king

A lot of people return home for the Thanksgiving weekend. But for Corey Perry, Friday’s homecoming was more than a little bit awkward.

One of the most decorated players in Ducks’ history, Perry was greeted by a smattering of boos when he wore a Kings’ sweater into the Honda Center for the first time. Two hours later he left, carrying the sting of a Ducks’ victory that saw his old team rally from deficits three times before winning the first Freeway Faceoff of the season 5-4 in a shootout.

“Great comeback,” said winger Chris Kreider, whose second-period power-play goal got the Ducks started. “A good job of fighting back. It’s definitely a confident feeling.”

Leo Carlsson, who suffered through two dismal losing seasons during the long post-Perry rebuild in Anaheim, had two assists and the game-tying goal with 91 seconds left in regulation for the Ducks, who trailed 4-2 with less than 10 minutes to play.

The Kings’ Jacob Moverare blocks a pass from Duck Mason McTavish (23) to Beckett Sennecke (45) Friday at the Honda Center.

(Harry How/Getty Images)

“It’s a different team,” Carlsson said. “Hungry. Different mentality, too. So it’s been great so far season.”

Only Ryan Getzlaf has played more games for the Ducks then Perry, who left Anaheim in 2019 after 14 seasons, beginning an aimless tour of the NHL that saw him play for five teams before signing a free-agent contract with the Kings last summer.

The Ducks haven’t posted a winning record since he departed.

But after Friday’s victory they lead the division and are off to their best start in more than a decade. The Ducks are second in the Western Conference in wins (15), second in the NHL in goals (89), fourth in the conference in points (31) and were tied for fourth in points (31). For Carlsson, meanwhile, his 13th goal and 19th and 20th assists of the season Friday left 20, is tied for fourth in the league with 33 points.

The Ducks’ other scores Friday came from Olen Zellweger in the second period and Pavel Mintyukov in the third.

The Kings’ scores came Alex Laferriere, Kevin Fiala, Alex Turcotte and Joel Edmundson. With the point they earned by taking the game to overtime, the Kings headed back up the freeway Friday afternoon second in the Pacific Division, two points behind the Ducks.

The Kings’ Corey Perry looks on during the second period against the Ducks at the Honda Center on Thursday.

(Debora Robinson/NHLI via Getty Images)

And, surprisingly, they have Perry to thank for that.

“He’s a massive piece for us right now,” center Philip Danault said. “He’s not the fastest guy on the ice but he’s so smart. He goes into the crease, he gets goals. He gets in the opponent’s head.

“He’s probably one of the big reasons we’re winning.”

Since leaving Anaheim, Perry has come off the visitors’ bench at the Honda Center several times. So Friday’s game wasn’t necessarily one he had circled on his calendar.

“It was home,” he said before the game. “I have nothing but tremendous things to say.”

After missing the start of the season following knee surgery, Perry was activated last month on the same day captain Anze Kopitar was placed on injured reserve with a foot injury. And he immediately took up the slack, scoring the first of his seven goals — good for second on the team — in his second game. He also has six assists, is fourth on the team with 13 points and is averaging more than 14 minutes of ice time just the second time since he left Anaheim.

“You know, it’s fun,” said Perry, who is nearly halfway to his point total of a season ago. “This is what we do for a living.”

Perry, 40, is the third-oldest player in the NHL. But with a Stanley Cup, an MVP award, a goal-scoring title and two Olympic gold medals in his trophy case, he has a resume few players can match. Yet the Ducks bought out the final two seasons and $8.625 million of his contract in 2019, part of a rebuild that has seen the franchise go through three coaches and three general managers without posting a winning record.

“Now it’s seven years later. I don’t know anybody on the team,” Perry said of the Ducks, who have the second-youngest roster in the Western Conference. “It’s turned over so much that it’s a new group.”

Ducks center Mason McTavish scores the winning goal during a shootout of against the Kings on Friday at the Honda Center.

(William Liang/AP)

And new coach Joel Quenneville, who has a history of coaching success with young players, has that new group playing with confidence.

“We’re never going to give up,” said Carlsson, one of six Ducks younger than 23. “That’s the mentality.”

Laferriere got the scoring started late in the first period, parking himself in front of the goal and banging the puck past Ducks’ goalie Ville Husso, who made two big saves in the shootout.

Kreider tied it seconds into a power play midway through the second period, then Fiala and Zellweger exchanged goals just 59 seconds apart to send the teams into the second intermission tied 2-2.

Turcotte’s first goal of the season on a tip-in put the Kings back in front early in the third period before Edmundson doubled the lead on a slap shot from outside the right faceoff circle. He was helped by Perry’s presence in front of the goal, screening Husso on the shot.

The Kings wouldn’t score again though, allowing the Ducks to force overtime on goals from Mintyukov and Carlsson, who game-tying score came after his team pulled Husso to get an extra attacker.

“It was fun,” McTavish said of his first Freeway Faceoff matinee, which drew a sellout crowd of 17,174. “It was loud. There was a lot of energy in the building. So it was a ton of fun, and obviously more fun to come away with both points.”

Brandt Clarke scored a power-play goal with 6:10 to play to lift the Kings to a 2-1 win over the Ottawa Senators on Monday night at Crypto.com Arena.

Clarke’s slap shot from just inside the blue line came with just two seconds left on the man advantage and ended the Kings’ losing streak at three games.

Warren Foegele also scored for the Kings and Joel Edmundson assisted on both of the team’s goals. Darcy Kuemper made 27 saves.

Foegele opened the scoring 5:31 into the third period when he tapped in a pass from Joel Armia, who skated the puck down the right wing. Armia has points in three straight games.

Fabian Zetterlund tied it at 1-1 with 9:11 to play in the third with his third goal of the season and second in two games, but the Senators went scoreless on three power-play opportunities.

Leevi Merilainen made 20 saves for Ottawa, which was coming off wins over Anaheim and San José, the first two games of a seven-game road trip.

Up next for the Kings: vs. the Ducks at Honda Center on Friday night.

Phillip Kusharev scored in regulation and the only goal of a shootout, and the San Jose Sharks held on for a 4-3 win over the Kings on Thursday night.

San Jose’s first player in the shootout, Kusharev skated toward his left then shifted direction toward the net before flipping the puck over the left shoulder of Kings goalie Anton Forsberg. Kusharev also had a goal in the second period.

Ty Dellandrea had a goal and an assist for San Jose. Adam Gaudette scored a goal, while Collin Graf had two assists. Yaroslav Askarov made 31 saves, two during the shootout.

Joel Armia, Anze Kopitar and Adrian Kempe had goals for the Kings.

Gaudette got the Sharks going with a goal on San Jose’s first shot of the game 2:33 into the first period. Gaudette raced in from the blue line and took a pass from Dellandrea then fired a wrist shot into the lower left corner of the net.

After the Kings tied it on Armia’s shorthanded and unassisted goal late in the period, San Jose regained the lead when Collin Graf skated around behind the net then flipped to Dellandrea in front of the net for a 2-1 lead with 9.9 seconds remaining.

The Kings responded quickly with a tying goal less than two minutes into the second period when Kopitar slid the puck through the legs of Askarov. Trevor Moore and Cody Ceci had assists.

After the Kings had a goal nullified by an offside penalty midway through the second period, Kusharev’s sixth goal of the season gave the Sharks a 3-2 lead.

Kempe forced overtime with his seventh goal of the season with 59 seconds remaining in regulation.

The San Antonio man accused of fatally shooting his neighbor Jonathan Joss, the actor best known for his voice work on animated series “King of the Hill,” faces a murder charge.

A grand jury in Bexar County, Texas, on Monday indicted 57-year-old Sigfredo Ceja Alvarez on a single felony count of first-degree murder, according to legal records reviewed by The Times. Legal representatives for Alvarez did not immediately respond to requests for comment Wednesday.

Alvarez was indicted more than five months after police arrested him on suspicion of murder in connection to the fatal shooting. Officers responded to the 200 block of Dorsey Street on the evening of June 1, where they found Joss near the roadway, according to an incident report. The report initially identified Alvarez as “Sigfredo Alvarez Ceja” and said the incident occurred on the 200 block of “Dorsey Dr.”

First responders “attempted life saving measures” until EMS officers arrived, police said. The actor, who also appeared in “Parks and Recreation,” was pronounced dead at the scene. He was 59.

Though police did not disclose details about the events that led to the shooting, Joss’ husband Tristan Kern de Gonzales alleged in a Facebook post that he and Joss suffered “openly homophobic” harassment and threats prior to the fatal shooting, which he claimed was also motivated by homophobia.

At the time, Gonzales wrote that he and Joss had returned to the site of the actor’s San Antonio home — which had burned down in January — to check their mail. The actor had also lost three dogs in the fire. Gonzalez alleged that a man approached them, “started yelling violent homophobic slurs” and “raised a gun from his lap and fired.”

He said Joss pushed him out of the way, saving his life, and added that his husband “was murdered by someone who could not stand the sight of two men loving each other.”

Police disputed Gonzales’ claims, writing in a tweet that “the investigation has found no evidence to indicate that Mr. Joss’ murder was related to his sexual orientation.” In a separate tweet shared in June, police said investigators “handle these allegations very seriously.”

In “King of the Hill,” Joss voiced John Redcorn, protagonist Hank Hill’s neighbor. He recorded lines for the series’ revival prior to his death. His TV credits also include “Tulsa King,” “Ray Donovan,” “Friday Night Lights,” “ER” and “Charmed.”

WASHINGTON — Alex Ovechkin scored his 903rd career NHL goal and the Washington Capitals beat the Kings 2-1 on Monday night.

Matt Roy also scored for the Capitals, who ended a two-game losing skid to gain some traction in the standings.

Anze Kopitar scored for the Kings, who had won four straight. It was just their second regulation road loss of the season.

The Kings played without defenseman Drew Doughty. He is week to week with a lower-body injury after being injured Saturday against the Ottawa Senators.

Washington opened the scoring early, as Roy got to the front of the net and tipped Aliaksei Protas’ point shot past Darcy Kuemper. It was Roy’s first goal in 25 games, dating back to last season.

In the second period, Ovechkin crashed the crease before burying a behind-the-net feed from Connor McMichael. Ovechkin, who has goals in back-to-back games and three of his last four, passed Gordie Howe for the most regular-season goals scored at a single venue in NHL history with his 442nd at Capital One Arena.

Kopitar pulled the Kings to within one with his third goal of the season with 6:33 left in the second. He tapped in a backdoor feed from Corey Perry on the power play. Washington has given up a power-play goal in three straight games and five of the last six.

Despite a rally, the Kings couldn’t beat Charlie Lindgren, who stopped 30 of 31 shots for his second win of the season after losing his last four starts.

Kuemper stopped 23 of 25 in the defeat.

Up next for the Kings: Close out a six-game road trip against the Sharks on Thursday.

Forward Adrian Kempe agreed to an eight-year, $85-million contract to stay with the Kings, a person with knowledge of the deal told the Associated Press.

The person spoke on condition of anonymity Sunday because the Kings hadn’t announced their deal with the 29-year-old Kempe, who would have been an unrestricted free agent next summer. The deal extends through the 2033-34 season and has an average annual value of $10.625 million.

Kempe has been the Kings’ most dependable offensive player over the last four seasons, earning an All-Star selection in 2022 and leading the Kings to four straight playoff appearances. The Swedish right wing has 200 goals and 220 assists in a 10-year career spent entirely with the Kings, which drafted him with the 29th overall pick in 2014.

Kempe scored a career-high 41 goals during the 2022-23 season and has four consecutive 25-goal seasons. He leads the Kings with six goals and 13 assists in 19 games this season while playing extensively on special teams.

Kempe is also on Sweden’s initial roster for the 2026 Olympics.

Re-signing Kempe has been a top priority for new Kings general manager Ken Holland, who said he wanted to maintain a foundation of leadership and talent when longtime captain Anze Kopitar retires next year. But negotiations with Kempe stretched from the summer into the season, leading to increasing speculation that Kempe would hit the open market next year.

Instead, Kempe joins the list of potential 2026 free agents who re-signed with their teams in the last two months. Connor McDavid, Martin Necas, Jack Eichel and Kirill Kaprizov all committed to their respective teams recently.

The Kings (10-5-4) rebounded from a slow start with four consecutive victories on their six-game road swing. They play at Washington on Monday.

Beacham writes for the Associated Press.

What would Jesus do if his early years were told as an unremarkable horror film?

It would probably be another opportunity to forgive, along with the very easy act of forgetting “The Carpenter’s Son,” a dingy alt-biblical slog that doesn’t even have the kitschy sense to use Nicolas Cage properly as a paranoid Joseph who isn’t sure if his kid comes from the good place or the bad one.

Writer-director Lotfy Nathan’s inspiration is an apocryphal 2nd century text called the Infancy Gospel of Thomas, which purports to describe the incident-filled childhood of a temperamental Jesus. It’s never been widely accepted Christian canon, but there’s no reason why what isn’t holy scripture couldn’t be a holy-moly script. In the Egyptian-American filmmaker’s retelling, a mixed-up boy (Noah Jupe) running from persecution with his devout dad, the Carpenter (Cage), and ethereal mother (a blank-faced FKA Twigs) is a superhero in waiting, with a bloody gauntlet of nightmares to get through first.

One of those is surviving his own birth, presented here in a sequence of torchlit, squishy labor that’s far from the twinkly manger of Christmas-diorama harmony. Onscreen, the text reads “Anno Domini,” in case it’s not clear whose umbilical cord is getting cut. “They’re coming for him,” his papa intones. Mom’s anguished childbirth moaning segues to those of young women nearby having their babies ripped from their arms and thrown into a bonfire. Barely escaping the scrutiny of the king’s killers, this new family escapes.

A time shift takes us to when the boy is 15 (not to mention sullen, bored-looking and wracked by violent visions of crucifixion). Our trio lands in a remote settlement that affords them the chance at a simple life, albeit under the Carpenter’s strict precautions against evil spirits: boarded windows, lots of praying, staying clean and making sure the boy sticks to his schooling. Attractive mute girl Lilith (Souheila Yacoub) draws the lad’s peeping gaze. But then there’s the young androgynous figure with mysterious scars (Isla Johnston), who seems intent on giving the new kid lessons in rule-breaking, not to mention cynical guidance about his destiny.

“You know who I am, but who are you?” this coaxing stranger offers, which is like a playground retort twisted to sound pseudo-philosophical. Nathan, via his thoroughly pedestrian directorial style, never exactly masks who it is anyway. But it sure makes for monotonous viewing. Meanwhile, the petulant Jesus starts feeling his powers and is suddenly called a savior by some, a malevolent sorcerer by others. Mostly, he’s one more uninteresting movie juvenile.

With its flat location visuals, B-movie gore (snakes pulled from mouths) and colorless score, “The Carpenter’s Son” is the uninspired origin story you never prayed for. But it really feels like a wasted opportunity when Cage is onscreen, sporting what appears to be a middle-aged man’s attempt at a Rachel haircut, saddled with boring dialogue about faith and fear and generally behaving like a reformed maniac under sedation.

“The Carpenter’s Son” wants to mix it up with an invented (and what some might call blasphemous) narrative about that time Satan almost seduced brooding teenage Jesus. But not letting Cage go biblical? That’s some kind of sin against cinema.

KING Charles had a letter hand-delivered to the Osbourne family after heavy metal legend Ozzy’s death.

Widow Sharon revealed she was left touched after the “amazing” monarch wrote to them.

Speaking on The Osbournes podcast with her children, 73-year-old Sharon said: “If he did it for us, you know he does it for many, many, many people.

“Now here’s a man that does know what’s going on in the street with people. Not just politics, not just . . . here’s a man that cares about the environment, animals. He’s got a good heart.

“In the past — Ozzy’s birthday, when Ozzy was sick in hospital with the motorbike accident, he reached out.

“He’s a good, caring man with a good heart, and Ozzy’s, as me, we’re royalists and that’s it.

STAG DO ORDEAL

Peaty escorted from jet by gun cops after sinister threats amid family feud

HEALTH UPDATE

Kirsty Gallacher reveals brain tumour is ‘growing very fast’ amid driving ban

“And again, took the time out of his day to write us, have it hand-delivered to us, a note from the King for Ozzy’s passing with his condolences, that says so much.”

Sharon also revealed that she had received a message from US President Donald Trump, adding: “He knows what’s going on in the streets . . . and I can’t say that for our Prime Minister.”

Black Sabbath star Ozzy died of a heart attack on July 22 at the age of 76. A week later, thousands of fans joined a huge parade in tribute to the Prince of Darkness in his home town Birmingham.

Sharon joined mourners along with kids Aimée, Kelly and Jack. They had a private funeral the following day.

Kelly, 41, said she had not seen “an outpouring like that since Princess Diana died”, adding: “It wasn’t just the heavy metal community. It was the entire world.”

Joel Edmundson and Quinton Byfield each had a goal and an assist as the Kings scored three quick goals in the second period to beat the Montreal Canadiens 5-1 on Tuesday night.

Joel Armia and Kevin Fiala also scored for the Kings (8-5-4), who won their second consecutive game on the road and improved to 7-1-2 away from home this season. Warren Foegele added an empty-net goal and Darcy Kuemper stopped 21 shots.

The Kings won their ninth straight game against Montreal dating to the 2021-22 season. It’s their longest active run against one opponent.

Josh Anderson scored for the Canadiens (10-4-2). Lane Hutson, last season’s rookie of the year, added an assist in his 100th game and Sam Montembeault made 21 saves.

Trailing 1-0 after Anderson’s one-timer with 46 seconds left in the first period, the Kings scored three goals in a span of 4:05 in the second.

Edmundson’s slap shot from the point 1:17 into the period — the hardest shot this season at 96.75 mph, according to the NHL — beat Montembeault for his first of the season. Then, with a delayed penalty, Byfield finished off a lengthy six-on-five sequence by gathering a rebound and shoveling the puck into the top of the net at 4:17.

Fiala made it 3-1 only 65 seconds later, capitalizing on a gift from Montembeault, who pushed the puck directly onto his stick near the crease.

Armia chased down Hutson in the Montreal zone, stripped him of the puck and slotted a shot past Montembeault to give the Kings a three-goal lead with 8:52 remaining.

Outside of Anderson’s blistering shot, Montreal couldn’t solve Kuemper. The Kings’ netminder stopped Cole Caufield and Juraj Slafkovsky’s slot shots in the third period and showed stellar rebound control.

Armia, who joined the Kings last summer after seven seasons in Montreal, returned to a loud ovation during a first-period video tribute. Armia, Edmundson, Corey Perry and Phillip Danault of the Kings all played for the Canadiens in their run to the 2021 Stanley Cup Final.

Brad Marchand scored two goals and Sam Reinhart got the go-ahead goal on his 30th birthday in the Florida Panthers’ 5-2 victory over the Kings on Thursday night.

Anton Lundell got a shorthanded goal in the third period and Sam Bennett also scored for the back-to-back Stanley Cup champion Panthers, who rebounded from a 7-3 loss against the Ducks to get their first victory on their four-game West Coast road trip.

Marchand has scored a goal in three straight games since returning to the Panthers from a one-game absence to travel to Nova Scotia to support a close friend who lost his daughter to cancer last month. The veteran tied the game late in the first period after taking the puck from Anton Forsberg behind the Kings’ net, and he added his ninth goal of the season in the third.

Sergei Bobrovsky made 24 saves.

Anze Kopitar got the first goal of his 20th NHL season and Corey Perry also scored for the Kings, who have lost three of four.

Forsberg stopped 19 shots for the Kings, who have started 1-4-2 at their downtown arena after being the NHL’s best home team last season.

Bennett put the Panthers ahead just 2:06 in, controlling and converting the rebound of Jeff Petry’s long shot.

Kopitar scored on the power play midway through the first, and Perry put the Kings ahead on a breakaway set up by a spectacular long pass from Mikey Anderson.

Reinhardt put the Panthers back ahead in the second, getting to the slot and firing a backhand for his seventh goal.

Lundell scored on a short-handed breakaway in the third after a turnover by Adrian Kempe.

Several members of the back-to-back World Series champion Dodgers were the Kings’ guests at the game, getting multiple loud ovations.

Up next for Kings: at Pittsburgh on Sunday to open a six-game trip.

Adrian Kempe scored his 200th NHL career goal and Drew Doughty broke the Kings record for goals by a defenseman as they beat the Winnipeg Jets 3-0 on Tuesday night.

Darcy Kuemper made 23 saves and Kevin Fiala added a late power-play goal to help the Kings get their first home win of the season in six games.

Connor Hellebuyck made 23 saves for the Jets, who dropped their first road game in five tries.

Kempe scored late in the first period to put the Kings in front, getting his sixth goal of the season by attacking the crease to put in Joel Armia’s centering pass from the trapezoid. Kempe is the ninth member of the 2014 draft class to reach 200 goals, getting there in 644 games.

Doughty passed franchise stalwart Rob Blake with his 162nd goal in 1,221 games with an empty-netter with 54 seconds remaining.

The Kings made changes by moving Armia to the top line and reuniting Mikey Anderson with longtime partner Doughty on the first defensive pair, and there were immediate returns as Armia and Anderson had the assists on Kempe’s goal.

Kings forward Corey Perry played in his 1,400th career game, becoming the 44th player in NHL history to do so and joining Brent Burns (1,511), Alex Ovechkin (1,503) and Anze Kopitar (1,464) among active players who have appeared in that many games.

Jets captain Adam Lowry made his season debut after undergoing hip surgery in late May, centering the third line. Lowry had a career-high 18 goals last season.