LOS ANGELES — Tight checking. Detailed defensive work. Tight checking. Strong goaltending. Tight checking.

Those might as well be commandments the Los Angeles Kings live by, chiseled onto stone tablets. But with their persistent trouble scoring goals you wonder if “Thou shalt not covet thy opponent’s net” was also carved onto them.

Can the NHL’s 28th-ranked offense be enough to make the playoffs? It isn’t unheard of.

Two years ago, the Washington Capitals were 28th with a 2.63 goals per game average and managed to scrape in with an Eastern Conference wild-card berth despite a minus-37 goal differential. Last year, the Minnesota Wild had the 25th-ranked offense out of 32 teams (2.74), had a minus-11 goal differential and still got in as the West’s first wild card.

So, it is possible. But it isn’t common for a team near the bottom of the league to be among the 16 teams still playing once the regular season is complete. The pop-gun Kings seem determined to do the uncommon.

Limited to one goal for the second straight game in Thursday’s 2-1 loss to the Chicago Blackhawks, the Kings managed to drop to 29th in scoring as they fell behind the lowly Nashville Predators. They’re averaging 2.56 goals. Just 16 goals in their last nine contests. Toss aside four scored against a defense-challenged Anaheim club recently and that’s 12 in eight.

“I think when pucks aren’t going in, like I feel for the guys right now,” said Kings goalie Darcy Kuemper, who has held up his end with a .910 save percentage and 2.35 goals-against average. “I don’t think it feels great for them. It’s probably wearing on them a little bit. I think just confidence is the biggest thing. Once they start going in, guys will start feeling better and we’ll start scoring a lot more.”

Final from Los Angeles. #GoKingsGo pic.twitter.com/2MwHlMIUOi

— LA Kings (@LAKings) December 5, 2025

Because of their stingy disposition and a bunch of games they’ve taken into overtime to accumulate points, the Kings and their 12-8-7 record still puts them in third place in the Pacific Division. And they’re very much part of a middling mass in the Western Conference. Not far from the division lead but also not far from being below the playoff cut line.

There is still two-thirds of a season left to play. But a cast full of veterans is feeling it. The 2-1 loss to an improving Chicago team now in a wild-card position exemplified their offensive struggles from the moment Adrian Kempe couldn’t put away a give-and-go with Trevor Moore in the first minute. Power plays continue to wither away. Grade-A scoring chances are flubbed. Opponent’s mistakes aren’t cashed in.

When the Kings do score three goals or more, they are 8-0-6. But they’ve scored two or fewer in 13 of their 27 games and that’s made for a 4-8-1 mark. It’s no wonder why they’ve won only twice in their last eight contests.

“I think this game, a lot of it has to do with confidence,” said Warren Foegele, who assisted on Moore’s third-period goal in his return from an upper-body injury. “And when pucks aren’t going in for a stretch there, it definitely wears on guys in the room. You can’t feel sorry for yourself. You just got to keep it simple, go to the net and just hope that one goes off your ass — sorry, your butt or your chest or something like that.

“There’s not much room out there, but you just got to work hard and find a way.”

The offensive issues run through the lineup. Anze Kopitar and Quinton Byfield, the Kings’ top two centers, have nine goals combined. Moore and Joel Armia were on their top two lines Thursday and they’ve each got five goals. Depth scoring is nonexistent as Phillip Danault and Alex Turcotte, their other usual centers, have one goal between them. Corey Perry hasn’t scored in his last 11 after a blazing first few weeks in his return from knee surgery. Andrei Kuzmenko has been a non-factor. Even Kevin Fiala, with a team-leading 10 goals, has one in his last nine.

It is a big problem when your team is built to get offense from all four lines. Five empty power plays Thursday leave them with the worst conversion rate (12.9 percent) in the NHL. The return of Drew Doughty after missing seven games because of a foot injury didn’t impact their times with the advantage.

While he was sidelined, Doughty said he’s seen a Kings team lacking some swagger and confidence. The inability to put pucks in has chipped away at both.

“There are ways that we can create more offense and we need to,” Doughty said. “And that starts with us defensemen making some more plays to help with the breakouts and stuff like that. Being more active in the o-zone. But I think once guys start scoring goals and getting the confidence back, then we’ll run away with the offense.”

Jim Hiller has shuffled his forward lines around and moved players between the two power play units. He’s broken up units and reunited them. Nothing has taken hold. The search for consistently productive combinations continues.

But what he doesn’t want to see is his players break from their tried-and-true formula of checking to create their chances. Or break from their structure and lapse into individual play to generate more offense. He called their first period “terrible and that might be polite.” A better third period didn’t dull his disappointment with their first two.

“We play a really demanding style of hockey on the players, and they do an exceptional job of it,” Hiller said. “Have done it for years. And there always looks like there could be a more exciting and sexy way to do it. I think you saw players try and play that game through at least most of the first 40 minutes, and I think you saw a pretty clear result in that style of hockey for our team in particular.”

But has the all-consuming emphasis on tight checking left a team that’s tight with their sticks in the offensive end? Hiller acknowledged their style is “very demanding physically and mentally to play like that each night” and that it may have factored into how they played against the Blackhawks.

Still, when the goals aren’t flowing, is it hard to resist the temptation to go outside their way of play to change their luck?

“It can be,” said Moore, who snapped a 16-game goal drought. “I want to score. Everyone wants to score. It’s not that fun when you’re not scoring. But at the end of the day, it’s not like we’re losing 4-1 every night and we have to throw out our playbook. We’re in every game. You never want to be the guy who’s taking risks to try to score when it’s a 1-1 game in the third period.

“It can be tough, but we believe in our system, and we believe in our players. We think we’re getting out of it.”

Trev gets one back! pic.twitter.com/d9a5JukboW

— LA Kings (@LAKings) December 5, 2025

As Moore explained, when you have a leader like Kopitar who epitomizes responsible two-way play, it implores the rest of the group to follow his example. Breaking their structure and introducing unnecessary risk makes one stand out in a bad way.

If they’re not going to change their systemic play, how can the Kings score more without abandoning their principles?

“I think you really have to have a little more possession in the o-zone,” Hiller said before the game. “I think that’s probably what we’re working at and try to emphasize the most. And then when you do, the first thing is to establish it and control a little bit and then where do you go from there.

“I think we have to be harder at their net front to be honest with you. I think we have to defer less to our defensemen and try and just take some pucks in maybe not prime scoring areas, but trust that somebody is in front of the net and to try to turn that into a secondary scoring chance. That’s what I would tell you.”

No player has had more trouble scoring than Danault. Right now, he couldn’t buy a goal if it were marked down and he could put it on credit. In what’s been a difficult season, Danault doesn’t have a goal despite being in all 27 games. Hiller called Thursday’s game the best for the 32-year-old defensive specialist, but he’s been on a two-year downturn after three straight double-digit goal seasons in L.A.

Tough luck continues to follow him around like a stray dog. He had an open net but couldn’t get his stick on a pass from Moore. He jumped on another puck misplay by Chicago goalie Spencer Knight but couldn’t wrap it back around the post. Other chances were stopped by Knight. “The whole team, I can tell you right now, is pulling for Phil,” Hiller said. “Guys want him to score. We all do.”

Danault is just Example A of the Kings’ struggles. It’s a team in desperate need of a five-goal breakout. “You feel a little lighter as a team,” Moore said. “That’d be great.”

“Well, it just gets your top guys especially feeling good,” Doughty said. “When we’re scoring one or two goals a game, your top guys start doubting things about whether it’s the system. Themselves. They start doubting a lot of things. Top scorers, they need to get those goals to feel good about themselves. So that’s the biggest thing.

“There are things we can do to create more, and I don’t think we’re being direct enough and getting to the net enough for sure. But we’re going to get it going.”