Drew Doughty, Adrian Kempe set to face off in first game of 4 Nations Face-Off

The Los Angeles Kings as a team are off but they will have two of their key players participating in the 4 Nations Face-Off. In fact, those two players are now set to play each other in the opening game of the tournament.

Team Sweden, with Adrian Kempe, and Team Canada, with Drew Doughty, are the opening game on Wednesday night on MAX/TNT at 8 PM ET.

Adrian Kempe was named on the initial roster for Team Sweden back in December and is the Kings' leader in goals (25) and points (46). He is well on his way to breaking his career high in both categories, which he set in 2022-23 season when he had 41 goals and 67 points.

On Monday, the teams were able to practice for the first time before the tournament and Kempe was on a line with Elias Pettersson and Filip Forsberg. While they are the second line here, there is a case to be made this is the most talented line Team Sweden has. It is also worth noting that for most of the season, Kempe has played on the right side but in this tournament will be lined up at left wing.

As for Drew Doughty, he was a late addition to Team Canada as he was injured at the time the rosters were announced. However, he returned at the end of January and was announced as the replacement for Alex Pietrangelo.

During the practice on Monday, Elliotte Friedman tweeted the pairs for Team Canada and Doughty was next to Shea Theodore.

The 4 Nations Face-Off will include a round robin portion where each team will play the other three teams in the tournament. Then the teams with the best record from that round robin will play in a championship game. This means that Drew Doughty and Adrian Kempe could end up meeting again by the end of the tournament depending on how the teams do.