The Los Angeles Kings are set to kick off another regular season on Tuesday night when they take the ice against the Colorado Avalanche. They will be looking to put last season behind them, which unfortunately ended with another first-round exit at the hands of the Edmonton Oilers.
While the Kings have a new general manager in Ken Holland, the lineup hasn't really changed that much and the focus was more so on depth than necessarily bringing in a top-tier star. It will be interesting if this strategy works and the first test will be against the Colorado Avalanche.
When looking ahead to this game, these are five players that fans should watch closely on the Los Angeles Kings.
5 Los Angeles Kings to watch in the home opener against the Colorado Avalanche
Anze Kopitar
This home opener is going to be somewhat bittersweet as it will be the final home opener for Anze Kopitar, who announced he would be retiring after the season. He will be playing in his 20th season with the Kings, a career that has included two Stanley Cups.
Kopitar has done very well in regular-season openers recently after scoring a hat trick last season against the Buffalo Sabres. That was just the latest streak where he has had at least one point in seven straight season openers, and there would be nothing better than to have at least one point in front of the home fans in his final season opener.
Darcy Kuemper
The Los Angeles Kings brought back Darcy Kuemper last offseason, and it went better than anyone could have imagined, with him finishing in the Top 3 of the Vezina Trophy voting. He is now back in net for the Kings, and they are going to need a similar performance if they hope to return to the playoffs.
Kuemper was almost unbeatable at home last season and hopefully he will continue that trend against the Avalanche. Last season, Kuemper was 20-3-2 in 25 games at home with a goals against average of 1.67 and a save percentage of .933.
Brian Dumoulin/Brandt Clarke
One thing that will help Darcy Kuemper is having a strong defense in front of him, which the Kings did last season. However, they traded away Jordan Spence and saw Vladislav Gavrikov leave in free agency.
The good news for this season is that the Kings are going to have a healthy Drew Doughty to start the season but the key to this group might be that second pair with Brandt Clarke and Brian Dumoulin. Clarke is being expected to take on a bigger role, even after leading the defensemen in goals.
The Kings signed Brian Dumoulin in free agency and he was thought to be more of a third pair contributor. However, he has looked really good this preseason on the left side next to Clarke and should settle in there this season.
He might not be able to completely replace what Gavrikov gave the Kings but could come close.
Quinton Byfield
While Anze Kopitar has been one of the top players for the Kings for at least a decade, the Kings are going to need someone to step up in his place. That player is hopefully going to be Quinton Byfield, who put together another season with at least 50 points.
However, there feels like there is still room to grow with him and he could achieve that this season. One way he can do that is to put together a complete season and get off to a fast start.
Last season, Byfield had only five points in his first 13 games of the regular season and had only one game with multiple points in the first 29 games.
The Kings are going to need him to be more productive than that early on, and hopefully, with Alex Laferriere and Kevin Fiala on either side of him, he can do that, starting with the game against the Avalanche.