Tampa Bay Lightning at Los Angeles Kings: game preview
Tampa BayLightning2026-27: 2-1-0 · 4 pts · 2025-26: 50-26-6 · 106 pts · 5that
Los AngelesKings2026-27: 0-2-1 · 1 pts · 2025-26: 35-27-20 · 90 pts · 20thSixteen points apart last season
Tampa Bay finished last season 5th in the league on 106 points. Los Angeles finished 20th on 90.
Game-day prices arrive with the afternoon snapshot, about 4:30 PM ET on the day of the game.
Meeting number 53
Across 52 completed games, Tampa Bay lead the head-to-head 35-14-3.
Last 5 meetings
See all: Last 5 meetings →The table on each 2025-26 meeting night
League rank after that night's games; a longer bar is a higher place. On 18 Dec 2025, Tampa Bay were 14th in the league and Los Angeles 16th. By 1 Jan 2026 it was 5th and 24th.
Tampa Bay out-attempted Los Angeles 136 to 81
Every attempt from the last meetings, both teams shooting right.
Tampa Bay Lightning
Los Angeles Kings
Los Angeles have created the better chances, last 10 games
Shot quality both ways: expected goals weigh every unblocked attempt by its chance of scoring. Finishing above zero means more goals than the chances.
This season: 3 games for Tampa Bay, 3 for Los Angeles. Small sample: early-season xG moves a lot from night to night.
Last 10 games: 10 games for Tampa Bay, 10 for Los Angeles.
2025-26: 82 games for Tampa Bay, 82 for Los Angeles.
Power play and penalty kill, season and series
This season's rates first, then 2025-26 and the last meetings between the two. Power-play chances are counted from the penalty log with coincidental minors cancelled; faceoffs are each club's wins over draws taken.
All bars share one scale · 0–100%SeasonLast meetings
Tampa Bay
Small sampleLos Angeles
Small sampleSkaters to watch
Each club's top three forwards and defencemen by points this season, with 2025-26 one tap away.
Who has stopped this matchup
Save percentage in the last meetings by goalie. Starters are confirmed on game day.
Expected starter after their game on 28 Feb: a back-to-back depends on who plays that night.
Expected starter after their game on 1 Mar: a back-to-back depends on who plays that night.
Tampa Bay crease
TBL · 2026-27 Starter estimate from 28 Feb
No appearances against Los Angeles in the last meetings.
Los Angeles crease
LAK · 2026-27 Starter estimate from 28 Feb
No appearances against Tampa Bay in the last meetings.
Scoring rates point to about 6.1 goals
No total is posted yet: it arrives with the game-day prices. Until then, the scoring rates and the recent meetings set the range.
Goals in the last 5 meetings
Bar length is total goals, coloured by the winner.
Scoring rates
Tampa Bay2.672.333.542.82
Los Angeles3.005.002.743.01Goals for and against per game. The estimate averages each team’s scoring with the other’s goals allowed, and leans on 2025-26 until a team has played 20 games.
6 on the injury lists
Tampa Bay · injuries
Los Angeles · injuries
Latest moves
See all: Latest moves →Placed C Jansen Harkins on waivers.
Placed D Michael Callahan on waivers.
Placed D Michael Callahan, G Mads Sogaard Nielsenon, LD Maxim Groshev, LW Jakob Pelletier and C Nicholas Abruzzese on waivers.
Placed D Otto Salin on the injured non-roster list. Loaned G Erik Portillo to Ontario (AHL).
Waived for the purpose of assignment to Abbotsford (AHL) Fs Martin Chromia, Cole Guttman, Lane Pederson and Francesco Pinelli and D Joe Hicketts. Loaned Fs Aatu Jamsen and Koehn Ziemmer, Ds Angus Booth, Kirill Kirsanov and Jared Woolley to Ontario. Placed F Jan Jenik and D Jakub Dvorak on injured reserve.
Signed F Elton Hermansson to a three-year, entry-level contract.
Tampa Bay · 2026 draft
See all: Tampa Bay · 2026 draft →Los Angeles · 2026 draft
See all: Los Angeles · 2026 draft →
Updated after every final