Kings Vs Bruins Preview: Kings Chase Wild Card Spot
Jeremy Swayman will start in net as the Boston Bruins host the Los Angeles Kings at TD Garden for a 7: 00 pm ET puck drop on Tuesday, the second and final regular-season meeting in the kings vs bruins series. Los Angeles arrives after a 5-4 overtime win over the Columbus Blue Jackets and sits one point behind the Seattle Kraken for the final wild-card spot.
Kings Vs Bruins Projected Lines
Projected forward groupings list Artemi Panarin, Anze Kopitar and Adrian Kempe on the Kings’ top line, with Trevor Moore, Quinton Byfield and Alex Laferriere in the slot behind them; the Bruins project Marat Khusnutdinov, Elias Lindholm and David Pastrnak as their top trio and Casey Mittelstadt, Pavel Zacha and Viktor Arvidsson on the second line. The Kings have scratches in Mathieu Joseph and Jacob Moverare, while the Bruins scratched Alex Steeves, Henri Jokiharju and Jordan Harris.
The pattern suggests these line assignments will define the matchup: Los Angeles will rely on the Panarin-Kopitar-Kempe connection for offense, while Boston’s Mittelstadt–Zacha–Arvidsson trio has been its best 5-on-5 producer and will be deployed to counter that pressure.
Swayman, Sturm at TD Garden
Marco Sturm returns to face a familiar organization after serving as an assistant coach for the Kings from 2018 to 2022 and as head coach of the Ontario Reign from 2022 to 2025 before taking over in Boston. The Bruins have won 12 consecutive games at TD Garden and hold the second wild-card spot in the Eastern Conference with 76 points, but they enter following a 5-4 overtime loss to the Pittsburgh Penguins on Sunday at PPG Paints Arena.
The figures point to a strong home-ice factor for Boston: a 12-game TD Garden win streak and a 24-8-1 home record this season make the Bruins a difficult opponent in their building, and Sturm’s familiarity with the Kings’ organization could sharpen his game plan against Los Angeles.
Kempe and Kings’ Push
Adrian Kempe scored twice in the Kings’ 5-4 overtime victory over Columbus, and Artemi Panarin added a goal and an assist in that game; over the past 10 games Kempe has five goals and six assists, while Brandt Clarke has eight goals and 26 assists on the season. The Kings have gone 16-8-7 on the road and are one point behind the Seattle Kraken for the final wild-card position, while Los Angeles’s last 10 games sit at 3-6-1 and they are giving up 3. 8 goals per game in that stretch.
The pattern suggests urgency for Los Angeles: Kempe’s multi-goal night and Panarin’s contributions are timely, but the Kings’ 3-6-1 recent run and higher goals-against figure indicate they must tighten play if they hope to move back into a playoff spot with a win in Boston.
Matchup Implications and Closing
Boston’s Pavel Zacha recorded his second hat trick of the season in the Bruins’ most recent game and enters Tuesday on a five-game point streak, while the teams split the season series one game apiece with Boston winning the previous meeting 2-1 in overtime. The Bruins average 3. 5 goals over their last 10 games compared with the Kings’ 2. 7, and Boston’s penalty metrics show 306 total penalties this season (4. 9 per game), ranking third in the league.
If Los Angeles can sustain the scoring output seen from Kempe and Panarin and improve its goals-against metric, the data suggests the Kings can challenge Boston’s home advantage and reclaim ground in the wild-card race. The next confirmed development is the 7: 00 pm ET puck drop on Tuesday at TD Garden, when Swayman starts for Boston and the two teams meet for the final regular-season time this year.
