The LA Kings rank 24th in in the NHL scoring this season at 5-on-5.
2.10 goals per/60.
There are a couple of surprising teams that rank below them, mainly the Dallas Stars and Edmonton Oilers, but when you rank 24th, there isn’t all that much room below.
Taking things back to last season, the Kings ranked eighth in the NHL in 5-on-5 goals per/60. Their actual and expected metrics were nearly identical in that time. As we’re seeing pretty clearly, though, last season is last season. Back in training camp, I thought that returning an identical Top-9 from a season ago could be perhaps the biggest strength of the 2025-26 LA Kings team.
As has often been noted, the Kings ranked second in the league in goals per/60 after the 2025 NHL Trade Deadline. In returning three lines that thrived down the stretch, while improving the team around the margins, with a stronger fourth line, the depth up front, on paper, looked to be something that could really drive the team offensively.
What’s interesting is that the players added to the group have actually worked out better than they could have been intended. Corey Perry is tied for the team-lead with six goals this season. Joel Armia is tied for fifth with seven points.
Those are good things. But it kind of showcases the problem, doesn’t it?
Perry and Armia were good signings, brought in to improve the team’s depth up front. That both are in the Top-5 in scoring, with nine and seven points respectively, means that things have not gone according to plan elsewhere. Perry and Armia weren’t brought in to supplant and outscore the players in the Top-9, they were brought into to support that group. Yet, here they are, exceeding the production of several players slotted above them. It’s great they’re producing. But it’s a problem that others aren’t.
When you break the production down into 5-on-5 scoring, the issue actually becomes more glaring. The list of players who are producing as they’re capable of is shorter than the alternative. Perry and Armia are first and third on the Kings in 5-on-5 points per/60, with forward Adrian Kempe sandwiched in between. Even without the per/60 designation, Armia is second behind Kempe in 5-on-5 points while Perry is tied for third, despite missing the first six games of the season. Alex Laferriere is the only other forward with at least five points 5-on-5 so far this season.
The Kings are simply not getting enough 5-on-5 production offensively. The power play has been well documented and we’ll get to that. But winning the 5-on-5 game has always been the bread and butter of this team. It’s the way that depth can overcome star power, it’s how you can use three good lines to beat one or two great ones. That just hasn’t happened and it’s an area of concern.
Pretty well-documented now that the Kings have only gotten three goals this season from their four current centers. Jim Hiller hopes that Anze Kopitar’s first of the season on Thursday can get him going. Got to the net, got a greasy one. Quinton Byfield is second on the team with 10 assists, but has just two goals. Phillip Danault has yet to find the back of the net. He didn’t shy away from that today, understanding he’s been in a drought before, knowing he has to continue to push through it, without dwelling on it.
“Playing hard, keeping it simple, just doing my little details,” Danault said. “I’ve been there before and obviously it’s not something that’s fun. You want to get out of it as quickly as possible, but the quicker you want to get out of it, the longer it will take. Just trying to focus day-by-day, shift-by-shift and when it comes, it comes.”
This Kings need more goals from those players, but that’s far from the complete picture. This article isn’t to talk about a player, a position or a line. It’s about a team.
The Kings have four goals 5-on-5 from Kevin Fiala, while Kempe and Perry each have three. Everyone else has two or fewer.
Hiller said after the Florida game on Thursday that he believes the issue lies with getting to the net. He said it several times. When you’re not scoring, you get yourself to the net as much as possible and try to find dirtier goals.
I both agree and disagree with the assessment.
I agree entirely with the principle. It’s not the flashy, highlight reels goals that’ll get you going offensively. It’s the rebounds, the second and third opportunities, the chances generated from forechecking, getting pucks into dangerous areas and crashing the heck out of the net. Drew Doughty said it after the win in San Jose in late-October. Kopitar said it last week after the New Jersey game that he doesn’t feel the Kings are doing a good enough job of it. Trevor Moore said it after the loss to Florida. Hiller has said it now several times now and reinforced that point this morning.
“Generally, we’ve just got to get to the netfront and create those second opportunities, that’s where we’re failing, is with some of the second opportunities,” Hiller said after today’s practice in Pittsburgh.
They’re all correct, but that’s only half the battle. You’ve gotta finish too.
In comparing the season to date against last season, per Natural Stat Trick, the Kings are averaging 11.66 high-danger chances, per/60, through 15 games. What was that number over 82 games during the 2024-25 season? 11.66.
Yupp, that’s identical.
Hiller said that by internal metrics, the Kings are actually pacing slightly ahead of last season in terms of generating high-danger chances.
Where the disparity lies is in the actual goals scored.
The Kings last season ranked sixth in the league in high-danger shooting percentage (20.49%) and seventh in high-danger goals per/60 (1.37). This season, those numbers are both lower, ranking 18th in high-danger goals per/60 (1.17) and 22nd in shooting percentage in those areas (15.05).
Some of that will regress to the mean, with the Kings ranking 27th in the NHL in PDO, which is the de-facto indicator of luck. I think you make your own luck, though. So, it’s can’t just be a “well, it’ll default towards the median” approach. It’ll default towards the median as the Kings make changes and improvements.
So what are they doing to improve in that area?
It was the point focal point of today’s practice day in Pittsburgh, with Hiller and the coaching staff running drills that emphasized scoring situations.
“We did quite a few things around that,” Hiller said. “We scored a lot of goals in practice today but it was designed with that intent, lots of 2-on-1’s, lots of 3-on-2’s. Not much as far as the structure of the game, a lot more about getting around there and scoring goals.”
It’s very easy to say these things and much harder to do them. It’s not fun to go to the net. When you talk about how well Perry has played for the Kings this season, a lot of his success has come from that area of the ice and he sometimes takes a beating for the privlidge. It’s no secret how good he’s been throughout his career from the front of the net. It’s no secret that the Kings as a group can learn from where he’s done so much of his damage for 20 years.
Today’s practice was a good step in that direction. There were targeted drills towards getting to the net, attacking the net off the rush and, most importantly, finishing at the net.
“Today was good, good pace, good energy, more drills where we could score goals,” Danault added. “We had to work for it still, 3-on-2’s, 2-on-1’s things like that. We definitely have to score more goals.”
The focus on the odd-man rushes was a good decision.
Per SportLOGIQ, the Kings are tied for fourth in the NHL in total odd-man rushes this season. They just haven’t turned rushes into enough goals and they’re not generating a ton of looks when it’s not an odd-man rush, ranking 30th in scoring chances off of carry-ins to the offensive zone, per SportLOGIQ. Once established in zone, the Kings are finding rebounds and keeping plays alive, even if thus far, that isn’t translating into goals. They’re fifth in the NHL in successful loose-puck recoveries on shot rebounds. But again, it’s not going in.
There’s a lot of numbers here and I omitted so many more. It ultimately just kind of spins in circles. The TLDR, what I make of the data I’ve looked at, is that the Kings are generating chances at a reasonable enough clip. That’s good, even better than good compared around the NHL. They’re prioritizing getting the puck into the slot and they’re hitting the net regularly from that area. But they are not scoring regularly enough from that area.
Practice will help.
The return of Warren Foegele – who led the Kings in individual high-danger chances last season – will help.
“Scoring goals is going to the net,” Foegele said. “You see Perrs do it almost every night and he’s scoring goals. You have to get the puck there too, you can’t just have bodies. It goes together.”
A bit of puck luck will help too.
But ultimately, it comes down to the individuals.
“Nobody feels more pressure to score goals than the players,” Hiller added. “The coach puts pressure on them, the media puts pressure on them, the player is the guy out there battling and trying to score goals. Most of us, anytime you put too much pressure on yourself……it’s a fine balance. Get to the front of the net, believe in yourself, know that you’ve done it for a long time and it’ll go. We’ve gone through stretches like this since I’ve been here with this team at different times. This is one of them.”
Sometimes, it just takes a game to get through it. The worst of those stretches was last January and it was Fiala who pulled the Kings out of it in Carolina with a couple goals in a big road win. Who is going to step up tomorrow and do the same thing?
As the Kings begin a five-game road trip with a record of 6-5-4 it’s an area of importance for this group. Last season, the Kings scored more than enough at 5-on-5 to keep things going when the power play was one of the league’s worst. Time to get back to that identity beginning with this trip.
Tomorrow, will take a deeper dive into Foegele’s comeback to the lineup. Foegele is expected to play tomorrow against Pittsburgh, his first game since he went out with an upper-body injury last month in Chicago, and he’s set to skate with Alex Turcotte and Corey Perry.