The LA Kings began the season with a defeat, as they dropped their home opener by a 4-1 final on Tuesday evening at Crypto.com Arena.
The first period came and went without a goal. Colorado held a narrow 7-6 advantage in shots on goal, though the Kings had the best look of the opening 20 minutes, with a strong shift from the fourth line setting up forward Jeff Malott in the low slot, though his shot just sailed past the far post.
Inside the first minute of the second period, Colorado took the first lead of the evening as forward Martin Necas scored the first Avalanche goal of the 2025-26 season. Forward Nathan MacKinnon used his skating ability to gain the offensive zone with possession down the right wing, before he rounded the net and passed through the slot to Necas, who beat Kings goaltender Darcy Kuemper on the glove side for a 1-0 lead.
Midway through the middle stanza, the Avalanche doubled their advantage through defenseman Sam Malinski. A clearing attempt was held in by Malinski at the left point, creating a situation with traffic in front. Malinski’s shot from the point evaded traffic in front, as well as Kuemper, and found the back of the net for his first of the season and a two-goal Colorado advantage.
Colorado made it three goals in the second period as forward Artturi Lehkonen got in on the scoring. The Kings turned the puck over in the neutral zone, a theme on the evening, sending Colorado back the other way with speed. Defenseman Cale Makar made the Kings pay, as he sliced and diced his way to the front of the net, with Lehkonen on hand to bury the rebound for a 3-0 lead.
The Avalanche added a power-play goal just past the halfway mark of the third period as they opened up a 4-0 lead. On their fifth opportunity of the evening, Necas picked up his second of the game as he took a feed from Makar, worked his way into the right-hand circle and picked his spot on the blocker side, inside the far post, to put the visitors ahead by four goals.
The Kings pulled a goal back late in the third period, converting on a 5-on-3 power play to make it a 4-1 game. The hosts moved the puck around the outside, before forward Adrian Kempe fed forward Kevin Fiala at the top of the right-hand circle, where the Swiss winger wired a one-timer past Colorado goaltender Scott Wedgewood for his first goal of the season to get the Kings on the board.
Hear from Kempe, defenseman Drew Doughty and Head Coach Jim Hiller following tonight’s Game 1 defeat.
Adrian Kempe
Drew Doughty
On his impressions from tonight’s defeat
First was, I thought, pretty even didn’t really have much either way and then the penalties just added up for us. Actually, penalty kill was really, really good today, we weren’t giving them a ton of looks and then eventually too many. That’s one of the best PP’s in the league, so yeah, that hurt us. Second period wasn’t good enough, kind of were on our heels. We were turning the puck over too much, they’re getting a lot of speed off turnovers and 3-on-2’s and stuff that hurt us. I mean, good response in the third, but too little too late.
On what he might consider to be a positive takeaway from tonight’s game, if there is one
I thought we responded well in the third, but like I said, too little too late, but we definitely played well in the third. Started doing the right things, drawing some penalties, started getting some opportunities. I did think at times we did defend well and I do think the PK was good. Overall, definitely not even close to good enough, but there are definitely some good things there.
On the speed of the game early and adjusting to an opening night
I mean, it’s a first game and honestly, in the first period, it feels like everything is happening so fast. Even for myself, playing so long, I’m a calm, poised player and things were happening so fast, just the adrenaline is going, both teams are flying around. The first period is hard to plan for either team.
On how he feels physically coming out of tonight’s game
I felt great tonight, I was moving well. I felt the best I’ve felt in that year. [Reporter – Are you are your pre-injury level?]. I’ll be there. I’m not going to say that I played at that level tonight, but I’ll be there.
Jim Hiller
On if there are any positives to be drawn from a game like that
Yeah, I don’t think you can draw too many that you can point to, a player or to a part of our game. I guess the penalty kill, you give that team six power plays, to hold them to one is actually probably a pretty good job in the end, if you want to look at one part of the game. Clearly you can’t give them six and then think you did well, you’re not going to win that way.
On the impact of penalties on the game
Yeah, that always disrupts you, for sure, but I didn’t think there was a lot of flow to the game really, from either team, particularly in the second period. First period it was mucky but it was kind of a pretty well played game. What they did really well, what they did better than us, is they checked us better than we did and we usually check pretty good, so credit to them. They really put a strong checking game, didn’t give us much time and space and we needed somebody to either one, get a good forecheck going and just try to create something ugly down there or [two] make a play and we were really not able to do either those two.
On what Colorado did well to disrupt the way the Kings wanted to play
I’ll say Colorado tracked us hard, didn’t give us a lot of time and space and we tried to make way too many passes under that type of duress. You hear us talk about this a lot, we had to forecheck more. We just had to forecheck more. It was all we were going to be able to get tonight. You could see the way they were skating and I think we passed up opportunities to do that and that’s why we looked even more disconnected.
On not wanting to overreact to one game, but also holding a subpar performance accountable
That was not a good game for us, but I don’t want to take away from how well Colorado played here tonight, you know what I mean, so let’s give them the credit that they’re due and say that we need to play better than we did. We’ll bounce back tomorrow, that’s just what we do, that’s how the league works. It’s a marathon, as we know and we weren’t happy with what we played.
On his impressions of the Dumoulin/Ceci pairing
I mean, I thought they were fine. If you look at the goals, we came back into d-zone, we didn’t stop once and close the middle, that’s not on either defenseman. The other one was a seeing-eye shot a little bit, Malinski’s goal, and then you got Necas on the power play. So there wasn’t a player that missed an assignment, there was a couple as a group where we missed an assignment, we had two or three guys not stopped in front of the net, disappointed in that.I thought, up and down the lineup, there’s nobody who really stood out for me in a real positive way or negative.
On seeing some spark in Brandt Clarke’s game late
You know, for all the really good things Clarkie does, one probably we don’t talk enough about is how competitive he is. So Clarkie, he’s not going to go away, he plays hard, he’s in the middle of it. The guys went after him for different reasons, but he’s not going away, he plays hard. He’s very competitive.
Post-Game Notes –
– Forward Kevin Fiala (1-0=1) netted his first goal of the season with his 59th career power play goal, tying Timo Meier (59 PPG) for the second most man-up markers by a player of Swiss nationality in NHL history. Fiala also becomes the 25th player in Kings history to score 20 power play goals on home ice.
– The St. Gallen, Switzerland native’s goal also marks his 25th career point (13-12=25) against the Avalanche in 34 games played and is his second consecutive season opener tallying a point for the Kings (0-1=1, Oct. 10, 2024 at BUF).
– Captain Anze Kopitar (0-1=1) recorded his first assist of the season, extending his point streak in season-opening contests to an eighth game (8-9=17), dating back to Oct. 5, 2018, breaking a tie with Winnipeg’s Kyle Connor (7GP, 7-3=10) for sole possession of the second-longest such streak among active skaters, behind only Nashville’s Filip Forsberg (9GP, 5-8=13). Kopitar has four points (1-3=4) over his last four games against the Avalanche, dating back to Nov. 13, 2024.
– Kopitar took the ice for his 20th National Hockey League season, all as a member of the LA Kings. Kopitar joins Patrik Elias (20, NJD), Evgeni Malkin (20, PIT), Alex Ovechkin (20, WSH) and Stan Mikita (22, CHI) as the only skaters born outside of North America to skate in 20 seasons all with one franchise in NHL history.
– Forward Adrian Kempe (0-1=1) recorded his first assist of the season on Fiala’s power play tally. The helper extends the 29-year-old winger’s home point streak against the Avalanche to a third game (0-4=4), dating back to Dec. 3, 2023.
– Kempe has now found the scoresheet in four of his last five season-opening contests (1-3=4), dating back to Oct. 14, 2021 vs. Vegas.
– Defenseman Drew Doughty skated in his 607th career home game tonight, tying Brian Leetch for the 37th most home games be a defenseman in NHL history.
– Doughty becomes the seventh blueliner in League history to skate in at least 18 seasons for a single franchise, joining Marc-Edouard Vlasic (19, SJS), Dit Clapper (20, BOS), Ken Daneyko (20, NJD), Kris Letang (20, PIT), Nicklas Lidstrom (20, DET), and Ray Bourque (21, BOS).
The Kings are not scheduled to hold a morning skate tomorrow in advance of tomorrow evening’s game against the Vegas Golden Knights at T-Mobile Arena.
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