And then there was one.
Ignominy abounded as the Kings fell 4-1 to the Boston Bruins at Crypto.com Arena on Saturday evening, making them the only winless team in the NHL this season.
Read more 7 candidates are running for 3 open seats in 3 council districts in Newport Beach
Earlier on Saturday, the Philadelphia Flyers bested the Ottawa Senators, 3-1, for their first victory of 2026-27.
Alex Laferriere had the lone goal for the Kings, who have scored just once in each of their past four games and lost six straight overall. They’ve dropped 12 in a row going back to last season and postseason. Anton Forsberg gave them a chance, coming up with 24 of 26 stops, but also made an untimely mistake on Boston’s winner.
David Pastrnak, Marat Khusnutdinov, Elias Lindholm and J.J. Peterka converted for the visitors, with Pastrnak and Khusnutdinov adding an assist apiece. Jeremy Swayman continued his dominance of the Kings, making 25 saves to earn his seventh win in eight decisions against them, the most career victories he has against a Western Conference opponent.
The Kings were without a win in six consecutive contests for the first time since 1984, when they had six losses and three ties in their first nine outings.
The Bruins have now won five straight games, including all three games during the California portion of their four-game away swing.
“It’s unacceptable for the group. They played last night. They’re on the tail end of a road trip,” defenseman Mikey Anderson said. “We came out good, like we wanted to at home, and then lost it along the way. It’s on the room. It’s on us.”
Four of the past five meetings between these two sides went to overtime, but there would be no pity point for either club on Saturday. With 6:24 remaining in the match, the Bruins earned their first edge of the night on what stood as the game-winning goal.
Khusnutdinov capitalized off his backhand after Morgan Geekie’s rebound was misplayed by Forsberg, who neither covered nor successfully played the puck.
Lindholm hit the vacated cage from his own blue line with 1:58 showing on the clock and Peterka tacked on another empty-netter 1:40 later, nailing the Kings’ coffin shut.
Read more Santa Anita consensus picks for Sunday, Oct. 18, 2026
After the Kings came out firing against a team that had played 23 hours earlier, the not-so-travel-weary Bruins leveled the score 2:43 into the second stanza.
A turnover at the offensive blue line sent Pastrnak the other way for an unassisted breakaway goal. He has accumulated 10 points during his five-game points streak and was fast closing in on third place on the Bruins’ all-time goals leaderboard.
“In the second half of the game, their work was better than ours when it came to puck battles and speed,” Kings coach Peter Laviolette said.
Of the circumstantial edge the Kings squandered, he added: “That’s frustrating and disappointing.”
After the puck dropped, the Kings played perhaps their best period of the young season, scoring 31 seconds into the game and carrying that 1-0 advantage into intermission.
In addition to firm analytical advantages across the board, Laferriere got them rolling right off the hop. Brandt Clarke craftily shifted his shooting angle and put the puck onto Laferriere’s stick for a tip, which generated a rebound off Swayman’s shoulder. Will Borgen tied up Artemi Panarin, but Adrian Kempe arrived on the scene and slid the puck back to Laferriere for a tap-in tally.
The Kings have led 1-0 in three of their six games this season, including twice off goals by Laferriere. But those were their only leads of a winless campaign, and they became the last team in the NHL to fail to hold a multi-goal lead.
“I think we’ve got to take it with us and stew on it a little bit. It’s certainly not where we want to be and it’s not what we were looking for tonight,” Laviolette said. “The start was really good and on point, and then as the second period rolled out, it seemed to tilt the other way. We’ve got to be better. I don’t think just pushing it away is going to do any good. We need to digest it and use it as fuel.”
Read more Storybook start for UCLA QB Ty Dieffenbach in win over Wisconsin
Editor’s note: Tonight’s report was compiled remotely