Kings’ woes linked to lack of scoring in their last seven games

Talk about an Arctic vortex The Kings’ sticks turned into icicles recently.

Losses in six of seven games can be easily explained without the aid of a meteorologist. The Kings simply haven’t scored often enough to win. They have scored more than two goals only once in their last seven games, during a 3-1 victory Saturday over the Vancouver Canucks that included an empty-net goal in the closing seconds. They also have been shut out twice.

What’s more, their power play is 2 for 20 over the last seven games (10 percent).

It’s not just that the Kings aren’t scoring, it’s how they’re not scoring that’s troublesome as the club reaches a potential breaking point in the Pacific Division race. Only five players have scored goals in the last seven games, with Jeff Carter accounting for four of the team’s 10 goals.

Jarret Stoll has two goals, including the Kings’ lone marker in a 2-1 shootout loss Tuesday to the injury-riddled Minnesota Wild. Anze Kopitar also has two goals and Justin Williams and Dustin Brown have one each. No third- or fourth-line forwards have scored in seven games.

Nor have any defensemen scored in that frosty stretch of games.

“You can’t always expect the big guys to score all of the time,” coach Darryl Sutter said after the Kings fired 40 shots on goal Tuesday against the Wild, but scored only once. “We need to get more secondary scoring and more opportunities from our defense.”

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