NHL Game Preview: Tampa Bay Lightning at Los Angeles Kings with Line Combinations 1/4/2025

NHL Game Preview: Tampa Bay Lightning at Los Angeles Kings with Line Combinations 1/4/2025

Tampa Bay Lightning (20-13-2, 42 Pts) at Los Angeles Kings (22-10-5, 49 Pts)

Venue: crypto.com Arena
Date: Saturday, January 4
Time: 9:00 pm EST
TV: ESPN+/FDSNSUN/FDSNW
Radio:
Tampa Bay – 102.5 The Bone
Los Angeles – 710 ESPN

DraftKings Sportsbook Betting Lines:

Tampa Bay +1.5 ML -105
Los Angeles -1.5 ML -115
O/U 6.5

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Tampa Bay Lightning News & Notes: 

The Lightning dropped their second straight game on Thursday night 2-1 to the San Jose Sharks, they’ve been outscored 7-3 in their last two games. Brandon Hagel has been a part of two of those three goals and he is currently on a four-game point streak and has a point in eight of his last nine games; in the last nine games he has 11 points on five goals and six assists.

Los Angeles Kings News & Notes:

The Kings picked up their third straight win on New Year’s Day with a 3-0 win. They’ve averaged four goals per game in the last three games while allowing 2.3 goals per game. Quinton Byfield and Warren Foegele have been red hot with Byfield on a three-game point streak as he has three goals and two assists in the stretch while Foegele is also on a three-game point streak with two goals and three assists. Darcy Kuemper has also been red hot posting a shutout in his last start and in his previous two games he has a .950 save percentage and a 1.46 goals-against average.

Tampa Bay Lightning Projected Lines

Guentzel-Point-Kucherov
Hagel-Cirelli-Geekie
Goncalves-Paul-Chaffee
Girgensons-Glendening-Eyssimont

Hedman-Raddysh
McDonagh-Cernak
Lilleberg-Perbix

Vasilevskiy
Johansson

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Los Angeles Kings Projected Lines:

Turcotte-Kopitar-Kempe
Foegele-Byfield-Jeannot
Fiala-Danault-Laferriere
Burroughs-Helenius-Lee

Anderson-Gavrikov
Edmunson-Clarke
Moverare-Spence

Kuemper
Rittich

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Players To Watch:

Tampa Bay Lightning

Brandon Hagel this season has 42 points on 17 goals and 25 assists. He’s faced the Kings four times in his career recording three points on two goals and an assist; two of those points came last season in two games scoring a goal and recording an assist.

Los Angeles Kings

Anze Kopitar this season has 39 points on 12 goals and 27 assists. He’s faced the Lightning 24 times in his career recording 17 points on three points and 14 assists; last season in two games he had two assists.

Injury Report:

Tampa Bay Lightning

D J.J. Moser – IR

Los Angeles Kings

LW Trevor Moore – IR 
D Drew Doughty – LTIR
C Trevor Lewis – IR

Next Game

Tampa Bay – January 5 at Anaheim Ducks
Los Angeles– January 8 vs. Calgary Flames

ITR 47: Then There Was Nothing Inside The Rink

Join Conrad and Chris as the discuss Gavin McKenna making the jump to the NCAA, Pittsburgh and San Jose making additions, and the NHL season to begin on October 7, 2025.
  1. ITR 47: Then There Was Nothing
  2. ITR 46: Offseason Chaos
  3. ITR 45: Everything Is Happening
  4. ITR 44: We Have A Champion…Again
  5. ITR 43: It's Winning Time

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