It Hasn’t Been Much of a Fit for Stumpel

Saturday night it was Nashville’s Cliff Ronning.

Before that, it was Detroit’s Steve Yzerman. And Boston’s Jason Allison. And Colorado’s Peter Forsberg.

The Kings’ Jozef Stumpel is the constant in this equation, game after game playing against the opposition’s top center, and with a seemingly different set of wingers every game.

It’s part of the reason that he has only 12 goals and 21 assists and is on a pace to finish with about half the 79 points he had last season. And why he is minus-17 on the plus/minus scale.

“This is a season I guess you either forget, or maybe it’s better you remember to learn from it,” Stumpel said. “I’ve tried a lot of different things, and most of them haven’t worked.”

One hasn’t been shooting. It should have been, Coach Larry Robinson said.

“He has a good shot, but he needs to learn to be more selfish,” Robinson said.

Last season, when Stumpel helped lead the Kings into the playoffs, he was combined with Glen Murray and Vladimir Tsyplakov on a regular basis. But this season, Murray has twice been injured, once with a knee problem that sidelined him 19 games. And Tsyplakov has been erratic.

So Stumpel has teamed with just about every winger the Kings have.

“You would like to play with the same guys every night so you know where they’re going to be,” Stumpel said Saturday, “but we’ve had so many injuries, that’s been impossible.”

Saturday night, he began the game with rookie Pavel Rosa and Murray. Before the first period had ended, Luc Robitaille had replaced Rosa on the line and scored, on a feed from Stumpel--and Ronning had scored a goal and had an assist.

*

As expected, Kings’ goalie Jamie Storr was scratched because of a slightly sprained ankle, suffered while wrestling with Robinson in a bit of horseplay on Thursday. . . . Defenseman Philippe Boucher also was scratched. He has a slightly sprained ankle, suffered at Boston on Tuesday. . . . Tsyplakov was a healthy scratch, allowing Rosa, just called up from the Ice Dogs, some playing time.