Black and white – two colors that sit on opposite ends of everything, and the two colors the Los Angeles Kings drape across their bodies before every game. Black and white don’t just define the color of the Kings’ jerseys; they represent the difference in how they play in them. The colors couldn’t be more different, and neither could the Kings’ performances at home in black versus on the road in white.
Following a 6-0 beatdown of the Chicago Blackhawks inside Crypto.com Arena on Saturday night which could be classified as an outlier in an array of inept home performances, the Kings ventured back out on the road to do what they do best: win hockey games.
Headed east to Salt Lake City to face a team they have yet to suffer a loss to since they relocated to the Beehive State, the Kings extended that streak to a cool 4-0-0, tacking on another two points on the road with a 4-2 win over the Utah Mammoth.
Kings’ Road Success Continues
The Kings are 10-2-4 away from Los Angeles (the same number of road wins as the Western Conference powerhouses Colorado Avalanche and Dallas Stars), and a big reason why they sit just two points back of first place in a disastrous Pacific Division, currently occupied by the team just 30.5 miles down the Interstate 5.
No one really has an answer for why this Kings team has found so much success on the road, while the city of Los Angeles has been accustomed to the complete opposite just over a quarter of the way through the season. But it’s evident in the way they play, the pace they play with, the way they move the puck, and ultimately their ability to score goals.
“Hard to say,” said Adrian Kempe when asked what’s been working on the road so far this season. “I think the starts have been good, first periods have been good, and I think the overall 60 minutes has been pretty solid on the road, maybe not as good as home. We just come into every building and play hard, play physical, and then get rewarded.”
The Kings have managed just one first-period goal in their last six home games, contrary to the fast-paced start on Monday night that led to two goals in the first 10:08. Driven by exceptional playmaking from Kevin Fiala, the Kings managed to beat Mammoth goaltender Karel Vejmelka on back-to-back breakaways.
Single-handedly breaking out of the zone in different ways, Fiala’s first apple featured him skating the puck up the neutral zone before feeding Kempe just inside the blue line, who dazzled his way to the front of the net, tucking one around Vejmelka’s pad on the backhand. Fiala’s next dish was must-see TV, as he sprung Joel Armia on a breakaway from below the Kings’ goal line.
WHAT A PASS FROM KEV pic.twitter.com/dqGHDjLkTY
— LA Kings (@LAKings) December 9, 2025
“He’s pretty much unstoppable when he gets hot and when he gets into these types of games where you know he’s feeling it,” Kempe said. “When he gets hot, he’s one of the best players out there, so it’s fun to watch.”
No Kings forward has benefited more from playing on the road than Fiala has, with 14 of his 21 points coming away from Los Angeles. Just like Kempe said, when he gets hot, there are things he does with the puck that just seem out of this world, and this season, two thirds of that magic has come on the road.
“Two great plays, those are big-time plays,” Kings head coach Jim Hiller said. You (can) get an assist, but they’re not all created equal, and those are two of the best ones you can have, so he was important that way tonight.”
The small margin for error has been a hot topic recently, with how little room the Kings have had to make mistakes due to the number of one-goal games they have been a part of – a trend they would like to move away from.
“We play one-goal games for the most part, and you like to come out on the right side of it. We have come out on the right side of it more often than not on the road, and at home, we just haven’t for a lot of different reasons.
What’s interesting is the way in which these games become one-goal games, and the uptick in offense on both sides on the road. The Kings score more goals on the road by a long shot, but also give up more goals. The Kings have allowed 38 goals on the road this season compared to just 23 goals at home. That potent defensive ability this franchise has embodied for so long has stood out at home, but hasn’t been as effective on the road, another sign of the Kings’ ongoing duality.
Taking a 2-0 lead into the second period, the Kings were met with an expected push from the Mammoth that saw one of the best releases in the National Hockey League. Dylan Guenther hammered one from the point, bringing the Mammoth within one on a power play that was without their leading goal scorer, Logan Cooley, who is out indefinitely with a lower-body injury.
Related Link: Kings Annihilate Blackhawks at Home With 6-0 Thumping
Blowing leads on the road has happened a few times this season, but every time the Mammoth pushed to pull within one, the Kings struck back, countering with another goal of their own. Anze Kopitar scored his first goal inside Delta Center to give the Kings a 3-1 lead, and Armia sealed the deal with an empty netter just over six minutes after a nifty Clayton Keller backhand beat Darcy Kuemper.
“We have been in so many games like this, far too many for our liking to be honest with you,” Hiller said postgame about his group’s ability to respond to each Mammoth goal. “I thought they pushed us pretty good in the second period, they got on the power play, got some momentum, got us on our heels, but I thought we gathered ourselves in the third despite them pushing a little bit at the end.”
It was a good response from their last road game that saw the Kings blow a two-goal lead late in the third period against the Anaheim Ducks, in which they ended up falling in a shootout.
For whatever reason, the Kings are thriving in their white tarps, which is not a good sign for the team they take on for their second and last game of the road trip, the Seattle Kraken, who are 3-6-1 in their last 10 games and have lost five straight.
