With under a minute left to play in the second period against the up-and-coming Chicago Blackhawks, Thursday night, the Los Angeles Kings scratched, scrambled, and crawled in desperate hopes of tying up the game at one, on a golden opportunity that was handed to them via the mishandling of the puck by goaltender Spencer Knight behind the goal.
While Knight fought to get back into position, all three of Philip Danault, Warren Foegele, and Corey Perry were unable to get a clean shot toward the net. And that pretty much sums up how the Kings’ offensive production has been going lately, especially at home.
Statistical Reality: One of the NHL’s Weakest Offenses
There is no sugarcoating it. The Kings can’t score right now, even when prime opportunities present themselves (which have been rare), and it’s reaching a point of concern that is evident in almost all stat categories involving goal scoring. 43 is the number of goals the Kings have scored so far this season at 5-on-5, which is good for the second-lowest out of any team in the NHL. Their goals for per 60 at 5-on-5 is at just 1.93, which is the second lowest in the league.
The teams that are experiencing the same struggles and have close to the same numbers in these categories are the same teams hoping they land the first overall pick at the end of the season. If the Kings expect to be competitive down the stretch (which they say they are), they can’t continue on like this.
Diving deeper, we see a couple of interesting trends. To start the season, it was scoring enough goals to mask the flaws of a newly formed defensive group that kept games close and pushed them to overtime. Now, the script has almost been flipped. The Kings have inched closer to their identity on the defensive side of things, allowing more than two goals in just four of their last 14 games. More than enough room to work with to win games, if goals were being scored. The Kings are just another goal or two per game away from this not even being discussed.
Related: Much Needed Changes Coming to Kings’ Struggling Power Play
It says something about the roster construction and perhaps the system that’s in place. The lack of puck-moving defensemen is hurting the Kings. Aside from Brandt Clarke and Brian Dumoulin at times, the Kings’ defensemen have trouble breaking out the puck, and whether it’s an incomplete pass, a stretch pass that misses the target and ends up being called for icing, or a turnover up the wall, it’s been a lot tougher for the Kings to move up the ice quickly and with fluidity.
The way they create offense doesn’t help either. The Kings’ expected goals for at 5-on-5 is 54.2 (the fifth-lowest number in the league), indicating the lack of quality looks this team is actually generating. They rank in the bottom four for high-danger shots as well. It’s evident just from the eye test, and it’s confirmed by the numbers. How many times have you seen the Kings take low-quality shots from far out, which, a lot of the time, don’t even make it to the net? 30.57% of shots they have attempted this season have been blocked. Only the San Jose Sharks have had a more difficult time finding shooting lanes.
Some of it has been bad luck or a puck bobbled here and there, but most of this team’s disappointing offensive output has been due to a lack of creativity and chances generated.
How many times has Kings coach Jim Hiller put his lines through a blender at some point during the game? It’s those desperate moves in hopes of providing some spark to the offense that tells the whole story, and it points to the personnel on this team and raises the question of whether or not it might simply be a lack of talent.
Carolina Hurricanes goaltender Brandon Bussi and Los Angeles Kings right wing Adrian Kempe collide (William Liang-Imagn Images)
A few players are underperforming and are having trouble finding the back of the net. Adrian Kempe, Kevin Fiala, Anze Kopitar, Trevor Moore, Alex Laferriere, and Foegele (all major offensive contributors last season) are all on pace to finish with lower goal and point totals. The only major offensive weapon for the Kings that is on pace for a better season points-wise is Quinton Byfield. Andrei Kuzmenko, who was looked at as the guy who would provide that extra boost to the offense, is struggling to say the least, with just three goals, seven points, and multiple trips to the pressbox, while Danault has yet to find the back of the net this season.
Multiple one-goal games that have resulted in a pile of loser points allow for a questionable narrative. Their record shows a team that is stronger than they actually are, and anyone watching the Kings on a nightly basis can see the struggles and can see the structural flaws that hinder this group’s offensive production. If it weren’t for their ability to keep the puck out of the net and push games to overtime, they would be near the bottom of the standings, and the speculation of a potential coaching change would most likely already have been a reality.
These close, one-goal games, which have most of the time led to overtime, are saving the Kings from a disappointing record. They have just seven regulation wins through 27 games, and out of those, 19 have been one-goal games (only been on the right side of those nine times), and 12 have reached overtime.
What’s funny is that a lot of their offensive struggles are way less evident on the road but are amplified at home. Of the 69 goals the Kings have scored in all situations this season, 47 of them (68.1%) have come on the road. They are averaging 3.13 goals per game on the road and just 1.83 goals per game at home. If we were just taking road games into consideration, they would be one of the highest-scoring teams in the league. The struggles at home make no sense, and there’s nothing to attribute them to. A 3-6-3 record at home is rough, and unfortunately, they have more home games than they do road games for the rest of the season.
The margin for error is minuscule right now, and lately on most nights, even a one-goal deficit feels like such a tall task. One mistake is more than likely the difference in a game for the Kings, and it’s not something they can continue to deal with given their desire to reach the postseason. The good news is the Kings are still in a lot of these games, and while that means nothing in the standings, it does provide some relief on the mental side that hopefully allows them to not get discouraged and fight through their offensive struggles. They are lucky to be in a playoff spot at the moment due to how atrocious the Pacific Division is, but they are still in a good position to have success as long as they get out of this rut.
This organization was striving for bigger things this season, and so far, nothing is indicative of those loftier goals being within reach. At the same time, that mindset won’t allow for this to last much longer. Whether it’s a trade or a coaching change, if the Kings don’t figure out their offensive game soon, management will most likely make the necessary changes in order to keep that competitive vision afloat.
Will playing the same team twice in a row propel any goalscoring and give this uninspiring offense a spark that they can use to get out of this funk? The entire city of Los Angeles has suffered enough through these home games this season.
