Why Can't the Kings Score?

Simon Gagne celebrates with Dustin Brown after goal scored on opening night at Staples.

It's no secret that the Kings have had trouble scoring this year. The Kings are averaging a league worst 2.06 goals per game this year and currently sit in 10th place in the western conference. The Kings currently have two top line centers in Anze Kopitar and Mike Richards. The Kings also have Justin Williams and Dustin Brown as two of their top six forwards. The Kings traded for Dustin Penner a year ago today, and signed Simon Gagne as a free agent this past off season, thus completing the Kings top six forwards; on paper.


Early in the season Gagne proved to be what we needed, a scorer. In Gagne's first 17 games as a King, he recorded 7 goals and 6 assists, including 2 goals on the Kings first home game of the year against the St. Louis Blues. The left winger went on to record 4 more assists in the next 17 games before being sidelined with a concussion, and he has yet to recover. Gagne has 17 points (7 goals, 10 assists) through 34 games played this season.

The other left winger, Dustin Penner, has struggled, to say the least, since joining the Kings a year ago. Jeremy Roenick even said before a game that Penner is "flat out terrible." Looking at Penner's first 17 games this year, as we did with Gagne, Penner scored 2 goals and recorded 3 assists; a total of 5 points. Penner has played in 46 games this year and has 5 goals and 8 assists. Dustin Penner has played 65 total regular season games for the Kings and has 7 goals and 12 assists.

The recently acquired Jeff Carter was brought in to help solve the scoring problems. Jeff Carter has only played 2 games as a King so we'll look at his stats with Columbus. Jeff Carter scored 4 goals and recorded 5 assists in his first 17 games as a Blue Jacket. Carter played 41 games with Columbus and scored 15 goals and had 10 assists giving him a total of 25 points. Jeff Carter has been playing right wing to Mike Richards, and he has yet to record a point through 2 games with the Kings.  

The Kings recently brought up Dwight King from the Manchester Monarchs and he has scored once, and has 2 assists through 8 games. Dwight King has primarily been playing left wing on the Mike Richards line.

The Kings top six forwards as of today are, Anze Kopitar, Justin Williams, Dustin Brown, Mike Richards, Jeff Carter, and Dwight King. Simon Gagne's injury and Dustin Penner's absence of play has left a huge hole at left wing for the Kings. Simon Gagne's stats and play early in the year clearly show that we miss his scoring presence at left wing. His return to the top six may solve some of the Kings scoring problems, as scoring can be contagious. The real question may be, if it had to be someone, why'd it have to be Gagne? Gagne's injury along with the Kings defensive mindset may be the simple answer to our complex question. Let's just hope Gagne can recover from his injury, and return to help the Kings make the playoffs, and make a playoff run.

-AllThingsKings