LOS ANGELES (AP) — The Los Angeles Kings fired coach Jim Hiller on Sunday after losing five of their past six games and falling out of playoff position.
D.J. Smith was named the interim replacement for the rest of the season in the first coaching change by general manager Ken Holland, who kept Hiller behind the bench when he took over the front office last May. Player development coach Matt Greene is joining Smith's staff as an assistant.
“I want to thank Jim Hiller for his dedication, professionalism, and the commitment he showed to our players and our team every day: He is a respected coach and person, and we appreciate the work he’s done behind our bench,” Holland said. “At this point in the season, we believe a change in leadership is necessary to give our group the best opportunity to reach its potential and compete at the level we expect. These decisions are never made lightly, but our responsibility is to position this team for success now and moving forward.”
Hiller was in just his second full season in the charge of the Kings, who looked lifeless in an 8-1 loss to the Edmonton Oilers on Thursday. Fans broke into repeated chants of “Fire Hiller!” while the Oilers poured it on in the second and third periods of Los Angeles' largest defeat of the season by far.
One night earlier, Los Angeles allowed five goals in the third period of an embarrassing 6-4 loss to short-handed Vegas in both teams' first game back from the Olympic break. A 2-0 win against Calgary on Saturday was not enough to save Hiller's job.
Hiller went 93-58-24 with the Kings and made the playoffs twice, but never won a postseason series.
The 56-year-old Hiller was a longtime NHL assistant who got his first chance to lead a team when the Kings promoted him to replace the fired Todd McLellan in February 2024. He righted their season and got the Kings to the playoffs, but they lost in the first round to Edmonton — just as they had in each of the previous two seasons under McLellan.
Los Angeles tied its franchise records for victories (48) and points (105) last year in its first full campaign under Hiller, but they landed in yet another first-round matchup with the Oilers — and Connor McDavid sent them packing yet again in six games.
Hiller maintained McLellan's commitment to defense-first hockey as the Kings' primary identity, even if it sometimes meant playing a boring style for fans.
Holland addressed their offensive problems by acquiring high-scoring Artemi Panarin in a trade with the Rangers before the break, but the Kings then lost star forward Kevin Fiala for the season when he broke his leg while playing for Switzerland at the Olympics.
With back-to-back losses out of the break, Los Angeles slipped three points behind Seattle, which is in position for the final wild-card playoff spot in the Western Conference.
“We didn't feel good tonight,” Hiller said immediately after the 8-1 shellacking from Edmonton. “I don't feel good standing here. Those players don't feel good today, but we've got a job to do.”
Smith was the coach of the Ottawa Senators from 2019 to 2023, leading four non-playoff seasons before he was fired 26 games into his fifth season. He joined the Kings’ staff after Hiller replaced McLellan.
He is the Kings' fifth coach since the firing in 2017 of Darryl Sutter, who led Los Angeles to its only two Stanley Cup championships.
The Kings haven't won a playoff series since raising that second Cup in 2014, winning just nine total games in six first-round exits.
Hiller is just the second coach fired in the NHL this season. Columbus replaced Dean Evason with Rick Bowness in January.
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Los Angeles Kings left wing Jeff Malott, left, and defenseman Brandt Clarke celebrate after the team's win against the Calgary Flames in an NHL hockey game Saturday, Feb. 28, 2026 in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Ryan Sun)
FILE - Ottawa Senators head coach D.J. Smith directs the team during the first period of an NHL hockey game against the Carolina Hurricanes, April 4, 2023, in Raleigh, N.C. (AP Photo/Chris Seward, File)
FILE - Los Angeles Kings head coach Jim Hiller stands behind the bench during an NHL hockey game against the Tampa Bay Lightning, Jan. 1, 2026, in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Jayne Kamin-Oncea, File)
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Iran vowed revenge Sunday after the killing of its supreme leader and traded strikes with Israel as part of a widening war prompted by a surprise U.S. and Israeli bombardment. The U.S. military said three service members have been killed, the first known American casualties from the conflict.
Blasts in Tehran sent a huge plume of smoke into the sky in an area of government buildings. Iranian authorities say more than 200 people have been killed since the start of the U.S. and Israeli strikes that killed Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and other senior leaders. Iran fired missiles at targets in Israel and Gulf Arab states in retaliation while Israel pledged "non-stop" strikes against Iran's leaders and military.
In Israel, loud explosions caused by missile impacts or interceptions could be heard in Tel Aviv. Israel’s rescue services said nine people were killed and 28 wounded in a strike that hit a synagogue in the central town of Beit Shemesh, bringing the overall death toll in the country to 11. Eleven people were still missing after the strike, police said, as rescue crews combed the rubble.
The U.S. military, meanwhile, said B-2 stealth bombers have struck Iran’s ballistic missile facilities with 2,000-pound bombs. Ballistic missiles have been one of the concerns Trump had raised in the lead up to the attacks. U.S. President Donald Trump said the military had also sunk nine Iranian warships.
The strikes and counterattacks underscored how the killing of Khamenei, and Trump's calls for the overthrow of the decades-old Islamic Republic, carried the potential for a prolonged conflict that could envelop the Middle East. It also represents a startling show of military might for an American president who swept into office on an “America First” platform and vowed to keep out of “forever wars.”
In Tehran, there was little sign that Iranians had heeded Trump's call for an uprising against the government.
The streets were largely deserted as people sheltered during heavy airstrikes, witnesses told The Associated Press, speaking anonymously for fear of retribution. The paramilitary Basij, which has played a central role in crushing protests, has set up checkpoints across the city, they said.
In southern Iran, at least 165 people were killed when a girls’ school was struck, and dozens more were wounded, the state-run IRNA news agency reported. The Israeli military said it was not aware of strikes in the area. The U.S. military said it was looking into the reports.
The U.S. military said three service members were killed and five others seriously wounded, without providing further details. It said several others suffered minor injuries and concussions.
In the 12-day war last June, Israeli and American strikes greatly weakened Iran’s air defenses, military leadership and nuclear program. But the killing of Khamenei, who had ruled Iran for more than three decades, creates a leadership vacuum, increasing the risk of regional instability.
The CIA had been tracking the movements of senior Iranian leaders, including Khamenei, for months, according to a person familiar with the operation who was not authorized to comment publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity. The intelligence was shared with Israeli officials, and the timing of the strikes was adjusted in part because of that information, the person said.
The New York Times earlier reported about the CIA’s efforts ahead of the Israeli-U.S. strikes.
Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian said in a prerecorded message that a new leadership council had begun its work. The country's foreign minister, Abbas Araghchi, said a new supreme leader would be chosen in “one or two days.”
A senior White House official said Sunday that “new potential leadership” in Iran has suggested they are open for talks with the United States. The official spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss internal administration deliberations.
As word spread of Khamenei’s death, some in Tehran could be seen cheering from rooftops, witnesses said. Others mourned as a black flag was raised over the Imam Reza shrine in Mashhad.
“You have crossed our red line and must pay the price,” Iran’s parliamentary speaker, Mohammad Bagher Qalibaf, said in a televised address. “We will deliver such devastating blows that you yourselves will be driven to beg.”
Trump warned against retaliation.
“THEY BETTER NOT DO THAT,” he said in a social media post. “IF THEY DO, WE WILL HIT THEM WITH A FORCE THAT HAS NEVER BEEN SEEN BEFORE!”
In a sign of how the attack could stoke regional unrest, hundreds of people stormed the U.S. Consulate in Pakistan’s port city of Karachi. Police and paramilitary forces used batons and fired tear gas to disperse the crowd, and at least nine people were killed in the clashes, authorities said.
As U.S. and Israeli strikes have pounded Iran, the Islamic Republic has retaliated with missiles and drone attacks on Israel and nearby Arab Gulf countries hosting U.S. forces.
The air war could rattle global markets, particularly if Iran makes the Strait of Hormuz unsafe for commercial traffic. Around 20% of the world's traded oil passes through the vital waterway.
While Iran struck U.S. bases in Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates, the attacks have also hit outside of military installations, including a hotel in the Emirati city of Dubai, and Kuwait’s international airport. At least four people have been killed in strikes on Gulf countries.
Araghchi, Iran’s foreign minister, blamed such strikes on the U.S. and Israel for starting the war. He said he had spoken to his counterparts in the Gulf countries and urged them to pressure the U.S. and Israel to end it.
Israel’s Defense Minister Israel Katz said Sunday that Israel will have “a non-stop air train” of strikes against Iranian military and leadership targets. The U.S. military said it had struck an Iranian warship at a port on the Gulf of Oman that was now sinking.
Flights across the Middle East were disrupted, and air defense fire thudded over Dubai. The United Arab Emirates’ commercial capital has long drawn business and expatriates by billing itself as a safe haven in a volatile region.
As supreme leader, Khamenei had final say on all major policies since 1989. He led Iran’s clerical establishment and the Revolutionary Guard, the two main centers of power in the governing theocracy.
An Iranian medical professional in northern Iran said he and colleagues spent the early hours of Sunday celebrating Khamenei's death indoors because armed security forces are still heavily deployed in his city.
There were forces stopping and interrogating people celebrating in their cars but there was no gunfire, said the doctor, who spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of reprisal.
“It was one of the best nights, if not the best night of our lives,” the doctor said in a voice message from the city of Rasht. In fact, “it was actually my first time ever smoking a cigarette. It was a very very nice time. We didn’t sleep at all. And we don’t even feel tired.”
Tensions have escalated in recent weeks as the Trump administration built up the largest force of American warships and aircraft in the Middle East in decades. The president insisted he wanted a deal to constrain Iran’s nuclear program while the country struggled with growing dissent following nationwide protests.
Democrats decried that Trump had taken action without congressional authorization. The White House said it had briefed several Republican and Democratic leaders in Congress in advance.
Though Trump had pronounced the Iranian nuclear program obliterated in strikes last year, the country was rebuilding infrastructure that it had lost, according to a senior U.S. official who spoke to reporters on condition of anonymity to discuss Trump’s decision-making process. The official said intelligence showed that Iran had developed the capability to produce its own high-quality centrifuges, an important step in developing the highly enriched uranium needed for weapons.
Iran has said it has not enriched since June, though it has maintained its right to do so while saying its nuclear program is entirely peaceful. It has also blocked international inspectors from visiting the sites the U.S. bombed. Satellite photos analyzed by AP have shown new activity at two of those sites.
Lidman reported from Tel Aviv, Israel; Boak from West Palm Beach, Florida; and Tucker from Washington. Associated Press writers Joe Federman in Jerusalem, Sarah El Deeb in Beirut, Amir Radjy in Cairo, Aamer Madhani, Konstantin Toropin and David Klepper in Washington, Sam Mednick in Tel Aviv, Israel, Farnoush Amiri in New York, David Rising in Bangkok and AP journalists around the world contributed to this report.
Shiite Muslims hold the portraits of Iranian leaders during a rally to condemn the killing of Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, in Quetta, Pakistan, Sunday, March 1, 2026. (AP Photo/Arshad Butt)
Iraqis hold a portrait of Iranian supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei during a protest against U.S. and Israeli attacks on multiple cities across Iran, at a bridge leading to the fortified Green Zone where the U.S. Embassy is located, in Baghdad, Iraq, Sunday, March 1, 2026. (AP Photo/Hadi Mizban)
Israeli air defense system fires to intercept missiles during an Iranian attack over central Israel, Sunday, March 1, 2026. (AP Photo/Ohad Zwigenberg)
Israeli air defense system fires to intercept missiles during an Iranian attack over central Israel, Sunday, March 1, 2026. (AP Photo/Ohad Zwigenberg)
Government supporters chant slogans as they gather in mourning after state TV officially announced the death of Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, in Tehran, Iran, Sunday, March 1, 2026. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi)
A plume of smoke rises after a strike in Tehran, Iran, Sunday, March 1, 2026. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi)
Smoke rises up after a strike in Tehran, Iran, Sunday, March 1, 2026. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi)
Government supporters gather in mourning after state TV officially announced the death of Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, in Tehran, Iran, Sunday, March 1, 2026. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi)
Government supporters chant slogans as they gather in mourning after state TV officially announced the death of Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, shown in the poster, in Tehran, Iran, Sunday, March 1, 2026. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi)
Government supporters gather in mourning after state TV officially announced the death of Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, in Tehran, Iran, Sunday, March 1, 2026. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi)
Rescue workers and military personnel survey the scene of a direct hit a day after an Iranian missile struck in Tel Aviv, Israel, Sunday, March 1, 2026. (AP Photo/Oded Balilty)
A government supporter holds a picture of the Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei during a gathering after state TV officially announced the death of Khamenei, in Tehran, Iran, Sunday, March 1, 2026. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi)
Israel's air defense missile fires to intercept missiles from Iran over Israel, Sunday, March 1, 2026. (AP Photo/Ariel Schalit)
Government supporters mourn in a gathering after state TV officially announced the death of Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, in Tehran, Iran, Sunday, March 1, 2026. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi)
Government supporters chant slogans as they gather in mourning after state TV officially announced the death of Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, in Tehran, Iran, Sunday, March 1, 2026. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi)
