Stumpel, Offense Missing

The ongoing quest for a scorer for the Kings is going slowly while Dave Taylor, team vice president and general manager, waits for the return of center Jozef Stumpel before he completes an evaluation of the offense.

The Kings, who were defeated by the New York Islanders, 1-0, Tuesday night, have scored more than two goals in a game only twice, and conventional thinking is that they need a high-powered forward.

“It would be nice to have [Stumpel] back,” Taylor said of the Kings’ leading scorer last season. “And if you look at the league, you can see the scoring is still down.”

Still, Taylor has talked with several clubs about scorers, including the Islanders about Ziggy Palffy, Vancouver about Pavel Bure, Calgary about Theo Fleury and Pittsburgh about Petr Nedved and Jaromir Jagr at various times. At each juncture, the price was too high or the player’s paycheck too large.

*

Center Ray Ferraro received a game misconduct penalty Tuesday night for spearing Bryan Smolinski with 1:41 to play in the game. It was an accident, Ferraro said.

“I was trying to put my stick between his legs and knock him off balance,” Ferraro said. “But I never got that far, because I hit him in the crotch. He put on a hell of a show and down he went.”

And then skated away.

What happens from there is up to the NHL.

“I don’t play that way,” Ferraro said. “I don’t try to spear anybody.”

TONIGHT at New Jersey

4:30 PST, Fox Sports West

* Site--Continental Airlines Arena, East Rutherford, N.J.

* Records--Kings 3-2-2, Devils 3-3.

* Record vs. Devils (1997-98)--2-0.

* Radio--KRLA (1110).

* Update--Dave Andreychuk has a goal and four assists and Petr Sykora has three goals to lead the Devils, who have given up 13 goals in their six games. They are learning to play without center Doug Gilmour, who went to Chicago as a free agent, and with center Bobby Holik. So far, Holik has one goal, the only one he has scored in his last 27 games dating to last season, including the playoffs. The Kings are 0 for their last 17 power-play opportunities and only three for 34 all season.