4/6 Preview – Most Important Game On The Schedule + Forsberg In Net, Lineup Notes, Better Starts Continue To Be A Focus

TODAY’S MATCHUP: It’s the most important game of the 2025-26 regular season to date, as the Kings host the Nashville Predators for Monday Night Hockey at Crypto.com Arena.

HEAD-TO-HEAD: Forward Joel Armia has collected multiple points in both games played against Nashville this season. He had a goal and an assist when these teams met in Los Angeles last week, including the game-tying goal in the third period that sent the game into overtime. Forward Adrian Kempe scored twice in the game and leads the Kings with three goals versus Nashville on the season to date.

KINGS VITALS: Coming off of yesterday’s day off, the Kings held a full-team morning skate in advance of tonight’s game versus Nashville.

Expecting a goaltending change tonight for the Kings. Look for goaltender Anton Forsberg to get the start between the pipes this evening against Nashville. Forsberg as a lifetime record of 2-3-0 versus Nashville, with a .928 save percentage and a 2.45 goals-against average.

Based on this morning’s skate, here is the expected lineup for the Kings this evening –

Panarin – Kopitar – Kempe
Moore – Byfield – Laferriere
Armia – Laughton – Wright
Malott – Helenius – Ward

Anderson – Doughty
Edmundson – Clarke
Dumoulin – Ceci

Forsberg
Kuemper

Should the Kings make any changes from the group shown above, forward Mathieu Joseph, as well as defenseman Jacob Moverare, skated this morning. Forward Alex Turcotte is currently “banged up” and may not be available, though Joseph and Moverare should both be options if the Kings choose to utilize them.

PREDATORS VITALS: Nashville is in the middle of a six-game roadtrip on the West Coast, with a 2-1-0 record from the first three games, including a 6-3 victory in San Jose on Saturday evening.

Per Brooks Bratten of NashvillePredators.com, here is how the visitors aligned against the Sharks –

#Preds lineup in warmups:

Stamkos-O’Reilly-L’Heureux
Forsberg-Wood-Marchessault
Jost-Haula-Evangelista
Schaefer-Svechkov-Kemell

Skjei-Josi
Hague-Perbix
Wilsby-Barron

Saros
Annunen#NSHvsSJS

— Brooks Bratten (@brooksbratten) April 5, 2026

Nashville has been led by forward Ryan O’Reilly in this head-to-head matchup this season, with the veteran collecting four points (2-2-4) in two games played versus Los Angeles. Forward Steven Stamkos scored on Thursday in Los Angeles, his 20th goal of the calendar year, making him one of 10 players round the NHL with at least 20 goals in 2026.

Storyline Of The Day – Goes Without Saying
Shouldn’t need to really offer a ton to set the stage for this one.

The Kings have 81 points. The Predators have 81 points. Coming off wins on Saturday, the two teams are tied for the second wild card spot in the Western Conference. Tonight’s winner will have sole possession of that spot with five games remaining in the regular season.

Simply put, it’s the most important game the Kings have played this season.

“For sure,” forward Scott Laughton said in agreement. “I think it’s a really good test for us. We saw them two games ago, so we’re pretty familiar with their game and I’m sure them with us. It’s going to be tight-checking. These are the games you want to play in. It’s a ton of fun. It’s going to be exciting.”

With recent defeats, the Kings are mostly competing for this spot at this stage in the season. Sure, there’s an outside chance of moving into the Top-3 in the Pacific Division but that would require a ton of help and a winning streak. They’ve gotten the former but they haven’t strung two consecutive wins together since January, so winning, say, five of six here to claim that spot is probably a lot. So, it’s more likely than not WC2 or bust.

The task tonight is simple – end that statistic by winning two games in a row.

The Kings won 7-6 against Toronto on Saturday and they have to go out and win tonight against Nashville to avoid falling behind the Predators in points, without the tiebreaker to lean on. A win tonight does not put the Kings fully in control of their fate, with San Jose two points back, with a game in hand and the regulation wins tiebreaker. But it puts them in a really good spot.

Broke this down yesterday but there were very clear positives and negatives in the win against Toronto. You’d love to see the offensive production continue. The Kings scored seven goals, a season high, with multi-point games from Artemi Panarin, Adrian Kempe and Quinton Byfield, their three leading scorers if you count Panarin’s points in New York. At this time of the year, when your best players lead the way, you’re probably going to be in a good spot.

The other end of it needs to be a better start to the game and a cleaner defensive showing. Four goals against on extremely avoidable Kings turnovers and two more on penalty-kill breakdowns that surrendered the slot too easily. You can’t continue to spot teams a multi-goal lead, which the Kings have done in three of their last four games played. Unlikely to win most allowing six goals, either.

So much on the line tonight.

“You’re going head-to-head with the guy who is trying to take what you’re trying to get,” D.J. Smith added of tonight’s game. “You’re both fighting for the same thing and you’re going head-to-head tonight. Someone is going to be ahead of the other one at the end of the night and if you take a bad penalty or you make a bad play, that’s giving them the advantage. So, who is going to break first……it’s big-boy time. Who is going to rise here when when it’s time to rise?”

Who will take advantage? Find out in 60 minutes.

3 To Watch For –
– With goaltender Anton Forsberg off the ice first this morning, looks as if he’ll get the start tonight for the Kings.

“He’s always ready and he knows the job,” Smith said of Forsberg. “He’s capable of taking the ball when we need him to and he’s already ready. When we need him, we’ll go to him.”

Smith added today that he believes that Darcy Kuemper needs “a breather” and that he, along with goaltending coach Mike Buckley made the decision tonight to go with Forsberg. He believes that both goaltenders will play down the stretch and that there is a plan in place for the remaining six games, though, ultimately performance should dictate that kind of thing. If Forsberg delivers tonight, he should start again on Thursday and go from there.

Forsberg has been a solid and reliable option for the team for the bulk of this season. He had a rocky start, after signing as a free agent this summer, but if you take his first five starts out of the equation, he’s posted a .910 save percentage and a 2.57 goals against average in 26 appearances since.

His last start came on Wednesday versus St. Louis and a stellar first period from Forsberg kept the game 0-0, until the Kings flipped a switch at the first intermission and delivered a better showing in front of him. The only goal he allowed could have been a kick and even if not, it was a skillful deflection off a skate, a goal that you can’t pin on him. Ultimately he allowed one goal in a 2-1 win.

The Kings should be confident in front of him and his teammates believes that they will be.

“Forsy has played great for months,” defenseman Drew Doughty said. “He’s been really good, we’re very confident in front of him. Great goalie, great guy. You want to do things for him because of how hard he works & how good a teammate he is.”

It’s Forsberg’s time to claim the net and try to lead the Kings into the postseason. A big moment for him at a critical juncture of the season.

– The theme of Saturday’s game preview was improving the starts and the importance of doing so.

Naturally, the Kings gave up two goals in the first and trailed by multiple goals for the third time in four games on this homestand. Perhaps the worst of those starts came against these Nashville Predators just four days ago. The Kings got scored on 17 seconds into the game, only to be saved by a correctly overturned goal……only to get scored on again inside the game’s first minute. It was 2-0 after 20 minutes but the overturned goal and a missed penalty shot were the different between 2-0 and worse. Nashville scored again early in the second to make it 3-0 before the Kings started to come back.

Ultimately you can’t spot teams two goals every night and expect to continue to win. Eventually, that’s going to bite the Kings. Something we didn’t talk about once for a month, when the Kings led the league in first-period goal differential, and now it’s every game. Such is a playoff race. Margins are thin and when the same thing happens four games straight, it’s noticeable and a problem.

“As a leadership group, we try to get vocal, get everyone ready and it always seems like we’re ready before the game and then sometimes, things just don’t go your way and the team has a little dip and lack confidence,” Doughty said. “It’s just up to the guys. I think the best way to get a good start is to forecheck and get on the board. That’s the best way. Hopefully we can do that.”

It’s not like the players aren’t focused on it. Artemi Panarin said the Kings talk about their starts every single day, especially of late. D.J. Smith said in Saturday’s pre-game availability that it was the focal point in the team’s pre-game meeting and would be the focal-point in the final team talk before taking the ice. Not expecting anything different tonight. They’re focused on it as much as probably anything else in their game.

Time for talk to become action. The Kings have the resolve to come back, as they’ve shown, but it’d be nice to not need it so desperately, so early in a game on this homestand. No time more important than tonight’s rematch against Nashville.

“Simplicity,” Laughton said, when asked about the start. “I think the first six minutes, you try and get to your game right away. Obviously it hasn’t come on his homestand but we have a chance tonight to try and put the ball in our court and go from there. We’ve done a good job of climbing back in games and maki[ng it happen but it’s hard to chase in this league. You want to get off ot a good sstart. It’s exciting. It’s an exciting day to wake up and you have a chance to propel yourself in the standings.”

– Lastly, another reminder here that tonight’s game will be broadcast on FanDuel Network So-Cal.

FanDuel Sports Network SoCal is available on channel #693 on DirecTV and channel #41 on Spectrum and all users who subscribe digitally to FDSN, via their app or website, can watch the games as per usual, no issues. Just a reminder for those on cable or other platforms that the channel will be different tonight.

Kings and Predators. Most important game of the season. Let’s see what we get tonight.