Why the time was right for the Kings to fire Jim Hiller
The bench in Hollywood is looking a little different today.
On Sunday, the Los Angeles Kings relieved Jim Hiller of his duties as head coach, leading to D.J. Smith being named as the interim bench boss for the remainder of the 2025-26 season.
The decision to fire Hiller comes as the team is still contending for a Wild Card spot in the Western Conference, but haven’t been playing like the team that was a top-three squad in the Pacific Division.
On Monday’s edition of Daily Faceoff LIVE, Dennis Bernstein from The Fourth Period joined Tyler Yaremchuk to explain why the time was right to make a move in L.A.
Dennis Bernstein: They didn’t look good against Calgary on Saturday. They won basically a 1-0 game. We go back to the prior three games. Seattle coming into the break, and then a disaster against Edmonton, and probably the worst game against Vegas, who had five guys out. They gave up 18 goals in three consecutive games. Last time they did that, 1993. I’m pretty good at math. That’s 33 years. It had come to an end for Jim Hiller.
After the Edmonton game, I walked in the room. Kopitar was sitting there. I said, “Has the team quit on the coach?” and he went, “Mmmm, no.” When you answer a question like that about quitting on the coach, your team has quit on the coach, right? So, it was done, it was over. I think what propped up Jim Hiller, a couple of things…the primary thing is the division. If you came toward the Atlantic, they’d be in last place, and Jim Hiller probably would have left maybe, you know, Game 40.
They’re still in the race. They’re three points out of a wild card spot. The Mammoth lost last night. They’re still in it. The math says they’re in it, but the way they’re playing, they’re what, .525 [winning] percentage team, they’ve probably got to play at least .600 hockey. I just don’t see it. … It’s not time to change. But when you look at those three games, and I’ve talked to Ken Holland on and off the record, the bottom of them had to fall out for them to make a change.
You can watch the full segment and entire episode here…