The Los Angeles Kings will continue the search for their first victory of the season when they host the Boston Bruins on Saturday evening.
The Kings are 0-3-2 through the first five games, which is tied for the third-longest season-opening skid in franchise history. The 1984-85 team began with nine winless games (including three ties), a year after the club started with six winless games (including two ties).
“The belief is there in our group, but it’s just not at all good enough right now,” Kings forward Trevor Moore said.
Los Angeles has scored one goal in each of its past three defeats.
“We need to generate more offense,” first-year Kings coach Peter Laviolette said.
Los Angeles took 40 shots in its most recent loss, against the visiting Edmonton Oilers on Tuesday, but only got one past Devon Levi in a 4-1 setback.
“We generated a lot of chances, enough chances, but I’d still like to see more in different areas from our group,” Laviolette said. “It’s not based on what they did or they didn’t do. I thought that they did a lot (against the Oilers). I thought they played hard and they were in the offensive zone. It’s more, for me, that we need to continue to look at it because we’re not scoring enough.”
Only one Los Angeles player, Artemi Panarin, has more than one goal this season. Panarin has three.
Adrian Kempe, who scored 36 goals last season and 35 in 2024-25, has one goal, as does Quinton Byfield, a 20-goal scorer the past three seasons.
“I have a lot of belief that the players in the room that have scored 20 goals, 25 goals, 30 goals, 35 goals, 40 goals in their past, I believe that they’re capable of doing that,” Laviolette said. “It hasn’t fallen for us. I think once it does, I think you start to gain a little bit of confidence from that as well.”
The Kings will be facing a Boston team that has won four in a row following a 4-2 road victory over the Anaheim Ducks on Friday night.
The Ducks scored two goals in the final minute of the first period to take a 2-0 lead, but the Bruins chipped away behind a power play that went 3-for-4 and a penalty kill that finished 5-for-5.
“They came out pretty hard. They had a lot of juice the first half of the game,” Boston coach Marco Sturm said of the Ducks. “But also knowing, as a young team, it’s tough to keep that tempo up for 60 minutes, and I was just hoping that they were going to slow down, and I think that’s what happened.”
Boston’s Frederic Brunet scored his first NHL goal on a fluttering slap shot from just inside the blue line that got through Anaheim goalie Lukas Dostal and started the comeback.
“Probably the worst shot of my career,” Brunet said. “I thought, ‘There’s no way that went in.’ “
Jeremy Swayman will start in goal against the Kings after Michael DiPietro made 25 saves against the Ducks for his first career NHL victory. DiPietro, 27, first appeared in the NHL in 2018-19, and he was playing in his sixth game and making his fourth start on Friday.
“I’ve been with Mikey a couple years in Providence (of the AHL) and the way it just happened, me scoring my first NHL goal and him getting the first win, it’s great,” Brunet said.
