The Kings are 0-for-8 on the power play in their last two games, and success on the power-play has been a season-long issue. The Kings are still hanging tight at No. 15 in the NHL in power-play efficiency, but they’re struggling of late. As Terry Murray points out below, it can also translate to 5-on-5 play. For the season, Anze Kopitar and Patrick O’Sullivan each have only two power-play goals. Murray talked about the status of the power-play unit and the need to play more effectively as a unit…

MURRAY: “The penalty killing is so aggressive today, by all teams in the league, that you really have to have good structure and attack with five guys in the zone and have great support to regain possession. We do a pretty good job of that in most of the games. Sometimes inevitably, when you get it in the early part of a game like that, it just doesn’t quite click the way you’d like it to. I think that’s a league-wide issue. But it’s an opportunity that you’ve got to take advantage of. We’ve got to work harder to get open and get available and have that shooting, scoring mentality with traffic. We don’t stray for from that. Our defensemen, our people on the blue line, are pretty good at getting things through and trying to have that kind of an attitude, getting it to the net with traffic and screens. We can do a better job in front of the goaltender. I think they see more pucks than we would like them to see. Playing goal yourself is kind of the attitude you need to have when you’re playing in front of the net.

“When you have some offensive-zone time (on the power play), it clearly has an effect on your 5-on-5. You come out and you build off the energy and momentum and you can elevate your game, as a group, after a couple successful power plays.”