pace rises. They should also leave knowing that one era has ended and another is theirs to define.
Last spring’s post-game review was painful, but it was clear. The LA Kings need more finishing, more center depth and more ways to solve disciplined teams when the game gets tight. The four previews ahead offer a practical path to begin that work. A 60th season cannot be built on nostalgia alone. It has to be built shift by shift, starting in Ontario and carrying straight into Colorado.
