Frozen Royalty: Key To Unlocking The Los Angeles Kings’ Offense Is Getting Pucks, Bodies To The Net

Matsuda is back. Here’s his latest on scoring, putting pucks on net complete with notes and quotes from the team. Enjoy, folks!

LOS ANGELES AND EL SEGUNDO, CA — On January 9, the Los Angeles Kings, owners of the worst offense in the National Hockey League, averaging just 2.09 goals per game, miraculously scored five goals against the Alexander Ovechkin-led Washington Capitals, in a decisive 5-2 victory, shocking a sell-out crowd of 18,118 fans at Staples Center in Los Angeles.

That night, fans were so thoroughly shocked at the Kings’ offensive explosion that throughout the arena, they were pinching each other to make sure they weren’t dreaming. Some made appointments with psychiatrists, fearing that they were suffering from some sort of mental breakdown. Others were fearful that the end of the world was upon us, and began to get their affairs in order.

Seriously speaking, that massive offensive output from the Kings was a rarity this season. After all, they have only scored three goals or more (during regulation play) twelve times in 43 games this season (through games played on January 11).

And talk about extremes. Just one game prior, the Kings were shutout on home ice by the Columbus Blue Jackets, the worst team in the league, who handed the Kings a 1-0 defeat on January 7.

In that game, the Kings had eight opportunities with the man advantage, but really never came close to scoring.

“I don’t care how many power plays it is, as long as we get one, or two, or three—anything,” said forward Jarret Stoll. “We’re pressing. You could tell there, later on in the game. They were blocking everything. Three-quarters of our shots probably didn’t make it to the net. But every team does that. We’ve got to find a way. We all know we haven’t scored many goals.”

Read the rest on Frozen Royalty.