The Los Angeles Kings had not scored four or more goals since November 17, in a 5-3 win over Anaheim. They have recently scored four goals in one week, taking down a first place Vancouver Canucks squad, 4-1 on December 31, and a competitive Phoenix Coyotes squad 4-3 in a post-Christmas tilt.
Is this the result of new head coach Darryl Sutter’s influence? Who knows? What we do know is that this offense was sorely lacking for Los Angeles up until recently, and it has led to a more competitive Kings’ team. The scoring was distributed among several Kings’ players in those two games, with only Brad Richardson scoring twice. And it was nice to see Anze Kopitar break out of his goal drought and notch his eleventh on the season.
The Kings offense has also been helped of late by the return of Mike Richards to the ice. Coming back on December 22, Richards promptly contributed to a Los Angeles victory netting his twelfth goal of the season. He would score again in the very next game for L.A., and overtime loss in San Jose. You can bet that Sutter is glad Richards is healthy and on the ice again.
Notwithstanding a recent one goal performance in an overtime loss to Colorado, the Kings have been producing recently in the offensive zone. Anze Kopitar also got back on track, scoring a goal and breaking out of his drought against Vancouver.
What’s behind this resurgent Kings’ offense? Is it Sutter? Is it Richards? A combination of the two? Hard to tell right now. The one thing we can tell, is that the Kings seem to be back on track and sitting nice and high in first place in the Pacific division.
You get em Gary!
Two games is call for a resurgence?
One of those games was against a starting goaltender named LaBarbera (honestly, this was the Kings best shot at scoring more than 2 goals all year).
You did not watch the game against Colorado, did you?
They did not even score their average of 2 goals.
I noticed you published this on the 3rd. That’s a day after the Colorado game. You seem to have decided to ignore that game for the sake of being able to still put this piece out. But, it just makes the article completely silly.
Oh, you did mention the Colorado loss. But, briefly and in a manner that doesn’t argue your point that their offense is in an resurgence.
Sorry. I didn’t bother reading the entire article. The ridiculousness of the title and first two paragraphs made the rest feel like a waste.