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The final game of the regular season had no meaning for the Los Angeles Kings. Let’s edit that. It was meaningless for most of them.
It meant everything for Taylor Ward, a 27-year-old forward who made his NHL debut after four years of college hockey at Nebraska-Omaha and three full seasons with the Ontario Reign of the American Hockey League. And it meant everything for Ward’s family in attendance Thursday night at Crypto.com Arena.
Advertisement When Ward scored a power-play goal in the third period, the reaction from his father, Dixon, a 10-year NHL forward, showed the importance of the moment. It hardly mattered that the Flames, who had four debuts of their own with Zayne Parekh and Sam Morton also scoring, had a 5-0 lead and were cruising to victory. TAYLOR WARD FIRST NHL GOAL!!!!!! pic.
twitter.com/8BvYVwHEW1 — x – LA Kings (@LAKings) April 18, 2025 The biggest takeaway on the Kings’ end was that Quinton Byfield returned to the lineup after being cross-checked in the head and neck area by Edmonton’s Darnell Nurse and that all their other key players emerged from Thursday unscathed. Adrian Kempe, Trevor Moore and Darcy Kuemper were rested, and Anže Kopitar and Drew Doughty got back in after sitting out Tuesday in Seattle.
But the dress rehearsal ahead of their fourth consecutive playoff appearance didn’t go according to plan for second-year coach Jim Hiller. “I’m disappointed,” Hiller told reporters. “Disappointed we didn’t win a game.
I haven’t hit the release stage left. I’m more in the pissed-off stage. But we’ll get there, I guess.
” Later, Hiller added: “I like to win. It’s a game, right? I think our players are pissed off, too. You’re competitive.
You want to win. I didn’t see it as meaningless in any way, shape or form. I guess maybe in the standings you could say that, but it’s hard out there when you are not quite — if you come in with the frame of mind that maybe this one’s a little less important, or a little tired, then you don’t have a good game.
It’s hard. That’s how good the league is.” There’s a new focus now.
The Kings handled the preliminaries to the tune of 48 wins and 105 points, which tied the franchise high for points for the regular season. But the season that really matters has arrived and their focus is completely on the Edmonton Oilers. A collision course waiting to happen is here.
Advertisement Three prior chances to beat them. Three failures. Now they’ll have a rare fourth opportunity.
What must change for the Kings? There are five key questions that will shape the best-of-seven series that begins Monday night in Los Angeles. Can they stop Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl? It takes more than two players for a team to win in the playoffs, but the Oilers’ duo is the closest thing to making that ring true. Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl are two of the top five hockey players on Earth.
Full stop. And they’ve left a lot of wreckage in their wake over the previous three rounds against the Kings. McDavid has eight goals and 28 assists in 18 games.
Draisaitl has 17 goals and 13 assists. An astronomical 66 points combined. “Stopping” the two is a misnomer.
Shutting them down completely is inconceivable. But the Kings are an accomplished defensive team. Per Natural Stat Trick, they allowed the second-fewest high-danger chances and were fourth in xGF% (54.
28) at five-on-five. They’re a dedicated backchecking team. And they have layers of strong defensive pivots in Byfield joining Kopitar and Phillip Danault.
Making McDavid and Draisaitl work hard in the Oilers’ zone and keeping the trips to the penalty box at a minimum can go a long way toward limiting their damage. There is also the question of whether both will be at or near 100 percent as they’ve dealt with injuries over the past few weeks. If the Kings can hold McDrai to just a point per game for each and keep both from destroying them on the power play, that will go a long way toward being victorious.
What line needs to swing the series toward the Kings’ favor? The Oilers will typically have McDavid and Draisaitl on different lines but coach Kris Knoblauch, like others before him, will pair them in a load-up measure when they face deficits and need goals. It figures that Hiller will largely have Danault and Kopitar in matchup roles. If they can hold their own with those defensive responsibilities, that can potentially free up Byfield and his linemates when they have last change at home.
Advertisement This is the time for Byfield and Kevin Fiala to become difference-makers in the postseason. Fiala has a checkered playoff history. In 2023, the Swiss winger had 6 points in three games after coming back from a late-season injury.
But he’s scored only twice in his eight L.A. playoff games and has 11 goals in 43 contests over eight postseasons.
He had an up-and-down 2024-25 but had a blazing second half and finished with a career-high 35 goals. Monday will be Byfield’s 14th playoff game. The 22-year-old has one goal, but he’s now an established center and deepens their lineup.
He was a second-half force with 14 goals and 33 points in his last 36 games. Byfield must be someone Edmonton has to stress over. Second-year winger Alex Laferriere built on his rookie year and can beat goalies with his shot and score dirty goals down low.
If this trio gets favorable matchups, they need to feast. Is Kuemper the goaltender they’ve needed to advance? Jonathan Quick was their guy in 2022 and had his moments in his last quality Kings season. They had to turn to Joonas Korpisalo in 2023, but he couldn’t hold down the Oilers after letting a 3-0 lead get away in a pivotal Game 4.
Cam Talbot and David Rittich weren’t the answer in 2024 after strong regular seasons. It’s been a turnstile in the Kings’ net, but Kuemper could be the one to win the goaltending battle with Stuart Skinner. There is no question who the better goalie was this season.
While Skinner battled inconsistency, Kuemper was steady for the Kings, especially after he stayed in the lineup following a couple of short stints on injured reserve. The 34-year-old put up numbers (31-11-7, 2.02 goals-against average, .
922 save percentage) that could make him a Vezina Trophy finalist. He had a stretch of 15 consecutive starts with two goals or fewer allowed. His 22.
5 fewer goals given up than expected showed that his 31-win season wasn’t just a function of a great defense in front of him. The difference this time for the Kings is that Kuemper has the combination of a great season and a successful playoff track record. He’s got a Stanley Cup on his mantel and a 17-10 mark, with 10 of those wins coming in Colorado’s 2022 title run.
Another edge that favors the Kings is Kuemper was third among NHL goalies with an .896 save percentage on power plays while Skinner’s was .846.
If he’s why the Kings are killing off penalties, they can win. How effective will Doughty be in his first series post-ankle surgery? It naturally took a little time for Doughty to shake off months of rust after breaking his ankle in September, but he was motivated to play for Canada in the 4 Nations Face-Off and wound up contributing nicely to his country’s winning effort. And he was riding off that high in his first game back from that high-wattage tournament, putting up a 3-point night against Utah.
But it’s fair to say the 35-year-old has been uneven in performance overall. The Kings still win their minutes with Doughty on the ice — Natural Stat Trick has a 24-16 goal advantage at even strength — and he’s still playing 24 minutes per game. But assistant coach D.
J. Smith, who runs the defense, has been conscious about overplaying their aging star as he’s topped 25 minutes just once over his last 13 contests. Doughty did miss four of the last six games and often doesn’t practice to manage an ankle he admits isn’t 100 percent.
Advertisement The best development for the Kings in all things Doughty is that they don’t need him to do everything from the back end. They’re still defense-focused and can use an injection of offense from the blue line (hello, Brandt Clarke), but Mikey Anderson and Vladislav Gavrikov delivering their best seasons boost their clamp-down effect. Joel Edmundson was acquired for this time of year.
Clarke and Jordan Spence are trusted more and more. As long as Doughty can keep up and not hinder them, they should be fine. Can they translate their wild success at home to the postseason? Trying to draw a line between regular-season and playoff hockey is a careful exercise that can turn futile.
The game between the two entities often doesn’t resemble each other. And in the NHL, home ice isn’t the kind of overwhelming advantage for playoff teams that you find in the NBA or NFL postseasons. But teams will always want that chance to play a Game 7 in front of their own crowd if one becomes necessary.
The Kings worked hard to play games 1 and 2 at Crypto instead of opening in Edmonton. They closed the season with a 17-5-0 record to clinch second place in the Pacific Division and finish above the Oilers. Eleven of those victories came in L.
A., and it’s part of the reason why they had the NHL’s best home record at 31-6-4. They’ve had good mojo at Crypto all season.
Added inspiration has come from honoring firefighters and first responders since the terrible blazes that broke out in Southern California and destroyed neighborhoods. Will starting at home change the narrative against the Oilers? There wasn’t any advantage in the three losses, as Edmonton won six of eight games in Los Angeles. But because the Kings were an average 17-19-5 club on the road, there will be pressure to hold serve at a place they’ve felt great all year.
And if they’re taking a 2-0 lead into Rogers Place, they’ll feel better about finally slaying their nemesis. (Photo of Zach Hyman and Drew Doughty: Yannick Peterhans / USA Today).
