Los Angeles Kings Wait for Kopitar to Increase Goal Scoring

Greatness in any field is largely defined by multidimensionality. Finding a specialized niche can make you indispensable for the time being, but what if that skill begins to fade?

We all have lackluster stretches of performance from time to time, and it either forces reinvention or an uneasy period of dejection while a remedy is frantically searched for.

Anze Kopitar is arguably the most important player in franchise history for the Los Angeles Kings. You can make the argument that Wayne Gretzky brought credibility to California hockey, or that guys like Marcel Dionne or Luc Robitaille were such prolific scorers that their numbers objectively speak for themselves, but team hardware ultimately trumps statistics in terms of transcendence.

Kopitar has lead the Kings in scoring for each of the last nine seasons. Two of those seasons have resulted in the franchise’s only Stanley Cup championships. That evidence alone is enough to at least put Kopitar on the figurative Mount Rushmore of Los Angeles hockey legends, and possibly be the first carved in if such a monument was built.

More from Editorials

• Kings vs. Oilers prediction and odds for NHL playoffs Game 2
• The LA Kings Goalie Controversy No One Saw Coming
• LA Kings’ Adrian Kempe is an Underrated Swedish Star
• Kings’ Stanley Cup odds are disrespectful
• Rink Royalty goes behind the scenes with Union and Blue for LAK-CBJ game

What makes him so valuable is not only his offensive prowess, but his commitment to excelling on the defensive side of the ice.

He’s everything you want in a center. He’s a great skater, can set up teammates, can put the puck in the back of the net, consistently wins faceoffs, and is a tremendous leader.

That type of multidimensionality will always make his presence crucial to the Kings’ success, even if he begins to struggle in isolated areas.

Through 32 games this season, he’s scored only 3 goals. His shooting percentage is at an abysmal 4.3%. His career percentage is 12.1%, and he has never finished a season below 10.2%.

It’ll be an uphill battle for him to avoid setting a personal low in that category. A typical season for Kopitar has him sending about 196 shots on goal on average. He’s at 70 right now.

That’s about 126 more for him that he’ll add this season, barring any significant time missed due to injury.

To finish the season shooting at least 10.2% on 196 shots, he’ll need to finish with about 19 goals. That’s 16 more goals to accumulate over those 126 more shots. He needs to shoot about 12.7% for the rest of the year to avoid his lowest percentage ever.

Of course, he could end up shooting more often or less often than average, but the point is that he needs to capitalize at a rate above his career average for the rest of the year to not set his personal low for shooting percentage.

Kopitar spends more average time on ice than any Kings forward, logging nearly 3 more minutes on average per game than the second place Jeff Carter. Even if his shooting continues to struggle, he is still versatile enough to leave his mark on the game.

Kopitar currently ranks second on the team with 13 assists, which is also the most for any Kings forward, so it’s not as if he has completely disappeared on offense.

Perhaps his lack of goal scoring this season is simply a bizarre anomaly which will be corrected soon. It’s not evident that his finishing ability has been in a gradual decline. He shot 14.1% last year, after all.

He won the Selke Trophy as the best defensive forward last season, as well as the Lady Byng Trophy for sportsmanship. He has finished in the top ten in Selke voting in each of the past 5 years and the top ten in the Lady Byng voting 6 out of his 10 seasons.

Kopitar is a tireless worker with spectacular leadership skills. He’s invaluable to this team’s success, which was acknowledged ceremoniously this offseason when he was named Captain.

Next: Los Angeles Kings Player Profile: Marian Gaborik

With the Kings fighting for a playoff spot, Kopitar rediscovering his knack for goal scoring can help push them over the edge to secure a postseason berth.