Kings, Lightning disappointing to start the season

Among the teams that were expected to do well during the 2025-26 season, the Tampa Bay Lightning and Los Angeles Kings have certainly been playing well below expectations in the early going.

Both teams have struggled to get off the ground, despite having weapons up and down the lineup. The Lightning have lost three of their first four games of the season, only beating the Boston Bruins this past Monday, and have just three points thus far. The Kings also have a 1-2-1 record as of Wednesday, having defeated the Vegas Golden Knights last Wednesday.

On Wednesday’s edition of Daily Faceoff LIVE, Steve Peters joined Tyler Yaremchuk and Carter Hutton to discuss what hasn’t worked for the Bolts and Kings so far this season.

Steve Peters: I thought [the Kings] were a team that could have propelled themselves into the second round with a few different pucks bouncing the other way against the Edmonton Oilers. I don’t think they’ve looked great. I don’t think they’re playing with pace. I think you look at what they did on the back end with [Cody] Ceci and [Brian] Dumoulin is costing them right now. It’s a team that wanted to play with more pace from the back end. They got slower. They got older. You look at the numbers of those two defensemen, they’re incredibly disappointing when those two guys are on the ice. So, I think that’s a team that if you want to make a new team get into the playoffs, somebody’s got to fall out. Right now, one of those teams in the way-too-early prediction mark is the L.A. Kings.

The other in the East is Tampa Bay. I love Tampa Bay. I thought it’s a team that could have competed for a Cup a season ago. They’ve got the scoring card. They can defend and they’ve got one of the best goaltenders in the league. They’re struggling. You look at the way [Jon] Cooper is behind that bench right now. He’s looking frustrated. He’s looking angry. This is a team that has one regulation win right now. I know it’s only four games and there’s 78 to go. But this is a team that’s got to right their ship quickly. Because this is a team with incredibly high expectations.

You can watch the full segment and entire episode here…