A surging Blackhawks team with four wins in its last five outings is back on home ice on Sunday night, hosting the Los Angeles Kings.
The Kings were a decent side last season that just drew the unfortunate luck of having to face the Edmonton Oilers in the postseason, which meant a quick, five-game departure from the 2025 Stanley Cup Playoffs. This season has not started as strongly for LA, which does not have a regulation win through nine games (3-3-3), needing two overtimes and even one shootout to make a mark in the win column. The Kings also lost five of their first six before a pair of OT wins earlier this week. On Saturday night, they were 5-4 losers to the Predators via the shootout, so there could be some heavy legs from the visitors in this game. LA is also in the middle of a five-game road trip, part of a road-heavy start to the season that has it away from home for 14 of its first 21 games.
Much of LA’s success last season was built on keeping the puck out of its own net, with Darcy Kuemper playing like a Vezina candidate (he finished third in that trophy voting) with a 31-11-7 record, 2.02 goals-against average and .921 save percentage. He’s plummeted back to Earth this season at 2-2-2, 2.78 and .887, respectively. He played in Nashville on Saturday night, so the Blackhawks will likely get to see old friend Anton Forsberg (1-1-1, 3.89, .880).
There’s some decent offensive thrust here, with Adrian Kempe leading the way at 12 points (5 G, 7 A) in nine games, followed by blossoming young forward Quinton Byfield at eight (2 G, 6 A) in nine. Anze Kopitar is taking his well-deserved victory lap this season and is still enough of a menace that Blashill should be doing everything in his power to ensure Connor Bedard’s line is kept away from him most of the time. Kevin Fiala (4 G, 3 A) and Andrew Kuzmenko (2 G, 4 A) provide some complementary scoring as well. Old friend Phillip Danualt is here to dump a little more salt in that never-healing wound while local product and 2019 No. 5 overall pick Alex Turcotte is in hte lineup and hoping for a healthy season so he can live up to the billing of his draft selection. The blue line has a promising youngster in 2021 No. 8 overall pick Brandt Clarke but any team that has a soon-to-be 36-year-old as their ice time leader — like Drew Doughty is for this team — is probably going to struggle in the modern NHL. Just ask the 2019-20 Blackhawks!
The Kings could be an intersting team to watch for the rest of this season, as they could be teetering on the verge of a blow-it-all-up moment. They haven’t been past the first round of the playoffs since winning the Cup in 2014. Kopitar is on his way out and Doughty can’t be far behind. The No. 1 goalie, Kuemper, is 35. And The Athletic ranked their prospect pool at No. 21 in the league this summer. If this ship isn’t righted soon, the whole thing may need a seismic shift.
Here were the Kings lines against Nashville and … yes, that’s Corey Perry on the fourth line.
Kings lines per x.com/dooleylak Kuzmenko – Kopitar – Kempe Fiala – Byfield – Laferriere Foegele – Danault – Moore Armia – Turcotte – Perry Dumoulin – Doughty Edmundson – Clarke Anderson – Ceci Kuemper
— lineslineslines.bsky.social (@lineslineslines.bsky.social) October 25, 2025 at 6:38 PM
As for the Blackhawks, a few days off allowed for some team holiday festivities while in the midst of one of the more enjoyable stretches of play in recent memory. Playing at home to a struggling team that skated the night before certainly gives the home side a bit of a headstart for this game, one they’d be wise to use to their advantage. News from the morning skate has Tyler Bertuzzi absent as he was during Saturday’s practice, suggesting he may not be in the lineup, although Blashill told reporters that the injury was more of a day-to-day matter than any long-term problem. Arvid Soderblom was in the starter’s net, giving Spencer Knight a well-deserved game off.
Here’s the lineup from Saturday’s practice:
Blackhawks lines in practice:
— Ben Pope (@BenPopeCST) October 25, 2025
Mikheyev-Bedard-Burakovsky
Teravainen-Nazar-Donato
Dach-Greene-Dickinson
Slaggert-Foligno-Lafferty
Vlasic-Rinzel
Kaiser-Crevier/Levshunov
Grzelcyk-Murphy
Bertuzzi isn’t practicing today
It’s been a pleasant run of play for the Blackhawks lately and the lead-in to this game offers a strong opportunity to keep things trending in that same direction. So let’s do that, eh?
Let’s go Hawks.
Tale of the Tape
Blackhawks — Statistic — Kings
44.09% (32nd) — 5-on-5 Corsi For — 53.25% (5th)
43.03% (32nd) — 5-on-5 Expected goals for — 54.36% (4th)
2.73 (26th) — Goals per game — 3.04 (14th)
3.56 (31st) — Goals against per game — 2.48 (2nd)
44.8% (31st) — Faceoffs — 50.6% (14th)
24.9% (7th) — Power play — 17.9% (27th)
79.3% (14th) — Penalty kill — 81.4% (8th)
(All stats from last season)
How to watch
When: 6 p.m. CT
Where: United Center, Chicago
TV: CHSN
Webstream: ESPN+
Radio: WGN 720