Preview 11/12 – Kevin Fiala set to return +22’s Impact, managing expectations, Doughty expected to play, ‘Kuemper’s 500

MATCH OF THE DAY: With two games remaining in their current seven-game homestand, the Kings sit at 2-3-0, hoping to even the slate.

FACE-TO-FACE: The Kings beat the Islanders 3-2 when these teams met earlier this season. Forward Artemi Panarin led the way with two goals, while defenseman Brandt Clarke scored the game-winner in overtime as part of a multi-point effort. Goalie Darcy Kuemper made a season-high 41 saves to earn the victory.

VITALS OF KINGS: After a full team practice yesterday, the Kings held an optional morning practice today at the Toyota Sports Performance Center.

Goaltender Darcy Kuemper is expected to start tonight against the Islanders in what will be the 500th appearance of his NHL career. Kuemper is set to become the 87th goaltender in NHL history to reach 500 games played. The veteran goalie has a lifetime record of 11-6-2 against New York, with a .916 save percentage and a 2.51 goals-against average.

Based on what we’ve seen over the past few days, as well as this morning’s practice, here is the projected lineup for tonight’s game:

Panarin – Laferrière – Kempe
Fiala–Byfield–Zuccarello
Moore-Laughton-Perry
Lee-Haula-Armia

Anderson-Doughty
Edmundson-Clarke
Dumoulin-Céci

Forsberg
Kuemper

Looks like tonight could be the good night! The Kings are expected to have forward Kevin Fiala back in the lineup tonight against the Islanders. As for the other forwards, I’m not sure who will be in the game, but it looks like Alex Turcotte and Samuel Helenius are both late from today’s morning practice, which seems a little different from yesterday’s practice. Forward Kenny Connors was loaned to AHL-Ontario this morning, while defenseman Erik Gustafsson remains out of action on a daily basis.

VITAL SIGNS OF THE ISLANDS: New York has lost its last four games heading into tonight’s action, including a 3-2 shootout loss to begin its current three-game trip Tuesday at San Jose.

According to Newsday’s Andrew Gross, here’s how the Islanders lined up last time out against the Sharks:

#Isles warming up (Game #17 at #SJSharks) Holmstrom-Horvat-Palmieri Heineman-Schenn-Eklund Palat-Pageau-Duclair MacLean-Cizikas-Chaffee Pelech-Schaefer Stanley-DeAngelo Hutton-Kessel Sorokin Varlamov

– Andrew Gross (@AGrossNewsday) November 10, 2026

Defenseman Matthew Schaefer leads the Islanders this season with 12 assists and is tied for the New York team lead with 17 total points. Schaefer’s five goals rank tied for sixth among NHL defensemen, including a goal against Los Angeles when these teams met in October.

Scenario of the day – KEVIN!

It’s the big day! The Los Angeles Kings are expected to welcome forward Kevin Fiala back into the lineup tonight against the New York Islanders.

Fiala has been out of action for 46 LA Kings games. He missed the first 16 games of the 2026-27 regular season, in addition to the four games of the 2026 Stanley Cup Playoffs and the final 26 games of the 2025-26 regular season. During that time, Fiala underwent two procedures to help repair fractures in his left leg and return him to full health, following an injury sustained at the 2026 Winter Olympics in Milan.

In late October, Fiala joined the Kings for practice, first in a non-contact jersey. Since then, he has been part of the team and showing constant signs of improvement. It wasn’t that far off the schedule announced by Ken Holland almost two months ago, with a return to action in early November now established.

In his first game, I would expect us to see Fiala on a line with Mats Zuccarello and Quinton Byfield. This is the wing duo I think we all expected this summer, with these two players forming a second goal line, supporting the duo of Artemi Panarin and Adrian Kempe further up the lineup. Two players who were teammates in Minnesota, players who were productive together in moments, even if they didn’t always play on the same forward line. Even if Byfield wasn’t the projected center there, Alex Laferrière’s form on the first line makes him the natural third member of that line.

Here’s what his future teammates had to say about his return:

Byfield – Everyone knows how good Kevin is and how much he means to us, not just on the ice, but in the locker room. Just being able to be on the ice with him, playing with him, I’ve been playing with him for about two years and we have good chemistry. We read each other, he likes to play with haste and so do I. If we can make that happen, the exchange, the movement, with his skills… I feel like it’s a lot of fun to play with him.

Zuccarello – He is an integral part of this group and one of the best players here in a long time. Having him back is obviously good for the team. We played together at Minnesota, we had success there…he’s a smart player, he makes plays, he makes other people better. I think the biggest compliment to him is that he makes the people around him better and that’s what we need.

I stand by what I wrote yesterday, that simply expecting Fiala to come in and be the savior of a struggling team is unfair to him. It takes time for him to get up to speed, having not played a single match in nine months, without a training camp to benefit him. That being said, it’s still very exciting to see a player of his caliber return to the lineup, especially right now, for a team that needs a spark. Fiala is a dynamic, offensive player and the Kings need to score more goals. Fiala helps in this area.

I think both things could be true. Fiala’s return is extremely exciting. We should also temper expectations and give him time to settle in, reestablish his game and get back to full strength. Nonetheless, it’s exciting and certainly makes tonight’s match interesting to watch.

3 To Watch –
– Concerning this balance between enthusiasm and expectation, I asked Peter Laviolette exactly this question.

“I think there’s something to that. He looks great in practice, but I think once you get into a game and he goes live, it’s always a little different feeling. To me, he looks confident, just in the way he practices and the way he moves on the ice in practice. I think that’s a good entry point for him. We’ll communicate with him throughout the game as it goes on let him move forward.”

Fiala hasn’t played a single match in nine months. I think Laviolette and the coaching staff have done a good job tempering those expectations for a player they know is important, but who has also been out of action. It’s important not to view Fiala as the savior of a struggling team. It is also important to test him in game situations and see what he has because he can help the team.

As he did with Zuccarello on Tuesday, Laviolette will be in constant communication with Fiala throughout the match, to see where he stands.

“Kevin has been on the ice for a while now, his game, his conditioning, his skills seem really good to me, but again, there will be communication between him and I tonight as to where this is going,” added Laviolette. “I think to meet those expectations, both of those guys are offensive players and they’re going to want to come in and make an impact, especially with Kevin, who’s been out for a while.”

– On the blue line, Drew Doughty is currently expected to be able to play tonight.

Doughty blocked a powerful shot from Steven Stamkos late in Tuesday’s loss to Nashville. He played an extra presence in this game, but that was it for his night. Doughty did not practice yesterday, with Laviolette calling it a maintenance day. He added this morning that he “believes” Doughty will play tonight, which is encouraging.

Laviolette said coaches are still working on defensive pairings right now, which depends in part on Doughty’s availability and his situation. The Kings had to mix it up with Erik Gustafsson out of action on Tuesday, which broke up Gustafsson’s successful pairing with Brandt Clarke. This also separated a duo with Doughty and Joel Edmundson, who was also very effective (6 GF, 1 GA). There aren’t many options with just six, but it was the duo of Brian Dumoulin and Cody Ceci who were on the ice for both goals at 5-on-5 on Tuesday, and one has to wonder if the Kings might look to break up a pairing that has seen both players have more success with other partners. We’ll see where this goes tonight, starting with Doughty’s availability.

– Finally, congratulations to goalie Darcy Kuemper on his 500th career NHL game!

As noted at the top, only 86 goaltenders in league history have achieved this feat, with Kuemper set to become the 87th. Tonight will be Kuemper’s 130th game with the Kings organization, in his two stints here in Los Angeles, the most of the five organizations he has spent time with throughout his career.

Here’s what Kuemper’s teammate at different spots, Joel Edmundson, had to say about Kuemper’s milestone moment:

“I’m excited for the game just for that,” defenseman Joel Edmundson said of Kuemper’s milestone. “I played with him at the World Championships in 2018 and then obviously in Washington together, so we’ve been together a long time and I’m very excited for him. We actually go back to the WHL days, I played against him in the WHL. For him to reach 500 is huge. It’s a huge accomplishment for him, his family, his wife and his boys. They’re awesome. They’re some of the leaders on this team and yeah, we We’re definitely going to build around that, that’s for sure.

I’m sure he’s not the only one who shares these feelings.

One would expect a pregame ceremony for Kuemper either Saturday or at the start of the next home game. I hope to have some info on this tonight or tomorrow, depending on where everything lands. Congratulations to Darcy Kuemper on a milestone you don’t see every day, from a goalie who, as Laviolette says, has blended a mix of “success and longevity,” which isn’t always an easy thing to do.

Well, here we go. Kings vs. Islanders with a win needed tonight to have a chance at a Saturday home game against Calgary. I’m excited to see Kevin Fiala back in action and will be watching to see how the group reacts around him now that he’s back in action.