{"id":455111,"date":"2025-10-18T01:54:11","date_gmt":"2025-10-18T01:54:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/455111\/"},"modified":"2025-10-18T01:54:11","modified_gmt":"2025-10-18T01:54:11","slug":"struggling-kings-welcome-undefeated-carolina-hurricanes-daily-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/455111\/","title":{"rendered":"Struggling Kings welcome undefeated Carolina Hurricanes \u2013 Daily News"},"content":{"rendered":"

It has been a dreary start to the season for the Kings and now they\u2019ll be on storm watch as the Carolina Hurricanes approach for Saturday\u2019s showdown.<\/p>\n

While the \u2019Canes are the NHL\u2019s only undefeated team (4-0-0), the Kings\u2019 rally in Vegas remains their only victory of 2025-26, in which they have yet to hold a third-period lead.<\/p>\n

Most recently, the Kings (1-3-1) fell to the Pittsburgh Penguins<\/a>, 4-2, in a game where center Phillip Danault said \u201cwe could have buried many more than two, that\u2019s for sure.\u201d<\/p>\n

Danault centered the top line to start a game in which An\u017ee Kopitar (foot) was unavailable, along with goalie Darcy Kuemper (lower body). Kuemper should be considered questionable at best for Saturday, while Kopitar was downgraded to \u201cweek-to-week\u201d status. Corey Perry (knee) continued his progress toward a return.<\/p>\n

The Kings also continued to flounder on special teams, where they\u2019ve been short-handed a league-high 24 times. They ceded goals both a man up and a man down to Pittsburgh, unraveling an effort that saw them take a 2-0 lead, only to surrender four unanswered scores.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re not gonna try to dissect too much here. We haven\u2019t given up a lot [five-on-five] over the last three or four games,\u201d Kings coach Jim Hiller said. \u201cSo we\u2019re just going to try and pull ourselves out of it. We\u2019re in a hole, and we\u2019re in a funk, there\u2019s no question.\u201d<\/p>\n

There were encouraging signs in the loss, with Hiller singling out Warren Foegele, who opened the scoring, and Alex Laferriere as forwards who had their best games of the young campaign. On the back end, Drew Doughty and Brian Dumoulin were the Kings\u2019 most effective pairing Tuesday, while Cody Ceci had his best outing as a King, recording his first point with a secondary assist on Foegele\u2019s goal and later hitting the post with a shot.<\/p>\n

Similarly, the Kings have had stretches of games where they looked more competitive and\/or played more to their stingy identity. Yet overall, they are not only in the bottom five in penalty-kill percentage but also tied for the sixth-most goals allowed per game.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re a confident group. We\u2019ve shown that we can have really good periods and then, for whatever reason, it just gets away from us,\u201d winger Trevor Moore said. \u201cWe\u2019ve just got to put it all together, and we will. It\u2019s still early in the year, you can\u2019t panic yet.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Kings\u2019 strength of schedule has been a talking point among apologists, but Pittsburgh was a non-playoff team last season and the Minnesota Wild are 1-2-0 apart from their OT win over the Kings<\/a>. Carolina, on the other hand, not only has the league\u2019s only unblemished record but its best goal differential at +11. The next best differential in the Eastern Conference is the Montreal Canadiens\u2019 +4.<\/p>\n

CAROLINA AT KINGS<\/p>\n

When: Saturday, 6 p.m.<\/p>\n

Where: Crypto.com Arena<\/p>\n

TV: FDSN West<\/p>\n

Originally Published: October 17, 2025 at 1:09 PM PDT<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It has been a dreary start to the season for the Kings and now they\u2019ll be on storm…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":454500,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2075],"tags":[235,260,2567,7,35861,6,4475,236,9],"class_list":{"0":"post-455111","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-carolina-panthers","8":"tag-carolina","9":"tag-carolina-panthers","10":"tag-carolinapanthers","11":"tag-football","12":"tag-los-angeles-kings","13":"tag-nfl","14":"tag-nhl","15":"tag-panthers","16":"tag-sports"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/115392680371020868","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/455111","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=455111"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/455111\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/454500"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=455111"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=455111"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=455111"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}