The Los Angeles Kings continue their five-game road trip tonight in New York against the New York Rangers. The Kings won two out of three to kick off the road trip, improving their overall record to 2-5-2. However, the Kings lost their most recent matchup against the new-look New Jersey Devils.
The Kings are 2-2-2 on the road this season, which is significantly better than their home record of 0-3-0.
Left winger Artemi Panarin, who they acquired prior to the 2025-26 trade deadline from the Rangers, leads the team with nine points and six goals this season. Panarin's line mates Adrian Kempe and Alex Laferriere have 15 combined points. Top blue liner Brandt Clark has seven points thus far as well.
However, outside of the top line and top defensive pair, the Kings haven't produced much.
Goaltender Darcy Kuemper has allowed 3.55 goals per game thus far with a .890 save percentage. Backup goaltender Anton Forsberg led the way against the Devils and currently holds a .894 save percentage while allowing just 2.48 goals per game.
Defenseman Adam Fox leads the Rangers with 16 points in 13 games. Left winger Alexis Lafreniere has 15 points and leads the team with nine goals. Center Mika Zibanejad has 11 points and eight assists on the top line.
The Rangers are anchored by Dylan Garand who has allowed 2.65 goals per game and holds a .900 save percentage. However, Garand started the past eight games for the Rangers, so backup goaltender James Reimer will start in net tonight.
Reimer was signed yesterday to a one year deal in order to give Reimer a break. Reimer, now 38, started the year with the Rangers' AHL affiliate Hartford, making 35 saves in his debut. Reimer went 7-4-2 with the Ottawa Senators in 2025, allowing 2.42 goals per game with a .886 save percentage.
First Pick: Adrian Kempe over 0.5 points
Rundown: Kempe has at-least one point in his last four games and points in five of six games. A good indication of this continuing is that they're mostly assists. His top line with Panarin and Laferriere scores a lot of goals. They're also facing an older goaltender who hasn't started an NHL game this season. Reimer allowed four goals in his last matchup against the Kings in 2023, including a goal allowed to Kempe. The team landscape may be completely different now, but Kempe still has success against this goalie matchup.
Second Pick: Pavel Dorofeyev over 2.5 shots on goal
Rundown: The Kings allow the fifth-most goals per game on just 27.22 shots per game (14th most). Dorofeyev has seven points in 13 games thus far, but he's still a prolific scorer who looks for his shot often. He averages three shots per game through 12 games in October and has taken 18 shots in his last five games.