Tight games not falling in Kings’ favor

To be certain, statistics can sometimes be deceiving, but often they’re also spot-on. The Kings have lost five consecutive one-goal games, and they’re 1-6-1 in their last eight one-goal games. In fact, the Kings haven’t won a one-goal game in regulation since a 2-1 victory over Calgary on Dec. 9. Overall, for the season they’re 9-8-1 in one-goal games, and that represents a fairly steep drop-off from last season, when the Kings made big strides in that area.

In 2008-09, the Kings were 20-12-11 in one-goal games, for a winning percentage of .465. Last season, they improved to 25-10-9, for a .568 winning percentage. Now they’re at .500 this season. Today, I asked Terry Murray if he had identified any trends or symptoms that would

MURRAY: “Well, we have to find a way to score some goals. I think we’ve scored 21 goals in the last 10 games. That’s simply not good enough. You can take a look at the power play, alone. That’s something that we should be able to rely on, that can carry us. It has, at times, this year, but at critical times in the games, there is some need to really step up and get the job done. Going through this stretch right now, we’re just coming up empty. We’re coming up dry, and we have to keep pushing all the positives. I really am excited about the energy that we play with. We’re playing with a lot of compete. You’ve got to keep coming with that, and keep pushing the front of the net area. You’ve got to find some of the goals, here and there, with extra traffic, with just jamming pucks. Get the crack in the door, and then hopefully everything will open up.”