We are almost wrapped up with the regular season's first month for the Los Angeles Kings and head coach Jim Hiller in late October this week. The Kings have greatly improved in terms of success in the win column and in the standings in the West after the most recent five-game road trip this past week.
Discipline issues and inconsistency have caused the up-and-down start to this campaign for the Los Angeles Kings in the West
This past week, the Kings went 4-0-1 in a successful five-game road trip in the Western Conference, including back-to-back regulation wins over the Chicago Blackhawks and San Jose Sharks in the past few days. The season's first 11 games haven't been all pretty for the Kings, but it is impressive that this team has come out of the season's first month in October with double-digit points in the standings.
The fact that the Kings have been able to get points so consistently in the standings has been crucial to sticking in a playoff position in the postseason in the Pacific standings this fall. This is another challenging schedule the Kings have upcoming in the next week in this four-game homestand, starting Thursday night (Oct. 30) against the Detroit Red Wings.
The Kings need to get better on the defensive end of the ice, after the team ranked in the bottom 10 in the league early this regular season in team goals allowed. Hiller and the Kings need to make some adjustments on the blue line and with the top-nine forward group in the coming weeks to find more consistency from the core group on the ice this season in the West.
Here are two Kings players who should be benched after tough starts to the 2025-26 regular season this fall.
Cody Ceci, D
Early this regular season, the Kings' defensive pairing of veterans Brian Dumoulin and Cody Ceci wasn't getting the job done for Hiller and this team on the blue line. Ceci and Dumoulin ranked in the bottom three in the NHL early this season in high-danger scoring chance percentage and goals expected differential on the blue line (per Natural Stat Trick).
While Ceci is listed on the third defensive pairing for the Kings with Mikey Anderson, he has played top-four minutes so far this fall for LA's defensive core. I think Ceci has been better for the Kings since he moved to the pairing with Anderson on the blue line.
But the results have still been mixed for Ceci for the Kings' defensive core this season. He hasn't played much time on the penalty kill or on special teams with the power play. In the Kings' past three games, Ceci has played fewer than 20 minutes on the ice in two of those contests in the road trip in the Western Conference in the past week.
Jeff Malott, W
Forward Jeff Malott earned a spot on the Kings' opening night roster early this regular season after a strong showing on the offensive side of the ice in LA's preseason this fall.
After the hot start to the preseason this fall, I think a lot of Kings fans were expecting a bit more from Malott on the fourth-line forward group early this regular season. He was really solid in the preseason, scoring
Malott is the Kings' only player on the fourth-line forward group early this regular season who doesn't have three total points on the stat sheet.
He's taken some bad penalties that have cost the Kings in the past couple of weeks. The Sharks scored a goal right after Malott got out of the box in the game's second period earlier this week on Tuesday that helped San Jose come back from three goals down in the final 40 minutes.