On the road again (for better or worse)

Here’s a big reason the Kings are struggling to match last year’s pace: road record. Last season, the Kings went 24-14-3 on the road, and actually recorded more points on the road (51) than they did at home. That’s certainly not typical, but on the other hand, there’s been a pretty steep drop-off. Entering tonight’s game, the Kings have a 10-13-0 road record, which would put them on pace for only 36 road points this season. Given that the next 10 games are on the road, now would be a good time for the Kings to start piling up some road points. Asked about the difference in results on the road, from last season to this season, Terry Murray said he couldn’t point to any one factor.

MURRAY: “The only difference is that we haven’t won as many games, quite frankly. We’ve had some good road games. I remember, last year, games that we were pulling out in the final couple minutes of the game. Then we go into Ottawa this year and tie the game up in the last seconds, on a goal that ends up being disallowed. Last year, that was a goal that I think we would have been credited with, and maybe found a way to win in overtime. It’s such a fine difference, such a fine line as to what’s going on from last year to this year. It’s hard to look at a couple things and say, `This is the reason why.’ Sometimes it’s your special teams. I think our power play, last year, won us some games at critical times on the road, and maybe penalty killing wasn’t doing quite as well. So now, this year, it seems to be flipped around.

“We definitely have to get our power play going. That’s critical in these 32 games that are remaining in the season. That will mean the difference in some of those games. The other part of it, I think, is that we just need that grade-A save from our goaltenders. There have been games that I look at where, at the end of the day — and the goaltenders feel the same way — they wish they could have one back that would have put the game into overtime or take it into a shootout. So there are differences, but they’re very minor sometimes and it’s hard to pick out one or two things. It ends up being a whole lot of things, at different times.”