Team Contributes to Scoring Surge

Scoring in the NHL is up 8% through the season’s first 132 games, and you can’t say the Kings aren’t doing their part.

Going into Saturday’s 3-1 loss to the Coyotes, the Kings led the NHL in scoring with 44 goals, an average of four a game.

The scoring goes both ways.

Only Tampa Bay had given up more goals than the Kings’ 35, a figure shared with Columbus.

Offensively, Ziggy Palffy (16 points), Luc Robitaille (15) and Rob Blake (11) are averaging a point a game or higher for the Kings, who have gotten goals from 16 different players, including rookie Lubomir Visnovsky, who scored his first Saturday night.

Only Vancouver (17 players) has spread the wealth more widely than the Kings.

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Blake played in his 617th game as a King defenseman Saturday night, setting a team record.

The old record was held by Mark Hardy, now a King assistant.

Blake split time between Mathieu Schneider and Mattias Norstrom on the ice Saturday.

It’s the first time this season that his game-long partner hasn’t been Schneider, who logged power play time with Nelson Emerson while Blake was paired with Visnovsky when the Kings had a man advantage.

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After scoring six goals in his first six games, Robitaille hasn’t scored in his last six. He had 21 shots over the previous five before going dry on Saturday night.

“I’ve been getting scoring chances,” said Robitaille. “I know they’ll start going in, probably on the road trip.”

The Kings play at Columbus on Tuesday, Atlanta on Thursday and next weekend at New Jersey and the New York Islanders.

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Phoenix center Joe Juneau has a strained shoulder that will keep him out four to six weeks after he was hammered by Dallas’ Derian Hatcher on Friday night.

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The Kings will be in Staples Center today at 2 p.m. for the NHL Superskills competition, in which shooting accuracy, fastest skater, hardest shot and relay competitions will be measured. Last season, Glen Murray’s shot was clocked at 103.5 mph, fastest in the NHL.

Admission is $5, free for King season ticket holders and children under age 14.