Judge signals willingness to hear arguments over Huntington Beach’s voter ID law

• February 26, 2025

An Orange County Superior Court judge said Tuesday, Feb. 25, that he is inclined to reverse his previous dismissal in the state’s lawsuit against Huntington Beach’s voter ID law and hear arguments over the “meat and potatoes” of the case in the coming weeks.

Judge Nico Dourbetas, speaking to lawyers with Huntington Beach and the state at a hearing Tuesday, said he is leaning toward following the suggestion of an appeals court order from last week and reversing his December decision to dismiss the case.

While Dourbetas did not issue a ruling from the bench on Tuesday, he suggested arguments before him over the case’s core elements could happen sometime in April. That would speed up the ongoing legal battle between the state and Huntington Beach over the city’s voter ID law.

State attorneys have said a drawn-out legal battle will disrupt planning for the 2026 elections.

Huntington Beach voters approved Measure A last year, which added language to the city charter that said Huntington Beach could begin to ask people to show identification in city elections as soon as 2026. The state attorney general’s office followed up by suing to stop the law from getting implemented, arguing it violates multiple California laws.

City officials so far have not detailed how they intend to implement the law. Dourbetas said previously that Measure A didn’t conflict with state elections law at the time of its passing.

The state’s case against Huntington Beach received new life last week when an appeals court panel of judges issued an order asking Dourbetas to reconsider his earlier ruling that the case was not “ripe for adjudication.”

The appeals court disagreed, saying the case was a “present controversy.” The panel also described Huntington Beach’s arguments that it could regulate its elections free from state interference as “problematic.”

Anthony Taylor, an attorney for Huntington Beach, said the city is ready to make its arguments if the court wishes to do so in a few weeks. Taylor told Dourbetas that there are core issues that the appeals court hasn’t addressed that the city feels it can argue on.

Michael Cohen, an attorney for the state, said their reading of last week’s order is the appeals court would be inclined to rule in favor of the state.

To close Tuesday’s hearing, Dourbetas acknowledged that the case likely isn’t ending with however he rules.

“No matter what the ruling is here,” he said, “this is not going to be the end of the story.”

​ Orange County Register 

OC judge who shot his wife admits breaking the law by drinking while carrying a concealed weapon

• February 26, 2025

An Orange County Superior Court judge who shot and killed his wife admitted during testimony on Tuesday, Feb. 25, to repeatedly breaking the law by carrying a concealed weapon while drinking alcohol, including during lunch breaks before hearing criminal cases.

He continued to say that the shooting was accidental.

A day after Jeffrey Ferguson testified to accidentally shooting and killing his wife at their Anaheim Hills home on Aug. 3, 2023, when his injured shoulder gave out and he fumbled a firearm, he continually denied being criminally responsible for the death of Sheryl Ferguson during several hours of intense questioning by a prosecutor.

Senior Deputy District Attorney Seton Hunt told jurors last week that during a heated argument between the drunken judge and his wife, Jeffrey Ferguson pointed a finger at her to mimic a firearm, she said something to the effect of “Why don’t you use a real gun?”, and the judge pulled a Glock .40-caliber pistol out of his ankle holster and shot his wife.

But Ferguson told jurors in a Santa Ana courtroom that his wife actually said something like, “Why don’t you put the real gun away for me?” and then made her own “finger-gun” motion at him, making “Pshew! Pshew!” sounds to apparently mimic gunfire. Ferguson described his bad shoulder giving out as he tried to place the gun on a coffee table, causing him to fumble the firearm and accidentally hit the trigger.

“My intention was to remove it from my person so she could see I didn’t have it anymore,” Ferguson said on Tuesday of the gun. “I just wanted to please her.”

“You were just trying to be nice to her?” the prosecutor asked.

“Yes.”

“By taking a gun out of a holster when you are drunk and pointing it in her direction?”

“I never pointed it in her direction,” the judge said.

Hunt noted that the one time the judge said the firearm misfired, it hit his wife: “Of all places, it shot the person who had just been mocking you by making gun sounds?”

“It hit her, yes,” Ferguson said.

Ferguson’s attorney acknowledged that the judge is an alcoholic, and under questioning by the prosecutor Ferguson admitted to breaking the law repeatedly by drinking while carrying a concealed weapon. The judge had a concealed-carry permit — which bars people from carrying a firearm while consuming alcohol — since the mid-1980s, when he was a young prosecutor. Ferguson acknowledge that he was inebriated at the time of the shooting.

“Would you agree that handling a firearm while under the influence of alcohol is an inherently dangerous act?” Hunt asked.

“I think it depends on the surrounding circumstances,” Ferguson said. “I don’t think it is a good idea. But whether it is inherently dangerous depends on the circumstances.”

“What if you had a bad shoulder? Would it be dangerous to handle a firearm while under the influence of alcohol?”

“Yes, it is probably a bad idea.”

“Would it be dangerous to human life?”

“I think it would depend on the circumstances.”

Ferguson testified that he was so used to carrying the firearm — which he only took off to shower or to sleep — that he stopped thinking about it. During testimony on Monday he compared it to wearing a watch.

“Except a watch can’t kill a person,” the prosecutor said.

“Unless it is a James Bond movie, yes,” Ferguson responded.

Ferguson acknowledged he had a cocktail at lunch — an old fashioned — the day of the shooting, something he admitted doing once or twice a week before going back to work and hearing criminal cases.

“Did you ever consume alcohol at lunch before presiding over a trial?” Hunt asked.

“No, I went to lunch with judges mostly,” Ferguson said.

“I understand — you have a lot of powerful friends,” the prosecutor responded, drawing a quick objection from the defense.

After realizing his wife had been struck by the gunfire, Ferguson immediately went to the front yard. He testified that he left the home so paramedics could immediately tend to his wife, rather than wait for officers to search for a shooter. But he acknowledged that he left his then-22-year-old son — who had wrestled the firearm away from his father and then called 911 — to perform CPR on Sheryl Ferguson.

“You left your son with a gun in one hand, a cellphone in the other, and his dying mother on the ground?” Hunt said.

“Yes,” Ferguson said.

Immediately after the shooting, prosecutors say, Ferguson texted his courtroom clerk and bailiff, telling them: “I just lost it. I just shot my wife. I won’t be in tomorrow. I will be in custody. I’m so sorry.”

Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Eleanor J. Hunter, who is presiding over the trial to avoid a conflict of interest with Ferguson’s Orange County judicial colleagues, repeatedly warned Ferguson to answer only the questions he is asked.

“While you may want to control everything, you can’t control it in here,” Judge Hunter told Ferguson at one point while the jury was on a break.

Ferguson, who has at times wept during the trial, was warned by Judge Hunter to not display emotions on the stand. During his testimony, Ferguson denied the prosecution’s implication that he was crying to manipulate the jury.

“I love Sheryl,” Ferguson said. “We did everything together. And I miss her. I hate this happened. I hate this happened to my son. I cry for him. I cry for myself. Because she is gone and I don’t have much to be around for, except my son. I can’t help it, I’m sorry.”

Closing arguments in the trial are scheduled for Wednesday morning, Feb. 26, followed by jury deliberations. The prosecution is expected to ask for a second-degree murder conviction, while Ferguson’s defense attorneys have indicated they will ask the jury to acquit him of all criminal charges.

​ Orange County Register 

Pilot, paramedic, nurse taken to hospital after a medical helicopter crash in North Carolina

• February 26, 2025

WILMINGTON, N.C. (AP) — Three people were taken to a hospital after a medical helicopter crashed in a wooded area near a North Carolina airport, officials said.

The three team members who were on the AirLink helicopter on Monday night were taken for evaluation. No patients were on board, Novant Health said in a statement.

The team consisted of a pilot, a critical care registered nurse and a critical care paramedic, Novant Health said in another statement released later Tuesday. They were in fair condition Tuesday evening, Novant Health said.

The Eurocopter EC-135 helicopter crashed near Wilmington International Airport around 7:50 p.m., the Federal Aviation Administration said in a statement. The helicopter had left Novant Health New Hanover Regional Medical Center in Wilmington to return to its base at Albert J. Ellis Airport in the Richlands area of Onslow County, Novant Health said.

The FAA and National Transportation Safety Board will investigate.

“We are deeply grateful for the compassionate care and swift response demonstrated by area first responders and our team members following the recent helicopter incident,” the health care company’s statement said.

​ Orange County Register 

This week’s bestsellers at Southern California’s independent bookstores

• February 26, 2025

The SoCal Indie Bestsellers List for the sales week ended Feb. 23 is based on reporting from the independent booksellers of Southern California, the California Independent Booksellers Alliance and IndieBound. For an independent bookstore near you, visit IndieBound.org.

HARDCOVER FICTION

1. James: Percival Everett

2. The God of the Woods: Liz Moore

3. All Fours: Miranda July

4. Small Things Like These: Claire Keegan

5. The Wedding People: Alison Espach

6. Three Days in June: Anne Tyler

7. Intermezzo: Sally Rooney

8. Onyx Storm (Standard Edition): Rebecca Yarros

9. Iron Flame: Rebecca Yarros

10. The Women: Kristin Hannah

HARDCOVER NONFICTION

1. The Let Them Theory: A Life-Changing Tool That Millions of People Can’t Stop Talking About: Mel Robbins

2. Lorne: The Man Who Invented Saturday Night Live: Susan Morrison

3. Memorial Days: A Memoir: Geraldine Brooks

4. How We Learn to Be Brave: Decisive Moments in Life and Faith: Mariann Edgar Budde

5. Golden State: The Making of California: Michael Hiltzik

6. The Harder I Fight the More I Love You: A Memoir: Neko Case

7. The Serviceberry: Abundance and Reciprocity in the Natural World: Robin Wall Kimmerer, John Burgoyne (Illus.)

8. On the Hippie Trail: Istanbul to Kathmandu and the Making of a Travel Writer: Rick Steves

9. The Sirens’ Call: How Attention Became the World’s Most Endangered Resource: Chris Hayes

10. Aflame: Learning from Silence: Pico Iyer

MASS MARKET

1. Animal Farm: George Orwell

2. The Way of Kings: Brandon Sanderson

3. Mistborn: The Final Empire: Brandon Sanderson

4. 1984: George Orwell

5. The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy: Douglas Adams

6. The Diary of a Young Girl: Anne Frank

7. Lord of the Flies: William Golding

8. The Name of the Wind: Patrick Rothfuss

9. The Brothers Karamazov: Fyodor Dostoyevsky

10. Dune Messiah: Frank Herbert

TRADE PAPERBACK FICTION

1. Deep End: Ali Hazelwood

2. Orbital: Samantha Harvey

3. Martyr!: Kaveh Akbar

4. The Handmaid’s Tale: Margaret Atwood

5. Fourth Wing: Rebecca Yarros

6. Demon Copperhead: Barbara Kingsolver

7. North Woods: Daniel Mason

8. The Frozen River: Ariel Lawhon

9. The Vegetarian: Han Kang

10. Project Hail Mary: Andy Weir

​ Orange County Register 

Santiago boys basketball beat rival, kept rolling to the CIF-SS finals

• February 25, 2025

Santiago’s boys basketball team had already played Los Amigos twice in Coast League games.

Santiago lost both games, 60-49 at Los Amigos and 69-59 at Santiago.

And then the two teams, who had been rivals for decades in the Garden Grove League before joining the Coast League, had to play each other in the first round of the CIF-SS Division 4AA playoffs.

Santiago won the playoff game, 45-42, at Los Amigos on Feb. 12, and it has continued to win from there.

The Cavaliers will play in a boys basketball championship game for the first time Saturday at 9:30 a.m. when they take on Ramona of Riverside in the Division 4AA final at Toyota Arena in Ontario.

Jorden De La Mora is Santiago’s star player. Last week he scored 36 points in the Cavaliers’ 66-64 win over Workman in the quarterfinals and scored 25 points, including 13 in the fourth quarter, in their 50-43 win over Pacifica in the semifinals.

“He is a great offensive player,” said Santiago coach Matt Moorhouse, who is in his eighth season in charge of the Cavaliers. “He’s not the fastest player out there, but nobody can stop him.”

Jayden Baude, a 6-2 senior guard, and 5-6 senior guard Anthony Bermudez also have been consistent contributors for Santiago. Moorhouse said Baude “has a college-ready physique” and just needs to get better “skills-wise.” Of Bermudez the coach said, “he’ll be the smallest player on the court but he’s been our leading rebounder in many of our games.”

Santiago finished third in the six-team Coast League in which Savanna and Los Amigos tied for the league championship. Moorhouse had an inkling in December that this season could be a special one.

“We lost to Los Altos and to Mark Keppel, both higher-division teams, by two points,” he said. “Both of those games showed what we could do.”

NOTES

Los Alamitos coach Nathan Berger was a sophomore sitting on the bench when the Griffins won a CIF-SS basketball championship in 2007, the last time the Griffins reached the CIF-SS finals. He watched seniors like Clint Amberry, Corbin Moore and Cameron Jones play. “I was a super fan of those guys,” Berger said, “and now when we’re winning games, those guys are texting me. And Corbin Moore was at our game Friday (when Los Alamitos beat Crean Lutheran in the Division 1 semifinals).”

Los Alamitos plays Mira Costa in the Division 1 final Saturday at 4:30 p.m. at Toyota Arena. …

Berger and Mira Costa coach Neal Perlmutter said their teams are very similar – both like to press, both like to push the tempo. “The key to beating Los Alamitos,” Perlmutter said, “is ball security because they’re going to come at us with incredible pressure. Shot selection will be important, too, and we pride ourselves on taking good shots.” …

Pacifica Christian and Fairmont Prep meet again in the Division 2AA championship game at Toyota Arena on Saturday at 1 p.m. The teams split their two San Joaquin League games and shared the league title. Fairmont Prep won at Pacifica Christian 60-56, and Pacifica Christian won at Fairmont Prep 67-55. …

Admission to the CIF-SS boys basketball finals at Toyota Arena is $24 for adults general admission and $12 for students and for children. GoFan.co is the exclusive place to buy tickets. Parking is $15 at Toyota Arena, which is a cashless venue. …

Admission to the CIF-SS boys basketball finals at Edison High, where Sage Hill plays Knight of Palmdale in the 3AA championship game, is $15 and $7, and GoFan.co is the site for tickets. Parking is $10 and cash only is accepted at Edison. …

Sage Hill’s scoring has been consistent in the 3AA playoffs. The team’s playoff scores: 44-39 over Oakwood in the first round; 42-39 over West Torrance in the second round; 43-39 over Tustin in the quarterfinals; and 45-43 over San Gabriel Academy in the semifinals. …

Sage Hill coach D’Cean Bryant’s son, Carter Bryant, is a freshman at Arizona where he is averaging 6 points a game.

​ Orange County Register 

Coca-Cola’s appeal to Palestinians fizzles as the Mideast war boosts demand for a local look-alike

• February 25, 2025

By ISABEL DEBRE

SALFIT, West Bank (AP) — Order a Coke to wash down some hummus in the Israeli-occupied West Bank these days and chances are the waiter will shake his head disapprovingly — or worse, mutter “shame, shame” in Arabic — before suggesting the popular local alternative: a can of Chat Cola.

Chat Cola — its red tin and sweeping white script bearing remarkable resemblance to the iconic American soft drink’s logo — has seen its products explode in popularity across the occupied West Bank in the past year as Palestinian consumers, angry at America’s steadfast support for Israel in its war against Hamas in Gaza, protest with their pocketbooks.

“No one wants to be caught drinking Coke,” said Mad Asaad, 21, a worker at the bakery-cafe chain Croissant House in the West Bank city of Ramallah, which stopped selling Coke after the war erupted. “Everyone drinks Chat now. It’s sending a message.”

Since Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, attack triggered Israel’s devastating military campaign in the Gaza Strip, the Palestinian-led boycott movement against companies perceived as supportive of Israel gained momentum across the Middle East, where the usual American corporate targets like McDonald’s, KFC and Starbucks saw sales slide last year.

Here in the West Bank, the boycott has shuttered two KFC branches in Ramallah. But the most noticeable expression of consumer outrage has been the sudden ubiquity of Chat Cola as shopkeepers relegate Coke cans to the bottom shelf — or pull them altogether.

“When people started to boycott, they became aware that Chat existed,” Fahed Arar, general manager of Chat Cola, told The Associated Press from the giant red-painted factory, nestled in the hilly West Bank town of Salfit. “I’m proud to have created a product that matches that of a global company.”

With the “buy local” movement burgeoning during the war, Chat Cola said its sales in the West Bank surged more than 40% last year, compared to 2023.

While the companies said they had no available statistics on their command of the local market due to the difficulties of data collection in wartime, anecdotal evidence suggests Chat Cola is clawing at some of Coca-Cola’s market share.

“Chat used to be a specialty product, but from what we’ve seen, it dominates the market,” said Abdulqader Azeez Hassan, 25, the owner of a supermarket in Salfit that boasts fridges full of the fizzy drinks.

But workers at Coca-Cola’s franchise in the West Bank, the National Beverage Company, are all Palestinian, and a boycott affects them, too, said its general manager, Imad Hindi.

He declined to elaborate on the business impact of the boycott, suggesting it can’t be untangled from the effects of the West Bank’s economic free-fall and intensified Israeli security controls that have multiplied shipping times and costs for Palestinian companies during the war.

The Coca-Cola Company did not respond to a request for comment.

Whether or not the movement brings lasting consequences, it does reflect an upsurge of political consciousness, said Salah Hussein, head of the Ramallah Chamber of Commerce.

“It’s the first time we’ve ever seen a boycott to this extent,” Hussein said, noting how institutions like the prominent Birzeit University near Ramallah canceled their Coke orders. “After Oct. 7, everything changed. And after Trump, everything will continue to change.”

President Donald Trump’s call for the mass expulsion of Palestinians from Gaza, which he rephrased last week as a recommendation, has further inflamed anti-American sentiment around the region.

With orders pouring in not only from Lebanon and Yemen but also the United States and Europe, the company has its sights set on the international market, said PR manager Ahmad Hammad.

Hired to help Chat Cola cash in on combustible emotions created by the war, Hammad has rebranded what began in 2019 as a niche mom-and-pop operation.

“We had to take advantage of the opportunity,” he said of the company’s new “Palestinian taste” logo and national flag-hued merchandise.

In its scramble to satisfy demand, Chat Cola is opening a second production site in neighboring Jordan. It rolled out new candy-colored flavors, like blueberry, strawberry and green apple.

At the steamy plant in Salfit, recent college graduates in lab coats said that they took pains to produce a carbonated beverage that could sell on its taste, not just a customer’s sense of solidarity with the Palestinians.

“Quality has been a problem with local Palestinian products before,” said Hanna al-Ahmad, 32, the head of quality control for Chat Cola, shouting to be heard over the whir of machines squirting caramel-colored elixir into scores of small cans that then whizzed down assembly lines. “If it’s not good quality, the boycott won’t stick.”

Chat Cola worked with chemists in France to produce the flavor, which is almost indistinguishable from Coke’s — just like its packaging. That’s the case for several flavors: Squint at Chat’s lemon-lime soda and you might mistake it for a can of Sprite.

In 2020, the Ramallah-based National Beverage Company sued Chat Cola for copyright infringement in Palestinian court, contending that Chat had imitated Coke’s designs for multiple drinks. The court ultimately sided with Chat Cola, determining there were enough subtle differences in the can designs that it didn’t violate copyright law.

In the Salfit warehouse, drivers loaded “family size” packages of soda into trucks bound not only for the West Bank but also for Tel Aviv, Haifa and other cities in Israel. Staffers said that Chat soda sales in Israel’s predominantly Arab cities jumped 25% last year. To broaden its appeal in Israel, Chat Cola secured kosher certification after a Jewish rabbi’s thorough inspection of the facility.

Still, critics of the Palestinians-led Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement, or BDS, say that its main objective — to isolate Israel economically for its occupation of Palestinian lands — only exacerbates the conflict.

“BDS and similar actions drive communities apart, they don’t help to bring people together,” said Vlad Khaykin, the executive vice president of social impact and partnerships in North America for the Simon Wiesenthal Center, a Jewish human rights organization. “The kind of rhetoric being embraced by the BDS movement to justify the boycott of Israel is really quite dangerous.”

While Chat Cola goes out of its way to avoid buying from Israel — sourcing ingredients and materials from France, Italy and Kuwait — it can’t avoid the circumstances of Israeli occupation, in which Israel dominates the Palestinian economy, controls borders, imports and more.

Deliveries of raw materials to Chat Cola’s West Bank factory get hit with a 35% import tax — half of which Israel collects on behalf of the Palestinians. The general manager, Arar, said his company’s success depends far more on Israeli bureaucratic goodwill than nationalist fervor.

For nearly a month last fall, Israeli authorities detained Chat’s aluminum shipments from Jordan at the Allenby Bridge Crossing, forcing part of the factory to shut down and costing the company tens of thousands of dollars.

Among the local buyers left in the lurch was Croissant House in Ramallah, where, on a recent afternoon, at least one thirsty customer, confronting a nearly empty refrigerator, slipped to the supermarket next-door for a can of Coke.

“It’s very frustrating,” said Asaad, the worker. “We want to be self-sufficient. But we’re not.”

​ Orange County Register 

Instagram influencer arrested in fatal head-on PCH crash in Malibu

• February 25, 2025

A social media influencer has been arrested in connection with a fatal crash in Malibu last year, authorities announced Tuesday.

Summer Wheaton, 33, was arrested about 1 p.m. Monday, according to the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department.

The arrest followed a monthslong investigation into a fatal crash on July 4, 2024, which occurred on Pacific Coast Highway, west of Carbon Canyon and about a mile from Nobu Malibu.

Investigators said Wheaton was driving eastbound in her 2019 Mercedes-Benz when she crossed the median and collided head-on with a 2020 Cadillac driven by 44-year-old rideshare driver Martin Okeke, who died at the scene.

Sheriff’s officials said Wheaton surrendered Monday at the Malibu/Lost Hills Sheriff’s Station, where she was booked on charges of gross vehicular manslaughter while intoxicated, DUI causing bodily injury and driving with a BAC of 0.08% or higher causing bodily injury.

Her bail was set at $230,000, and she posted bond at 3:33 p.m. Monday, according to the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Inmate Information Center.

Wheaton, who goes by the Instagram handle yepitsmesummer, has more than 101,000 followers on the platform.

Anyone with any information regarding the crash was urged to call the sheriff’s Malibu/Lost Hills Sheriff’s Station at 818-878-1808. Those who wish to remain anonymous can call 800-222-8477 or visit lacrimestoppers.org.

​ Orange County Register 

Kings look to stay hot on home ice, welcome struggling Canucks

• February 25, 2025

On Wednesday night, the Kings will welcome the Vancouver Canucks to their court, Crypto.com Arena, where they’ve been all but impossible to dethrone this season.

The black and silver’s 19-3-2 record gives them the best home points percentage in the NHL (.833). In the unlikely event that they win out at home, they would equal the 1995-96 Detroit Red Wings’ 36-3-2 mark, the best ever in an 82-game season. The most vulgar display of power on home ice was by the Philadelphia Flyers of 1975-76, who captured 92.5% of their points at home during an 80-game campaign and did so with a staggering 3.15 average goal differential (the Kings’ is 1.25 this year).

Just being mentioned with those consecrated rosters would be an honor for any team. Philly was vying for its third Stanley Cup in a row that season, falling to Montreal in the Final for the Habs’ first of four consecutive crowns. Detroit advanced to the conference finals in ’96 before winning back-to-back Cups in ’97 and ’98.

After Monday’s 5-2 victory over Pacific pace car Vegas, the Kings were still jockeying around the top three in their division, hoping for home-ice advantage in a postseason matchup for the first time since 2016’s first-round loss to San Jose.

While it might not be an overly prominent concern for the regular season – 17 of their final 27 games will be played at Crypto.com Arena – there exists a massive disparity between the Kings’ home and away splits. Most notably, they’re 12-14-5 when ordering room service, giving them a substandard .458 road points percentage.

Last season, the Kings began the campaign with a record 11 straight road wins, but after a February coaching change, their comfort level at home elevated and an aversion to the road began to develop.

“It’s a complete flip flop from last year. We were more of the road warriors,” Kings wing Quinton Byfield said. “We want opponents to kind of fear coming in and playing in L.A.”

Regardless of the venue, the Kings have seen chemistry persist for their top defensive pairing of Mikey Anderson and Vladislav Gavriov, while the forward line of Byfield, Kevin Fiala and Alex Laferriere has blossomed of late.

While that duo has largely remained a fixture, even with seven defensemen in the lineup regularly, the trio of attackers was dispersed throughout the lineup at times Monday. Byfield, who had a career-high four points against Vegas, reconnected with old pals Adrian Kempe, Warren Foegele and Trevor Moore, while also setting up Fiala.

Coach Jim Hiller said part of the rationale there was his effort to spark Kempe and captain Anže Kopitar’s production.

“We were just trying to get that line, who carried us in many ways for the first half of the season, to just get some traction again and get feeling good about their game, [to get] some consistent time in the o-zone, some chances,” Hiller said. “It just hasn’t happened a lot lately.”

What has happened more frequently lately has been the Kings’ otherwise languid power play connecting. They scored with the extra man in consecutive games for just the third time this season (one was a string of three straight matches), and added another goal nine seconds after an opportunity expired on Monday.

They’ll look to carry over momentum, both recently with the man advantage and all season at home, against Vancouver, which has lost both its games since returning from the 4 Nations Face-Off break. That’s taken them from running neck-and-neck with the Kings for third place in the Pacific to clinging to a one-point lead on Calgary for the West’s second wild card.

This campaign has been a time of tumult for the Canucks as injuries, infighting, underperformance and the departure of J.T. Miller via trade have hindered the prospects of the NHL’s most-improved team last season.

VANCOUVER AT KINGS

When: Wednesday, 7 p.m.

Where: Crypto.com Arena

TV: TNT, truTV, Max

​ Orange County Register