They played their first game at the Long Beach Arena on October 14, 1967, against the Philadelphia Flyers and won. They played their home games for the first two months at the Long Beach Arena and the Los Angeles Memorial Sports Arena.

As Cooke had promised, the new home arena of the Kings was opened on December 30, 1967. It was called the Fabulous Forum and was located in Inglewood, California. The Forum was their home arena for the next thirty two seasons. They made the playoffs in their first two seasons, though were ousted very early. The next few years were quite dismal, until the Kings hired Bob Pulford as their head coach in 1972. Two seasons later, they were back in the playoffs but could not progress further.

The Kings acquired Marcel Dionne in 1975, which along with Butch Goring and Rogie Vachon helped the team beat the Atlanta Flames in the first round of the playoffs. They lost to the Boston Bruins in the second round. The next year, they beat the Flames and lost to the Bruins again. In 1979, Dionne joined forces with Dave Taylor and Charlie Simmer to form a deadly combination known as the “Triple Crown Line.” This line dominated the NHL for a few years, but it could not take the team beyond the playoffs.

The turning point came in 1988, when new owner Bruce McNall acquired the greatest player in the league from the Edmonton Oilers, Wayne Gretzky. The new Kings defeated the Oilers in the first round of the playoffs in 1989. But even with Gretzky in their team, they still kept getting beaten in the second round of the playoffs, mostly by the Oilers. In 1991, Gretzky led the Kings to win their first ever division title. In 1993, they won the Conference Championship for the first time ever. That was the first time they reached the Stanley Cup Finals. They lost to the Montreal Canadiens.

The team was taken over by the Anschutz Entertainment Group in 1996 and Gretzky was traded to the St. Louis Blues. In 1999, the Los Angeles Kings moved to the Staples Center in LA for their home games.

The Kings have retired the jersey numbers of some of their players. These are Marcel Dionne 16, Dave Taylor 18, Luc Robitaille 20, Rogatien Vachon 30 and Wayne Gretzky 99. Gretzky’s number was retired throughout the league in 2000.