LOS ANGELES –– The Kings started 2025 the way they spent most of 2024, staunchly defending home ice, as they won their eighth straight match at Crypto.com Arena, a 3-0 victory over the New Jersey Devils on Wednesday.
Their home points percentage moved to .844, improving upon what was already the best mark in the NHL. They’re 27-5-2 at home under Coach Jim Hiller dating back to last season, good for an .824 points percentage.
“It’s a perfect way to start the New Year. I’d be lying if I said it wasn’t,” Hiller said.
“It does not feel like we’re dominating. It doesn’t feel that way, because every game is a grind and it’s hard and it’s emotional. But we are playing well,” he continued. “This building, over these last few games, has just been rocking. It’s a really fun vibe. The music is good, the guys love playing here and the fans are passionate.”
The Kings also played their 12th straight game with 11 forwards and seven defensemen –– teams traditionally dress 12 and six –– moving to 8-2-2 in those games. Since the February promotion of Hiller, who’s fond of the alignment, the Kings have gone 21-4-3 when utilizing it.
The NHL’s first penalty of 2025 went to Anže Kopitar, who hadn’t been whistled for one all season, and its first goal of the calendar year was by Andre Lee, who had never scored one in his career. Quinton Byfield added an insurance marker and Adrian Kempe tacked on an empty-netter, which were rendered luxuries by Darcy Kuemper’s 31-save performance in his second shutout as a King.
Backup goalie Jake Allen stopped 21 of 23 shots in defeat for the Devils.
Halfway through the third period, the Kings nearly scored off a Kevin Fiala backhand from the slot during a four-on-four situation brought about by a questionable penalty against Byfield. Though they didn’t score at that moment, they did 65 seconds later, when Byfield avenged the call by skating into Phillip Danault’s pass and scoring off a low-flying shot that appeared to surprise Allen.
“Nice touch by Phil to put it in the right spot. Sometimes Q likes to over-handle the puck, what I liked about that is that it was on his stick and off his stick,” Hiller said. “(Fiala) and (Turcotte) had some chances where if they would have just released it quicker, they would have been more dangerous.”
With 4:35 showing on the clock, Kempe iced the game with a shuffleboard shot from just behind the red line and into the vacated cage. The Kings then killed a late penalty, six-on-four, to preserve the shutout.
“They’re a hard team to play against when they have the lead. For years now, they’ve been one of the best defensive teams in the league. When they’re up on you, it becomes a harder puzzle to solve,” Devils defenseman Jonathan Kovacevic said.
The first 40 minutes of action were defined largely by suffocating forechecking, especially by the visitors in the first period, and, at times, the scoring chances that those efforts generated.
A turnover by Kuemper onto the stick of Nico Hischier initiated a sequence that appeared to tie the game in the second period, with Timo Meier sweeping a loose puck in the slot past Kuemper for what would have been his second goal in two nights. However, the Kings’ risky challenge –– Hiller described it as “50-50,” as did Devils coach Sheldon Keefe –– for goalie interference paid off as a video review determined that Stefan Noesen impeded Kuemper’s ability to make a save.
“He pushed me back onto the goal line and then my stick kind of got tangled up in his feet, so I didn’t really have a chance to make a save,” Kuemper said. “I would have been in a way different position if he had not bumped into me.”
Noesen implored the league for clarity on the rule: “I said it once before and I’ll say it again, I don’t even know what the hell goaltender interference is.”
The Kings had gone up 1-0 off Lee’s first career goal. Jacob Moverare knocked the puck down in the defensive zone and slid it to Jordan Spence, who lofted it down the ice to create a footrace that Lee won confidently before zooming in on net with a forehand-to-backhand-to-forehand move. Lee, a seventh-round pick out of Sweden in 2019, was playing in his 19th NHL game.
“It’s such a journey for anybody … he took a longer road,” Hiller said. “It’s just really exciting. You can’t wipe the smile off his face.”
He added: “He used his speed and his reach, he got a nice bounce and, wow, what a finish.”
Prior to that, close calls were the only calls for both sides. Earlier in the stanza, Anže Kopitar navigated the slot masterfully and set up Turcotte for a shot he could have blown into the net, but the pass eluded Turcotte.
The first period was carried in terms of both traditional and analytical barometers by the Devils, whose best chance, for leading scorer Jesper Bratt no less, was foiled by a rolling puck and a sprawling Kuemper. The Kings also had a brilliant opportunity earlier, when a two-on-rush was quieted by an assertive glove save from Allen on Warren Foegele, who returned the favor by saving a goal when he blocked a shot from Ondřej Palát.
“Shutouts usually take a whole team; it’s a team stat, really,” Kuemper said. “It takes plays like that to get a shutout, it takes everybody, and we had everybody tonight.”
