BIZARRO SEASON CONFIRMED?
After just two games of the 2025-26 season I predicted that we were looking at a “Bizarro Season”.
It was a bold predicition. Two games does not a season make but so far the season has only gotten… more bizarre.
We’re thirteen games into the season now and here’s the evidence that we’re in the midst of a full blown Bizzaro Season.
BEATING THEIR METER
As previously stated, the “Deserve To Win O’Meter” is incredibly dumb.
It’s a content device. It shouldn’t be taken seriously AND YET there’s something comforting about seeing the final score match the simulations.
Through thirteen games of the 2025-26 season the LA Kings have only won a single game that the Meter says they “deserved to”. The 3-1 victory over the Chicago Blackhawks and even the Meter was cutting it close.
The Kings have lost 4 games the Meter claims they deserve to win, lost 4 games the Meter claims they deserve to lose and inexplicably WON 4 games the Meter decided they “deserved” to Lose.
That’s a “Deserve To Win O’Meter” success rate of 1/13 or 7.69%. I’m not going to go back and check how often the Meter correctly “predicts” the outcome but according to the Money Puck website “While the Meter is not meant to be a prediction of who will actually win the game, teams that finish the game at above 50% on the meter have historically won 64% of games.”
I have to imagine that the season won’t continue to play out with these unexpected results and that the Kings relationship to the Meter will “regress to the mean.”
HOME AND AWAY
As of the time of this writing, the LA Kings have not won a game on home ice in the 2025-26 season. It’s “only” 5 games so far but the LA Kings were 31-6-4 at home during the 2024-25 campaign. Through five games at home this season the Kings are 0-3-2. They’re already halfway to the total number of regulation and overtime home losses from last season. The OT losses have come in dramatic fashion as well. The Kings had dramatic comebacks against Detroit and Carolina erasing third period deficits in both only to lose in Overtime against Carolina and a shootout after a controversial goal call reversal in OT against Detroit
During the 2024-25 season the Kings were 17-19-5 on the road. So far the 2025-26 Kings are 5-1-2. That’s a .750 points% good for 2nd overall in the league behind only the New York Rangers. The Kings only wins have come on the road. Talk about subverting expectations.
SHOOTOUTS
In 2024-25 the LA Kings wound up participating in 4 shootouts, winning 1 and losing 3. Through thirteen games of the 2025-26 season the LA Kings have participated in 4 shootouts, winning 1 and losing 3. Last season the Kings were in 21st in shootout appearances, this season they’re currently 1st in the NHL.
GOALIES
Darcy Kuemper finished the 2024-25 season with a record of 31-11-7. He finished third in Vezina Trophy voting. Anton Forsberg finished 11-12-3 as the backup goalie for Linus Ullmark in Ottawa.
So far through the first thirteen games Forsberg is 2-1-1 and Kuemper is 3-3-3.
Both goaltenders have a save percentage below .900.
COREY PERRY
Corey Perry was drafted 28th overall in the 2003 NHL Entry Draft. The Kings had the 26th and 27th picks in that draft and selected Brian Boyle and Jeff Tambellini with those two picks.
While Corey Perry would undoubtedly be a Top 10 Pick in a 2003 Redraft there’s a world of Sliding Doors scenarios where Corey Perry could have started his career as an LA King.
Instead Corey Perry became a King on July 1st, 2025 and then promptly got injured before training camp even began. Perry made his debut in St. Louis in the first game of the Kings five game road trip. He was pointless in his Kings debut but did wind up with a 2 minute minor penalty for slashing in the Kings 2-1 OT Win over the Blues.
In the first 6 games with Corey Perry in the lineup, the Kings were 4-0-2 with Perry scoring five goals and picking up two more assists. Those five goals have put Corey Perry in a three way tie for the team lead in goals.
Through seven games Corey Perry has seven points. The last time Corey Perry finished a season as a point per game player was the 2013-14 season.
(NOT SO) SPECIAL TEAMS
After acquiring Andrei Kuzmenko at the 2025 NHL Trade Deadline, the LA Kings scored 16 powerplay goals in 67 opportunities. In the final 22 games of the season the Kings were 2nd in total powerplay goals and powerplay opportunities. The 23.9% conversion rate was 14th in the league after the trade deadline.
Thirteen games into the 2025-26 season, the LA Kings have scored six goals (27th) in 37 opportunities (20th). The powerplay has not only failed to convert at better than 20% but it’s also begun to impact the outcome of games. The second goal the Jets scored in a 3-2 victory was scored mere seconds after their penalty ended and the Devils scored two shorthanded goals against the Kings on Nov. 1st.
The LA Kings are in the bottom ten in both powerplay and penalty kill rates through the first month of the NHL season. There’s a thing called The 100 Rule in hockey and it basically suggest that if you take an NHL team’s power play and penalty kill success rates and add them together the team will make the playoffs if the sum is over 100.
The Kings powerplay and penalty kill percentages currently add up to 90.
GOAL SWINGS
So far this season the Kings have allowed their opponents to score three unanswered goals in eight of thirteen games. The Avalanche, Knights, Wild, Penguins, Hurricanes, Sharks, Red Wings and Devils all scored three unanswered goals against the Kings. In four of the other five games the Kings allowed goals in the third period that tied or won the game for the Jets, Blues, Stars and Predators. The Kings scored three unanswered goals themselves in a road win against the Chicago Blackhawks.
DUMOULIN AND CECI
Brian Dumoulin and Cody Ceci were signed as free agents this summer. They began the season as a pair and after three games had played 36:42 at even strength and been on the ice for five goals against and no goals for and terrible metrics across a spectrum of different statistics. After those three games Ceci was paired with Anderson and Dumoulin has been paired with Doughty and the new pairs are considered a success at 5 on 5.
Dumoulin and Ceci have remained as a pair on the penalty kill however, averaging 1:53 per game. The pair have only been on the ice for two powerplay goals against through thirteen games and their Goals Against per 60 while shorthanded ranks 28th in the league among defensive pairs with at least ten minutes played on the penalty kill.
PENDING FREE AGENTS
I don’t love talking about this. Other people’s money is none of my business but it does seem odd to me that we’re more than ten games in to the season and we keep getting updates about a financial situation that none of us are involved in.
I don’t know how much of what the Elliotte Friedman’s of the world are saying is true but what I do know is that many high profile players who were scheduled to be Free Agents at the end of the season have signed extensions over the past few months. Connor McDavid, Jack Eichel, Martin Necas, Logan Cooley, Thomas Harley, Jacob Markstrom, Kyle Connor and Kirill Kaprizov have all re-upped with their clubs while plenty of younger players like Lane Hutson have avoided Restricted Free Agency negotiations by signing large second contracts as well.
If the Kings are hoping to replace Anze Kopitar and possibly Adrian Kempe and Andrei Kuzmnenko (both pending UFA at the end of the season) the list of available players to sign is shrinking every week. The Kings hired Ken Holland to replace Rob Blake and the rhetoric highly suggested that he was brought in to help push the Kings over the finish line past the first round of the playoffs and into serious Stanley Cup contender status. It will be hard to imagine if the Kings can’t find a way to retain their best player.
There’s more than 160 days left in the NHL schedule for the 2025-26 season and more than 200 days before the awarding of the Stanley Cup and the start of Free Agency in the summer of 2026. Plenty of time for things to stabilize and normalize and for the Kings to work out their issues with consistency.
The Kings SHOULD be a top three team in Pacific Division… unless this is actually a full blown Bizarro Season in which case all bets are off.
