LOS ANGELES \u2014 Though Darcy Kuemper did not see a minute of action at the Winter Olympics, as coach Jon Cooper put Team Canada\u2019s gold-medal mission in the hands of Jordan Binnington, the Los Angeles Kings goalie was ecstatic at merely being selected to represent his homeland.<\/p>\n
\u201cGrowing up playing on the outdoor pond or in the front road playing street hockey, like you\u2019re always dreaming of playing for the Olympics,\u201d Kuemper said in January. \u201cI think every kid in Canada wants to put on that maple leaf in that kind of setting, so it\u2019s such an honor.\u201d<\/p>\n
Kuemper was chosen because of an impressive recent track record. In 2024-25, his first year with the Kings, the 35-year-old posted a career-low 2.02 goals-against average and finished as a Vezina Trophy finalist. And his follow-up in 2025-26 started well. Up until a December injury that threw his Olympic status into some doubt, Kuemper had a .916 save percentage and propped up a team dogged by offensive inconsistency and inefficiency.<\/p>\n
But that level of play hasn\u2019t been sustainable for Kuemper. In fact, since the Olympic break and especially of late, he hasn\u2019t even been the best netminder for the playoff-chasing Kings. That would instead be Anton Forsberg, who proved clutch Monday in the team\u2019s biggest game to date, stopping 29 of 31 shots in their 3-2 shootout win over the Nashville Predators.<\/p>\n
\u201cObviously just to get the chance to play in this kind of game, it\u2019s so much fun and I had fun every minute out there,\u201d Forsberg said.<\/p>\n
The facts should be clear to Kings interim coach D.J. Smith. Forsberg needs to start Thursday\u2019s game against the Vancouver Canucks. And perhaps Saturday\u2019s home tilt against the Edmonton Oilers. There\u2019s a back-to-back next week in Seattle and Vancouver where both goalies can get a game. But if a playoff berth is on the line in the regular season finale at Calgary, the Kings should again tap Forsberg unless he gives them reason not to play him.<\/p>\n
As cruel as it may seem to cast aside Kuemper, the veteran has been struggling. It\u2019s not just his last three games, when he\u2019s allowed 15 goals on 70 shots; he has an .870 save percentage since coming back from Milan. Meanwhile, Forsberg has a .900 SV% in 10 games since the NHL returned to action. Not great but clearly better.<\/p>\n
When asked after standing tall Monday whether he\u2019d be prepared to play the final five games, Forsberg said, \u201cI\u2019ll play whenever they tell me to play.\u201d But the 33-year-old, who\u2019s mostly been a 1B goalie or an often-used backup, would relish the chance to be the one the Kings lean on to capture a playoff berth.<\/p>\n
\u201cObviously, both me and Darce want to play as much as possible,\u201d Forsberg said. \u201cWe\u2019re there to support each other. That\u2019s a part of a team. And when one plays, the other guy works hard. Work on his game. We take it day by day.\u201d<\/p>\n
Monday was just Forsberg\u2019s third appearance since March 21, with one of those being a third-period mop-up job against Utah after Kuemper was touched for five goals on 16 shots. His previous start came in a 2-1 overtime win over the Blues on April 1, the front end of a back-to-back he split with Kuemper. The difference here is that rest was built into the schedule, and still the Kings turned to Forsberg.<\/p>\n
\u201cI feel good,\u201d Forsberg said. \u201cEven though I haven\u2019t been playing a lot, I\u2019ve been working a lot with (Kings goalie coach Mike Buckley). He\u2019s doing a really good job of keeping you sharp, coming up with really good drills.\u201d<\/p>\n
Publicly, Smith has continued to back Kuemper, calling him \u201cour guy all along\u201d after a 5-4 shootout loss to the Predators on April 2. But the goalie was again a topic on Saturday, giving up six goals on just 20 shots as the Kings pulled out a 7-6 overtime win over the Toronto Maple Leafs. Afterward, Smith lumped his goalie in with the rest of the roster, saying how lineup decisions will be made in consultation with Buckley but also team management.<\/p>\n
But the coach added, \u201cThere has to be accountability for how you play, and if there\u2019s somebody that can come in and help us, we\u2019re going to do it.\u201d<\/p>\n
On Monday morning, Smith pointed to Kuemper needing \u201ca breather\u201d as part of the decision to go with Forsberg. The coach also downplayed the sense that he\u2019s lost faith in Kuemper.<\/p>\n
\u201cKuemps has been a starter in this league for a long time,\u201d Smith said. \u201cSome guys get tired or need a breather in certain times throughout the year, but we\u2019re going to need both guys. Forzy\u2019s quite capable, and so is Kuemps. With the amount of games we have in as many days, we\u2019re going to need both guys.\u201d<\/p>\n
The upcoming back-to-back allows Smith to make that statement and stick to it. But while he\u2019s trying not to give away which direction they\u2019re leaning, Forsberg\u2019s work against the Predators is providing what should be a definitive answer \u2014 at least for the last two games of this critical homestand. He was particularly strong in Monday\u2019s second period, when Nashville put 19 shots on him. He gave up a juicy rebound in the slot but turned away Filip Forsberg. Tyson Jost and Justin Barron were both denied in a later flurry.<\/p>\n
\u201cForzy\u2019s played great for months now,\u201d Drew Doughty said. \u201cHe\u2019s been really good and (we\u2019re) very confident in front of him. He\u2019s a great goalie, great guy. You want to do things for him because of how hard he works and how good of a teammate he is. He\u2019s vocal back there, too, which is nice.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Kings are being diplomatic with their net options. \u201cVery confident in front of both goalies, of course,\u201d Doughty said. But it\u2019s time to go with their best. Right now, that\u2019s Forsberg.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"LOS ANGELES \u2014 Though Darcy Kuemper did not see a minute of action at the Winter Olympics, as…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":545827,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5126],"tags":[5,186,1760,240,5303,793,145,5304,5302,4],"class_list":{"0":"post-545826","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-los-angeles-kings","8":"tag-hockey","9":"tag-kings","10":"tag-la","11":"tag-la-kings","12":"tag-lakings","13":"tag-los-angeles","14":"tag-los-angeles-kings","15":"tag-losangeles","16":"tag-losangeleskings","17":"tag-nhl"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nhl\/116364383684822028","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/545826","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=545826"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/545826\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/545827"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=545826"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=545826"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=545826"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}