In a night that began with a heartfelt ceremony honoring first responders, the Los Angeles Kings were defeated 5-1 by the Pittsburgh Penguins at Crypto.com Arena on Monday, ending their nine-game home winning streak.
The Penguins were led by goals from Kevin Hayes, Sidney Crosby, Evgeni Malkin, Cody Glass, and Anthony Beauvillier. Hayes, Crosby, and Beauvillier also contributed assists, while Alex Nedeljkovic stopped 25 shots in the win.
Adrian Kempe scored the Kings’ only goal with a two-man advantage, while David Rittich made 27 saves in their first home loss since a 1-0 defeat to Buffalo on November 20.
Kings coach Jim Hiller expressed his disappointment with the performance, saying, “I can probably count only five times that I’ve been disappointed with our team this season. Tonight is one, maybe the most.” He mentioned that while the night was emotional, it should have motivated his team rather than hurt them.
The Kings lost consecutive games for the fifth time this season, with two of those losses coming in the past five games.
The Kings’ offensive struggles have been clear, as they’ve scored the fewest goals in the NHL since New Year’s Eve, with two or fewer goals in five of their seven games in 2025. Hiller did not want to label it as a slump just yet, saying, “I think it’s a little too early to say it’s a slump or say guys are squeezing, or those kinds of things.”
After the first period, the Kings were down by two goals, with Pittsburgh scoring four minutes apart at the 10:09 and 14:09 marks. Pittsburgh’s first goal came on a power play, where Hayes took advantage of a defensive lapse, skating past Trevor Lewis and Joel Edmundson before scoring off Edmundson’s stick.
Crosby doubled the lead with a deflected shot off Matt Grzelcyk’s point attempt that bounced past Rittich.
The Penguins’ third goal came in the second period, at 8:26, when a near giveaway by Kris Letang resulted in a quick three-pass play that ended with Malkin sweeping the puck past Rittich to make it 3-0.
Kempe gave the Kings some hope with a power-play goal at 15:05, scoring off a one-timer on a five-on-three advantage to make it 3-1. However, the Penguins quickly responded, with Glass redirecting Hayes’ pass into the net just three minutes later to restore the three-goal lead.
“It was definitely not our game tonight, from top to bottom,” said Kings captain Anže Kopitar. “We didn’t get anything going, and even when we did with the power-play goal, they came right back and scored the fourth one, which, obviously, turned out to be a big goal.”
Beauvillier sealed the Penguins’ victory with a goal at 13:03, knocking in the rebound from Letang’s shot, with Crosby providing the assist. That made it 5-1, securing the win for Pittsburgh.
Looking ahead, the Kings will host the Florida Panthers next before embarking on a five-game road trip. Kopitar summed up the team’s performance by saying, “We just weren’t good enough, that’s the bottom line. Top to bottom, left to right, the game was not there. We’ve got to make sure that our game is a lot sharper and a lot better on Wednesday.”
