Kings want more of a shooting gallery

The Kings have now gone four consecutive games without a power-play goal. The fact that they won three of those games is no consolation, because eventually a lack of power-play success will come back to bite a team in a playoff series. The Kings went 0-for-5 on the power play in Game 1 against St. Louis, and recorded eight shots on goal in 10 minutes of power-play time. That’s a statistic that the Kings need to see improve. the Blues weren’t particularly aggressive on the penalty kill, but they were well-positioned and displayed a great ability to block point shots. Drew Doughty and Darryl Sutter talked about the needed area of improvement in Game 2.

DOUGHTY: “We had good O-zone time, but our main focus on the power play is to get more shots to the net. We’re getting some wristers through, but I think we need to be getting a lot more shots than we have been. Our power play has been struggling. I think we’ve got to create a lot more scoring opportunities with screens in front.’’

SUTTER: “We have to be more about shooting the puck hard at the net, for sure. With the time we spent in the offensive zone in the last game, without getting shots, you have to be able to take the shot. We’re playing against the best defensive team in the league, so you know their penalty-killing is going to be just as much about that, in terms of lanes and blocking shots. A lot of times, what you think is not a high-quality shot, you better be taking it, because it might be the one you’re going to get.’’