Overview 10/7 – Opening evening! Planned programming + Vibes of Match 1, Doughty at the ankle, last Laferrière

The match of the day: The regular season is there! The Kings of Los Angeles are launching things this evening at Crypto.com Arena against the Avalanche du Colorado, as part of the NHL Triple Opening Program.

Face-to-face: The two teams held home service last season, the Kings winning the only match played in Los Angeles and the avalanche winning the two games played in Denver. In the past five seasons, striker Anze Kopitar has collected 15 assists in 20 games against the avalanche, equal to the first NHL in this sequence. Kopitar was one of the four Kings-with Adrian Kempe, Quinton Byfield and Alex Laferriere-equally at the top of the team with three points each against Colorado in 2024-25.

Vitals of Kings: With the real business in play for tonight, the Kings have 22 players on the opening list, which are all eligible for playing tonight.

Goalkeeper Darcy Kuemper did not skate this morning and should get the green light in front of the posts for the opening evening. Kuemper, who won the Stanley Cup with Colorado during the 2021-22 season, has just experienced one of the best seasons in his NHL career since he posted an average of a goal of 2.00, his career record last season, and his percentage of stops, 922 ranked second among the goalkeepers with at least 40 appearances.

Here is the expected program for the opening evening –

Kouzmenko – Kopitar – Kempe
Fiala – Byfield – Laferrière
Foëgèle – Danault – Moore
Malott – Turcotte – Armia

Anderson-Doughty
Edmundson-Clarke
Dumoulin-Ceci

KUEMPER / FORSBERG

According to yesterday training and today’s morning training, it seems that defender Jacob Moverare and striker Samuel Helenius are the scratches projected this evening. The Kings are deprived of striker Corey Perry and defender Kyle Burroughs, while the two players start the regular season in the injured reserve. This leaves the group of 20 tonight as a composition projected for the first game this evening.

Avalanches statistics: Like the Kings, Colorado will also start its season this evening in Los Angeles.

According to Evan Rewal de La Denver Gazette, here is how the avalanche aligned itself during yesterday’s training:

Avalanche lines today in training

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. Soloviev patinated before training.

Toews – Makar
Malinski – burns
Girard-Manson
Ahcan

-Evan rawal (@evanrawal) October 6, 2025

A really cool story here while Captain of Colorado, Gabriel Landeskog, should play his first regular season game in the NHL this evening since March 10, 2022 against the Kings. Landeskog has missed each of the last two regular seasons due to an injury, but returned to action during the STANLEY 2025 Cup qualifying series. Landeskog is two goals for 250 for his NHL career and totaled 571 points in 738 regular career games in the NHL.

Scenario of the day – What is the atmosphere
“Confidence and waiting. »»

He was the Kings Warren Foegele striker, when it was questioned about a different approach that he feels at the approach of this season compared to the last.

He explained that even if last season hurt, the way things took place gives the team the confidence that it is a “very good team” which can continue to push the limits against a higher level competition. He believes that by arriving this year, a more confident group has returned. This is something that has developed over last year, but that was not there when he got to his first camp. It was almost as if the Kings should prove internally that it was this team. Different sensation this season.

“There was juice around our team throughout the camp just to start and start the season in style,” added defender Brandt Clarke. “We have done the pre-season but now it counts, we want to get the most out of it and I think we will do it.”

The Kings feel ready for tonight. Naturally awaits a very difficult opponent in Colorado, the fastest team of NHL last season according to NHL Edge data, which will be roughly a test as severe as possible.

Defender Cody This, who was part of the Dallas Stars club last season, who beat Colorado in a series of seven playoffs, knows it better than anyone. This qualified the team avalanche which has “all the tools” and which will be hungry at the start of the season after losing in the first round of the playoffs. This is the test that awaits the Kings here during the first night as they seek to take a good start.

I think we all know that proving during the regular season is not what will define this team of Kings. Certainly not in the first match. Kings are confident to be able to reach the playoffs and change the result. But they cannot participate in the playoffs or gain in the playoffs today. All they can do is control what they can, and it allows them to succeed as much as possible. Kings approach the regular season as best they can. They had ice cream at home last season and would like to translate this in a division championship.

“We are playing definitively to gain playoffs, but it’s so far away, we are just trying to win the division, that must be the goal,” said Doughty. “We have briefly discussed here, let’s just take care of what we can take care of and I think we have a team that can do this this year.”

All these objectives have a much broader vision. They are real, but these are not things that can be done during this evening match either. All the Kings can do is play their match tonight and try to leave with two points. It’s time to show it on the ice.

3 to watch –
– It looks like all systems work for striker Alex Laferrière.

Laferrière should play tonight after missing the preparatory final on Saturday. Head coach Jim Hiller described Laferrière “not 100 percent” after this match, but after a few days to get back, Hiller was “optimistic” after yesterday’s training that Laferrière would be able to go. The third year striker trained in full yesterday and although he did not participate in the optional morning training of today, striker Samuel Helenius was on ice late for additional work, the road being paved for Laferrière to go there tonight.

“He trained fully, so we are optimistic about him,” said Hiller about Laferrière. “We did not think he would come out and do what he did (in training) and would succeed brilliantly. So we are rather optimistic.”

– Speaking of injury recovery, here is Doughty who talks about his ankle throughout the training camp:

“I feel good,” said Doughty. “I am really excited because I knew that I could not do what I wanted to do last year and I feel normal now. I am excited to show everyone what I can still do.”

Doughty’s injury and his return were one of the most significant events on last season’s team. The Kings have improved when Doughty returned, but they did not recover Doughty as we know him. They had a player who fought and who was still better than the average defender, but he was not able to move as he would normally and he is the first to admit it.

For a player who tries to show that he is the one he was, and not the one he was most recently, this evening is the first opportunity to do it on the ice. He crossed the camp well and now it’s time for departure.

– Finally, this evening’s match marks the start of the last season of the rich career of Anze Kopitar in the NHL.

Kopitar announced from the first day of the training camp that the 2025-26 season would be his last in the league. Today, it will be Kopitar’s last home opening match. The captain of the Kings has the gift of scoring during the opening evening, bringing with him a sequence of seven consecutive years with at least one point in the first match, including two hat laps (2021 and 2024) and four multi-point games.

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

Kings and Avalanche while the 2025-26 season starts! It is exciting to be at this stage. See you tonight in Los Angeles!