10/7 Preview – Opening Night! Projected Lineup + Game 1 Vibes, Doughty on Ankle, Laferriere Latest

TODAY’S MATCHUP: The regular season is here! The LA Kings get things underway this evening at Crypto.com Arena against the Colorado Avalanche, as a part of the NHL’s season-opening tripleheader.

HEAD-TO-HEAD: The two teams held serve at home last season with the Kings winning the one game played in Los Angeles and the Avalanche winning both games played in Denver. Over the last five seasons, forward Anze Kopitar has collected 15 assists in 20 games played against the Avalanche, tied for the NHL lead in that stretch. Kopitar was one of four Kings – along with Adrian Kempe, Quinton Byfield and Alex Laferriere – to tie for the team lead with three points apiece versus Colorado in 2024-25.

KINGS VITALS: With the real deal on tap for tonight, the Kings have 22 players on the Opening Night roster, all of whom are eligible to play tonight.

Goaltender Darcy Kuemper did not skate this morning and is expected to get the nod between the pipes for Opening Night. Kuemper, who won a Stanley Cup with Colorado during the 2021-22 season, is coming off one of the finest seasons of his NHL career as he posted a career-best 2.00 goals-against average last season and his .922 save percentage ranked second amongst goaltenders with at least 40 appearances.

Here is the expected lineup for Opening Night –

Kuzmenko – Kopitar – Kempe
Fiala – Byfield – Laferriere
Foegele – Danault – Moore
Malott – Turcotte – Armia

Anderson – Doughty
Edmundson – Clarke
Dumoulin – Ceci

Kuemper / Forsberg

Based on practice yesterday and today’s morning skate, it appears as if defenseman Jacob Moverare and forward Samuel Helenius are tonight’s projected scratches. The Kings are without forward Corey Perry and defenseman Kyle Burroughs, as both players begin the regular season on injured reserve. That leaves tonight’s group of 20 as the projected lineup for tonight’s Game 1.

AVALANCHE VITALS: Like the Kings, Colorado will also begin their season this evening in Los Angeles.

Per Evan Rewal of the Denver Gazette, here’s how the Avalanche lined up during yesterday’s practice –

Avalanche lines today at practice

Lehkonen – MacKinnon – Necas
Landeskog – Nelson – Nichushkin
Colton – Drury – Olofsson
Kelly – Bardakov – Kiviranta/Brindley

— Evan Rawal (@evanrawal) October 6, 2025

Keaton Middleton is not on the ice today. Jack Ahcan is. Solovyov skated before practice.

Toews – Makar
Malinski – Burns
Girard – Manson
Ahcan

— Evan Rawal (@evanrawal) October 6, 2025

Really cool storyline here as Colorado captain Gabriel Landeskog is set to play in his first regular-season game in the NHL since March 10, 2022 this evening against the Kings. Landeskog has missed each of the last two regular seasons in full due to injury but returned to action during the 2025 Stanley Cup Playoffs. Landeskog is two goals shy of 250 for his NHL career and has totaled 571 points in 738 career NHL regular-season games.

Storyline Of The Day – What’s The Vibe
“Confidence and expectation.”

That was Kings forward Warren Foegele, when asked about a different approach he feels heading into this season versus last.

He explained that for as much as last season hurt, the way things went down gives the team confidence that they’re a “really good team” that can continue to push the envelope forward against higher-level competition. He feels that coming in this year, a more confident group has returned. It’s something he felt grew as last year went on but wasn’t there when he came to his first camp. It was almost as if the Kings had to prove internally this was that team. Different feeling this season.

“There’s been a juice around our team all camp just to get going and start the season off hot,” defenseman Brandt Clarke added. “We’ve done good with the preseason but now it counts, we want to make the most of it and I think we will.”

The Kings feel they are ready for tonight. Awaiting them is naturally a very difficult opponent in Colorado, the NHL’s fastest team last season based on NHL Edge data, which will be about as stern a test as you can get out of the gates.

Defenseman Cody Ceci, who was a part of last season’s Dallas Stars club that defeated Colorado in a seven-game playoff series, knows that better than most. Ceci referred to the Avalanche as a team that has “all the tools” and will be hungry entering the season after losing in the first round of the postseason. That’s the test awaiting the Kings here on Night 1 as they look to get off to a strong start.

I think we all know that proving during the regular season isn’t what will define this Kings team. Certainly not in Game 1. The Kings are confident in reaching the playoffs and changing the outcome. But they can’t make the playoffs or win in the playoffs today. All they can do is control what they can, and that’s setting themselves up for as much success as possible. The Kings are approaching the regular season as best they can. They had home ice last season and would like to translate that into a division championship.

“We’re definitely playing to win in the playoffs but that’s so far away, we’re just trying to win the division, that’s got to be the goal,” Doughty said. “We briefly chatted about it in here, just take care of what we can take care of and I think we have a team that can do that this year.”

All of those goals are such wider lens. They’re real, but they’re also not things that be achieved in tonight’s game. All the Kings can do is play their game tonight and try to come away with two points. Time to show it on the ice.

3 To Watch For –
– Sounds like all systems go for forward Alex Laferriere.

Laferriere is expected to play tonight after he missed Saturday’s preseason finale. Head Coach Jim Hiller labeled Laferriere as “not 100 percent” after that game but following a couple of days to get back at it, Hiller was “optimistic” after yesterday’s practice that Laferriere would be able to go. The third-year forward practiced in full yesterday and though he did not take today’s optional morning skate, forward Samuel Helenius was on the ice late for extra work, with the road paved for Laferriere to go tonight.

“He practiced in full, so we’re optimistic on him,” Hiller said of Laferriere. “We didn’t think he’d get out there and do what he did [in practice] and pass with flying colors. So, we’re pretty optimistic.”

– Speaking of the injury recovery front, here’s Doughty speaking about his ankle throughout training camp:

“I feel great,” Doughty said. “I’m really excited because I knew I couldn’t do what I wanted to do last year and I feel normal now. I’m excited to show everyone what I can still do.”

Doughty’s injury and subsequent return was one of the bigger storylines of last season’s team. The Kings got better when Doughty came back but they didn’t get Doughty as we know him. They got a player who battled and who was still better than your average defenseman but he was not able to move as he normally would and he’s the first to admit that.

For a player trying to show he is who he’s been, not who he was most recently, tonight is the first opportunity to do it on the ice. He came through camp well and now it’s go time.

– Lastly, tonight’s game begins the final season of Anze Kopitar’s storied NHL career.

Kopitar announced on the first day of training camp that the 2025-26 season would be his last in the league. Today will be Kopitar’s final home opener. The Kings’ captain has a knack for scoring on Opening Night, bringing with him a seven-year point streak in Game 1, including two hat tricks (2021 and 2024) and four multi-point games.

He scored three unanswered goals in Buffalo last season as the Kings overturned a 1-0 deficit to win 3-1 and we all remember his opener against Vegas in 2021, when he scored three goals and collected two assists in a convincing victory.

Kings and Avalanche as we get the 2025-26 season underway! Exciting to be at this point. See you in Los Angeles tonight!