Los Angeles Kings Get Solid Performance From Jake Muzzin
By Ian Smith
One of the hidden story lines of the previous two victories for the Los Angeles Kings has been the performance of Jake Muzzin.
For the past handful of seasons, Muzzin has been a dependable blueliner for the Kings. He’s coming off back-to-back 40 point seasons, and set a career high with 32 assists during 2015-2016.
Muzzin is just 1 out of 19 defenseman who have scored at least 40 points each of the past two seasons.
However, he has gotten off to a slow start this year, meaning that he will really have to turn up his production to keep that 40 point season streak alive.
Through 38 games this season, he has 9 points, coming in the form of 3 goals and 6 assists. He has 44 more games to rack up 31 points if he wants to call himself a back-to-back-to-back 40 point defenseman, and that sounds like a bit of a stretch, considering that he has never scored more than 41 points in a whole season.
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He’s averaging less ice time per game this season compared to each of his last two seasons, but the difference shouldn’t be affecting his point totals to the degree it has.
It’s the lack of assists that is especially troubling so far, but the last two games leave reason for optimism.
In both wins against the San Jose Sharks, Muzzin has tallied an assist in each game, including a power play blast that was tipped in by Jeff Carter last night.
It was just the 2nd time that Muzzin had points in back-to-back games this season, and his 1st since November 23-26, when he had 1 goal and 2 assists during a 2 game stretch.
Considering the types of production spans he had last season, it’s puzzling that the replication has been largely absent.
Hopefully these past two games jump start him. Right now he’s on pace to launch his fewest number of shots since the 2012-2013 season.
Good things tend to happen when the puck gets fired towards the net, and Muzzin can really blast it.
Next: Los Angeles Kings Kept Afloat by Play of Peter Budaj
He hasn’t had a 3 game point scoring streak in the regular season since January 24-February 2, 2016. He’ll look to put more points up on the board against the Detroit Red Wings on January 5.