Game Preview: Pittsburgh Penguins vs Los Angeles Kings 1/20/2025

Who: Pittsburgh Penguins (18-21-8, 44 points, 7th place Metropolitan Division) @ Los Angeles Kings (25-13-5, 55 points, 3rd place Pacific Division)

When: 10:30 p.m. ET

How to Watch: Broadcasting on Sportsnet Pittsburgh and FDSNWin the local markets, streaming on ESPN+

Pens’ Path Ahead: Having left snowy southwest Pennsylvania behind, the Pens enjoy a few day in SoCal before playing Anaheim on Thursday night. They jump up to Seattle for a game next Saturday before heading back down to San Jose a week from today as the long road trip continues.

Opponent Track: The Kings completed what coach Jim Hiller called an “unsuccessful” 2-3-0 five-game road trip through Western Canada and Seattle. But they are riding nine-straight wins at home and tonight will be the first home game in LA since the deadly wildfires have ripped through the area.

Season Series: The two teams met just over a month ago in Pittsburgh on December 17th. Rickard Rakell tipped in an Erik Karlsson shot to send the Pens to a victory in that game.

Hidden Stat: The Kings are 14-2-1 at home and overall boast a 21-0-2 record in games where they’ve scored three or more goals.

Getting to know the Kings

Projected lines

FORWARDS

Alex Turcotte - Anze Kopitar - Adrian Kempe

Warren Foegele - Quinton Byfield - Tanner Jeannot

Kevin Fiala - Phillip Danault - Trevor Moore

Trevor Lewis - Samuel Helenius - Kyle Burroughs

DEFENSEMEN

Mikey Anderson / Vladislav Gavrikov

Joel Edmundson / Brandt Clarke

Jacob Moverare / Jordan Spence

Goalies: Darcy Kuemper and David Rittich

Scratches: Alex Laferriere (day to day injury), Andreas Englund

IR: Drew Doughty

—The Kings are an interesting team in this day and age. They have a few skilled players, but they’re mostly big, defensive and try to win 2-1 or 3-2 in a league where it’s a lot easier to put up big numbers and play more wide open.

Player stats

—Kuemper is the latest example of goalies being voodoo, now that his second stint in LA has gone swimmingly so far. It’s been an interesting career arc for him, bouncing around early between a couple of different places (MIN, LA, AZ), going to Colorado briefly and winning a Stanley Cup despite being the least important cog in the machine. Signing a big free agent deal with Washington and promptly faceplanting before ending up back with the Kings and playing well so far.

—Great balance by the Kings with two point/game players (Kempe and Kopitar) and then all of their top-nine forwards have 20 points (rounding Turcotte’s 19 points in 38 games up). That sums them up, few standouts but a lot of solid players up and down the lineup that can pop out on any given night.

—Foegele is probably one of the more interesting and lesser talked about solid players in the league. He’s on track for a second 20-goal, 40-point season. His defensive impact is off the charts good. The Kings got him on a $3.5 million salary for three years, at 28 years old. He’s basically the embodiment for a mid-level free agent signing that every team searches for, but so few actually are able to target and bring into the fold. (And, he’s pretty much what Ron Hextall thought/hoped that Brock McGinn would have actually been).

And now for the Pens

Projected lines

FORWARDS

Rickard Rakell - Sidney Crosby - Bryan Rust

Michael Bunting - Evgeni Malkin - Anthony Beauvillier

Drew O’Connor - Kevin Hayes - Philip Tomasino

Blake Lizotte - Cody Glass - Noel Acciari

DEFENSEMEN

Marcus Pettersson / Kris Letang

Matt Grzelcyk / Erik Karlsson

Ryan Graves / Owen Pickering

Goalies: Alex Nedeljkovic and Joel Blomqvist

Potential Scratches: Matt Nieto, Ryan Shea, P.O. Joseph (illness)

IR: none

—The Pens took the long trip west yesterday, so no on ice activities or practice. We’ll see if P.O Joseph can jump back into his spot in the lineup, but it’s gotta be tough feeling ill on Saturday and taking a cross-country plane trip on Sunday and then trying to play on Monday.

—You would think, given weekend results, the team will be getting Nedeljkovic back in the net just as quickly as they can. The team’s last two wins (vs BUF on Friday and the week before against Edmonton) have both come with Nedeljkovic in net, and making 40 saves in each contest.

Rust-tastic

Bryan Rust is riding a three-game goal streak. He’s one more away from a round number that will put him in some good company.

From the Penguins:

Bryan Rust, who ranks second on Pittsburgh with 19 goals, is just one tally shy of his sixth 20-goal season. He’s looking to become just the ninth player in franchise history to have six or more 20-goal seasons with the team:

Most 20-Goal Seasons with PIT

Player 20-Goal Seasons

Sidney Crosby 16
Evgeni Malkin 15
Mario Lemieux 12
Jaromir Jagr 11
Rick Kehoe 9
Jean Pronovost 9
Jake Guentzel 7
Ron Francis 6
Bryan Rust 5*